Will the GOP lose the Kansas Senate seat?

GOP Sen. Pat Roberts

GOP Senator at only 37% in the Polls

• At the last minute the Democrat pulls out of four-way Senate race allowing the anti-Roberts vote to settle on an independent candidate. Before the Democrat pulled out the Senator was at a very weak 37% in the last poll.
• To appeal to younger voters, the GOP in its infinite wisdom, nominated a candidate who is nearly 80 years old.

The Hill reports Democrat Chad Taylor has dropped out of the Kansas Senate race, complicating Sen. Pat Roberts’s (R-Kan.) reelection fight.

Taylor, the Shawnee County district attorney, submitted papers to withdraw himself from the ballot shortly before the 5 p.m. CT deadline.

The race is now a three-way battle between Roberts, independent Greg Orman and libertarian Randall Batson, but it's the sudden rise of Orman which has the potential to roil the race.

Taylor’s exit may create more of a headache for Roberts, who has emerged as surprisingly vulnerable in recent weeks, with multiple polls showing him holding just a single-digit lead in the race with Orman surging.

The GOP incumbent emerged from a contentious primary fight with his campaign coffers depleted and his profile in the state bruised due to a heavy focus from his primary opponent on questions of whether he actually lives in Kansas.




National Republicans haven’t yet weighed in on the race, but one report indicated the National Republican Senatorial Committee is facing pressure to send resources down to support Roberts, and there’s talk of a campaign staff shakeup for the incumbent.

Roberts campaign manager Leroy Towns told The Hill that “the team that was successful in the primary is in place,” but that the campaign has brought on new staff, including Alan Cobb, a former lobbyist for Koch Industries and a former strategist for the Koch brothers-linked Americans for Prosperity, and staff from the successful campaign of Ken Selzer, who won the GOP nod for state insurance commissioner.

Though Taylor had so far performed the best against the senator in a four-way matchup, Orman fared better in a head-to-head matchup polled by a Democratic pollster in mid-August, leading Roberts by double digits.

Orman has surged since entering the race, from single-digit support to 20 percent of the vote in the most recent survey.

And though he hasn’t yet said which party he’d caucus with if he’s the deciding vote for control of the Senate, Democrats in the state see Orman as their best option to defeat Roberts — and have been working to pressure Taylor out of the race since the state Democratic Party convention two weeks ago on Aug. 24.

Democrats were wary that Taylor’s baggage concerning a discrimination suit brought against him by two former female employees, as well as his initial refusal to prosecute sexual harassment cases as DA due to budget cuts, would dog him throughout the campaign — and perhaps damage other Democratic candidates up and down the ballot.

The party is planning to launch a campaign targeting Republicans in the state for “failing on morality,” one Democratic activist said, and Taylor’s baggage could undermine that message.

Read more: The Hill.