Weather: Temperatures in 70s, sunny

Temperatures could be in the 70s today. (National Weather Service graphic)

Mostly sunny skies with a high near 72 is today’s forecast from the National Weather Service.

Temperatures will remain in the 70s through Monday, when a front moves in with rain and cooler weather.

Today, it will be mostly sunny with a high near 72, and a south southwest wind of 9 to 14 mph, gusting as high as 25 mph, the weather service said.

Tonight, it will be partly cloudy, with a low of 49 and a south southwest wind of 7 to 9 mph, according to the weather service.

Thursday, it will be sunny with a high near 73 and a southwest wind of 3 to 7 mph, the weather service said.

Thursday night, it will be mostly clear, with a low of 49, and a light south wind, according to the weather service.

Friday, it will be sunny with a high near 74, and a light south wind increasing to 5 to 10 mph in the morning, the weather service said.

Friday night, it will be mostly clear, with a low of 53, according to the weather service.

Saturday, it will be sunny, with a high near 72, the weather service said.

Saturday night, it will be mostly clear, with a low of 55, according to the weather service.

Sunday, it will be mostly sunny, with a high near 72, the weather service said.

Sunday night, it will be mostly cloudy, with a low of 60, according to the weather service.

Monday, there is a 40 percent chance of rain, with a high near 70, the weather service said.

Monday night, there is a 50 percent chance of rain, with a low of 39, according to the weather service.

Tuesday, there is a 40 percent chance of rain, with a high near 49, the weather service said.

Rep. Davids reelected in KC suburbs; Kansas Republicans keep three Congressional seats


More than 800,000 Kansans voted early in the 2020 general election.

Composite photo

by Stephan Bisaha, Stephen Koranda, Nadya Faulx and Aviva Okeson-Haberman, Kansas News Service

Democrats and Republicans in Kansas will keep their seats in the U.S. House, as Tuesday’s election favored the incumbents and the Republican candidate in the 2nd Congressional District.

Nationally, the House looks to be staying in Democrats’ hands, with Sharice Davids playing a role in that in the 3rd District.

But young GOP rising star Jake LaTurner defeated Topeka’s mayor to replace embattled Congressman Steve Watkins in the 2nd District that covers a vast stretch of eastern Kansas.

Statewide, more than 813,000 Kansans voted in advance, which the Kansas Secretary of State’s Office said was a record. And more than 100,000 new voters registered for this election compared to 2018, the Kansas Secretary of State’s Office said Tuesday.

The office didn’t have a breakdown of new registrants’ ages or other demographics, but state election director Bryan Caskey called it “a very high number.”

Counties will send their results to the state within two weeks and the state’s Board of Canvassers must meet by Dec. 1.

If you’re curious about Kansas Statehouse races in your area, go to this Kansas Secretary of State webpage.

1st District

Republican Tracey Mann will be the next congressman in Kansas’ 1st District, with The Associated Press calling the race at 9:25 p.m. By midnight, Mann was up 70.7% to Democrat Kali Barnett’s 29.3%.

Former Kansas Lt. Gov. Tracey Mann (Provided)

Mann, who lives in Salina, campaigned on removing coronavirus restrictions to boost the country’s struggling economy. He also said he would vote for a stimulus package that is limited and targets only specific industries.

The former lieutenant governor also wants to change the U.S.’ immigration system to help bring more workers to western Kansas but said that border control must be addressed first.

Mann said Republican congressional leaders have promised him a spot on the House Agriculture Committee.

“I want to roll up my sleeves and go to work to advocate for our farmers and ranchers in Washington,” Mann said. “It’s such a big economic impact for the Big First.”

The former real estate manager said his experience on his family farm and the knowledge he developed of agriculture as the lieutenant governor gave him the edge.

“The voters were trying to find someone who had that experience and background who was willing to go to Washington and stand up for us — and also for our basic, conservative Kansas values as well.”

The Big First came open when current U.S. Rep. Roger Marshall decided to run for Senate. Marshall has represented the 1st District since 2017.

Barnett, a Garden City music teacher, received about 32% of the vote.

Kansas Treasurer Jake LaTurner will be going to Washington next year. (Stephen Koranda, Kansas News Service)

2nd District

Republican Jake LaTurner won the 2nd Congressional District in eastern Kansas, dashing Democrats’ hopes that they could win the seat for the first time since 2006.

