DEREK SCHMIDT

The U.S. Supreme Court refused Monday to hear the appeals of two brothers who were sentenced to death for four fatal shootings in a Kansas soccer field in December 2000 known as “the Wichita massacre.” Outgoing Kansas Attorney General Derek Schmidt said the high court's decision means Jonathan and Reginald Carr no longer have any direct appeals of their death sentences.

A state senator many Republicans see as the spoiler in the Kansas governor’s race has a long history of irritating GOP leaders, once even daring colleagues to smell a jar of catfish stink bait he’d brought to a tax debate. More recently during a redistricting fight, Dennis Pyle compared the Senate president to Gollum, the troll-like character obsessed with a ring of power in “The Lord of the Rings” saga. Now top Republicans are blaming Pyle for Democratic Gov. Laura Kelly’s narrow reelection victory after he left the GOP, ran for governor as an independent and siphoned votes away from Republican nominee Derek Schmidt.

After an extremely tight election, Democrat Laura Kelly, governor of Kansas, wins four more years in offer over her Republican challenger Kelly held off Republican challenger Derek Schmidt.

Kansas governor's race is coming to a close call in the final days before the election. Abortion, crime, and inflation are some of the topics on the minds of Kansas voters.

Democrats in Kansas have not won a U.S. Senate race in the state since 1932. This year Republican U.S. Sen. Jerry Moran faces off against Mark Holland.

Both parties see the governor’s race as a tossup in Republican-leaning Kansas.

Abortion access in several states could hinge on the outcome of November elections of lawmakers, governors, supreme court justices and attorneys general.

Oregon is typically known as a bastion of West Coast liberalism where Democrats are easily elected and a Republican hasn’t served as governor since the 1980s.

Derek Schmidt, the GOP nominee for governor of Kansas, has responded to Democrats in the state who criticized his ad that took aim at Laura Kelly's decision to close schools.

Governors races often are overshadowed by the fight for control of Congress during midterm elections.

Kansas’ Democratic governor declares in a new television ad that she agrees men don’t belong in women’s sports.

The Republican nominee for Kansas governor is trying to make the Democratic incumbent's support for abortion rights a liability.

The Republican candidate for Kansas governor tried Saturday to make the Democratic incumbent's support for abortion rights a political liability, even with a strong statewide vote last month in favor of preserving access to abortion. GOP nominee Derek Schmidt, a three-term Kansas attorney general, said during a debate at the Kansas State Fair that he respects the Aug. 2 vote, in which voters decisively rejected a proposed amendment to the state constitution to allow the GOP-controlled Legislature to greatly restrict or ban abortion.

Kansas' Democratic governor wasted little time after a decisive state vote in favor of abortion rights.

It will be a tight race between incumbent Gov. Laura Kelly, a Democrat, and Kansas state Attorney General Derek Schmidt, a Republican, for leadership of the state in November.

Incumbent Gov. Laura Kelly, a Democrat, faces an uphill battle in the November election against her expected challenger, Republican Kansas Attorney General Derek Schmidt.

Incumbent Gov. Laura Kelly, a Democrat, faces an uphill battle in the November election against her expected challenger, Republican Kansas Attorney General Derek Schmidt.

A vote is looming in Kansas that could clear the way for the Legislature to more strictly regulate or ban abortion, but abortion opponents are hesitating to say what they intend to do if they win.

Kansas’ highest court has upheld a Republican redistricting law that improves the GOP's chances of flipping the state's only congressional seat held by a Democrat.

Kansas officials face two lawsuits over a Republican redistricting law.

Even some Republicans who have supported the “stand your ground law” in Kansas want to revisit it following the death of a Black teenager who was restrained at a juvenile intake center in Wichita last September.

Democratic Gov. Laura Kelly has signaled her efforts to appeal to moderate Republican and GOP-leaning independent voters whose support is necessary for her to win a tough reelection race in Kansas next year.

Slightly over half of Kansas residents approve of Gov. Laura Kelly's job performance, according to polling released from Morning Consult.

A federal judge has blocked the U.S. Treasury from enforcing a provision of the American Rescue Plan that prohibited states from using the pandemic relief funds to offset new tax cuts.

Hundreds of people opposed to COVID-19 vaccine mandates have rallied at the Kansas Statehouse and pushed state lawmakers to quickly counter them.

An offshoot of the Republican Attorneys General Association held a special meeting weeks before the election to discuss its strategies if then-President Donald Trump lost.

Statewide voter engagement groups stopped voter registration efforts because of the new law.

Kansas Attorney General Derek Schmidt will appeal the ruling.

The appeal comes as Attorney General Derek Schmidt prepares to face voters in an August 2022 governors race primary alongside a vote on a constitutional amendment on abortion.

The two GOP icons underscore establishment support for Schmidt.

“Honest, patriotic” education can’t hide the errors of the past. From Dave Helling:

Republicans tried for a third time to kill Obamacare and fell short.

He’s asked the state attorney general to appear in court within 10 days.

State organizations filed a similar lawsuit on Tuesday.

More than $72,000 in seized cash went missing from a central Kansas sheriff's department sometime after a drug bust on Interstate 70 in January 2017.

Kathy Kratt of Orlando, Fla., displays her Trump flags as she and other protesters demonstrate their support for President Donald Trump at the Supreme Court in Washington, Friday, Dec. 11, 2020. Trump bemoaned the decision late Friday, tweeting: “The Supreme Court really let us down. Two days after Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton filed his suit, Trump jumped into the high court case. “If the Supreme Court shows great Wisdom and Courage, the American People will win perhaps the most important case in history, and our Electoral Process will be respected again!” he tweeted Friday afternoon. Many Republican voters in several states won by Biden have demanded that their elected officials find a way to invalidate the president-elect's victories.

In this Nov. 5, 2020, file photo, the Supreme Court in Washington. The Supreme Court has rejected Republicans' last-gasp bid to reverse Pennsylvanias certification of President-elect Joe Bidens victory in the electoral battleground. “But it’s worth it for the Supreme Court to weigh in and settle it once and for all,” he said. Spencer Cox, who will become governor in January, blasted Attorney General Sean Reyes for deciding to join the suit. Despite the political pressure, Idaho’s Republican attorney general chose not to join the Texas suit.

They're growing more vocal about describing Marshall as the best alternative for keeping the Kansas seat out of play in a potentially difficult fall for defending Republicans' Senate majority. You're seeing a lot of people starting to circle the wagons around Roger Marshall, said Kelly Arnold, a former state GOP chairman. Kobach, Marshall and Bob Hamilton, the founder of a Kansas City-area plumbing company, are running with eight other candidates in the most crowded GOP field since Kansas began holding Senate primaries more than 100 years ago. That was showing their hand, that they wanted everybody to be for Marshall, said Tim Shallenburger, a former Kansas GOP chairman and state treasurer. He said the party always anticipated that its last candidate event on July 15 might involve them talking issues rather than throwing jabs. He said any of the major GOP candidates are better alternative than Bollier.

A recent Kansas Supreme Court ruling declaring that the state constitution protects access to abortion opened the door to a new legal attack on the death penalty. Defense attorneys launched the new legal attack on capital punishment in filings with the state Supreme Court in May, less than two weeks after the abortion decision. The Kansas Supreme Court's abortion ruling in April was the latest in a long list of decisions that have angered conservative Republicans in the GOP-controlled Legislature. The U.S. Supreme Court overturned the rulings, sending the Carrs' cases back to the Kansas Supreme Court. Richard Levy, a University of Kansas law professor, said the abortion ruling suggests the Kansas court might recognize rights for the state's residents that aren't recognized nationally.