The Associated Press called the race for LaTurner after 10 p.m. He beat Democrat Michelle De La Isla by nearly 14 percentage points with 55.3% of the vote as of midnight.

LaTurner’s watch party was in his southeast Kansas hometown of Galena, where talked about small government and cutting taxes while also saying we need a safety net.

LaTurner says his family struggled financially and was on welfare when he was young.

“I understand what it’s like to be down on your luck,” he said. “Our government needs to be there as a social safety net, but we also need a government to do what it does well and have the humility to know that it can’t do everything for everybody all the time.

“I think you need to keep more of your hard-earned money. We need common-sense regulations,” he said.

It was a race that hinged on health care, the nation’s response to the coronavirus and widespread protests over policing and race.

De La Isla wanted to go to Congress to protect federal funding that helps states expand Medicaid for low-income residents. LaTurner has opposed the Affordable Care Act but wants to keep protections for preexisting conditions.

The two fought through attack ads. De La Isla objected to ads that edited her past comments to make it sound like she supported defunding law enforcement. De La Isla said she has supported the police and worked with them as Topeka’s mayor.

The race drew national attention after sitting Republican Congressman Steve Watkins was charged with voting-related felonies shortly before the primary election. Watkins has called the charges politically motivated, but he ultimately lost in August; the next court date in his criminal case is Dec. 3.

U.S. Rep. Sharice Davids speaks to the media on Nov. 2. (Carlos Moreno, KCUR 89.3)

3rd District

Democrat Rep. Sharice Davids won her reelection bid for the Kansas’ 3rd Congressional District, keeping it blue for another two years after first flipping the district in 2018.

Davids outraised Republican challenger Amanda Adkins, and focused her campaign on health care and the federal government’s coronavirus response.

Unofficial election results from The Associated Press show she beat Adkins by about 10 percentage points in the district that covers all of Johnson and Wyandotte counties and a part of Miami County.

Davids went after Adkins for her ties to former Gov. Sam Brownback; Adkins managed his 2004 U.S. Senate campaign and later was appointed to chair a state advisory group on early childhood programs.

“In this race, Kansans spoke loud and clear,” Davids said Tuesday night. “They rejected the tired politics of the past — of this slash school budgets, of being denied coverage because of having a pre-existing condition. They chose a different vision for who we send to the United States House.”

Davids’ first two years in Congress included a House vote to impeach President Donald Trump, lawmakers approving trillions of dollars to fight the coronavirus and a racial justice reckoning.

She’ll head back to the nation’s capital with her top priority in mind: another large COVID-19 relief package since lawmakers failed to reach an agreement before the election.

During a speech at the Kansas Democratic Party’s virtual event, Davids also alluded to a disappointing loss for Democrats in the U.S. Senate race.

“Our state motto — “Ad Astra per Aspera” — to the stars through difficulties, has never felt more real than it does right now,” Davids said. “… I can tell you this, for as long as I am here, we are going to fight for every single seat across this state.”

Adkins, a former Cerner executive, had touted her experience in health care and supported repealing most of the Affordable Care Act.

Adkins’ team also had volunteers out canvassing while Davids’ outreach efforts were virtual, but the in-person voter contact wasn’t enough to sway voters.

In a statement, Adkins congratulated Davids on her victory.

“Our nation is worth fighting for, and it’s at a turning point today,” Adkins said. “America must continue to be a beacon of freedom and prosperity for the world, and we have to carry our fight forward.”

U.S. Rep. Ron Estes speaks during a Kansas GOP bus tour stop in October. (Nadya Faulx)

4th District

Republican U.S. Rep. Ron Estes will stay in Congress after winning re-election in Kansas’ 4th District.

The Associated Press called the race at about 9:25 p.m. As of midnight, Estes had received about 65% of the vote. Democratic challenger Laura Lombard got about 35% of the vote.

This will be Estes’ second full term; he was first elected in a close 2017 special election to replace now-U.S. Secretary of State Mike Pompeo and easily won his re-election bid in 2018. Prior to serving in Congress, Estes was Kansas’ state treasurer.

Speaking at a watch party in Wichita on election night, Estes called for bipartisanship.

“Unfortunately the last few months we’ve had a lot of politics, a lot of partisan activity related with the election,” he said, “and once we put today behind us, we need to move forward, we need to get back together and work on things that are better for Kansas and better for the country.”

Lombard is an international trade specialist who ran unsuccessfully for Democratic nominations in 2017 and 2018.

The district has historically been represented by a Republican; only three Democrats have held the seat in the past century, the last being Dan Glickman, who lost his bid for a 10th term in 1994.

Stephan Bisaha reports on education and young adult life for the Kansas News Service. You can follow him on Twitter @SteveBisaha or email him at bisaha (at) kmuw (dot) org.
Stephen Koranda is the Statehouse reporter for Kansas Public Radio and the Kansas News Service. You can follow him on Twitter @kprkoranda.
Aviva Okeson-Haberman is a government and politics reporter at KCUR. She can be reached on Twitter @avivaokeson.
Nadya Faulx is a reporter and digital news editor for KMUW. She can be reached on Twitter at @NadyaFaulx.
The Kansas News Service is a collaboration of KCUR, Kansas Public Radio, KMUW and High Plains Public Radio focused on health, the social determinants of health and their connection to public policy. Kansas News Service stories and photos may be republished by news media at no cost with proper attribution and a link to ksnewsservice.org.
See more at
https://www.kcur.org/politics-elections-and-government/2020-11-03/kansas-republicans-keep-their-3-congressional-seats-davids-reelected-in-kansas-city-suburbs

Republicans keep Kansas’ open Senate seat by electing Roger Marshall

U.S. Rep. Roger Marshall, R-Great Bend, was elected to the U.S. Senate from Kansas on Tuesday. (Photo from Kansas News Service)

by Jim McLean, Kansas News Service

Marshall’s win over Democratic state Sen. Barbara Bollier keeps intact Republicans’ winning streak in Kansas U.S. Senate races, which dates back to 1938.

Kansas Republican Congressman Roger Marshall is moving up to the U.S. Senate after surviving a challenge from Democrat Barbara Bollier in Tuesday’s election.

The 60-year-old two-term congressman from Great Bend will succeed Republican Pat Roberts, who is retiring after nearly 40 years in Congress. Marshall’s win also keeps intact Republicans’ winning streak in Kansas U.S. Senate races, a streak that dates back to 1938.

“This victory, like the U.S. Senate seat, belongs to the people of Kansas,” Marshall said to supporters at the Cyrus Hotel in Topeka. “This has been a year like no other. But I know better days are ahead. To the families who have lost loved ones amid this pandemic, the everyday workers and small businesses who are still struggling to make ends meet and the farmers and my ranchers concerned for their future, know that we will fight for you every single day.”

The Associated Press called the race for Marshall just after 10 p.m. Almost two hours later, with 91% of precincts reporting, Marshall had a nearly 11-point margin of victory.

Marshall closely aligned himself with President Donald Trump, who won Kansas by about 14 percentage points, short of his 2016 margin of 21 points.

He thanked Bollier for her “gracious” concession and complimented her on the race she ran.

“Putting your name out there in the state of Kansas as a Democrat is not an easy task,” he said. “And I just wish her the very best.”

Bollier said it was her “sacred, patriotic duty to accept tonight’s outcome,” and she was proud of the competitive race she ran.

“We cannot allow disappointment in the end result overshadow all we overcame to get this far. We were spirited and scrappy,” she said. “We broke record after record. We exceeded everyone’s expectations.”

Bollier, 62, used endorsements from nearly 100 current and former GOP officeholders to counter efforts to paint her as “too liberal” for Kansas.

The state senator from Mission Hills, a well-to-do Kansas City suburb, left the Republican Party in 2018. But her record-setting fundraising and the strategic help she received from Democratic Gov. Laura Kelly and national Democrats couldn’t put her over the top.

During the Republican primary, Marshall moved to the right — closer to Trump’s positions on immigration, trade and a host of other issues — to break through a crowded field that included Kris Kobach, former Kansas secretary of state and the GOP nominee for governor in 2018.

During the general election campaign, Marshall took a page from the Trump playbook, warning there would be dire consequences should Democrats take control and implement their “extremist” agenda.

He sounded a call for bipartisanship in Washington on Tuesday night.

“We will fight to end the fighting between parties that doesn’t lead to progress,” he said. “We’re going to fight to find a path forward that all Americans can walk together, for our country faces too many challenges from mother nature, from internal foes as well as foriegn lands to be fighting against each other.”

But he didn’t back off from the issues he campaigned on. He vowed to fight to protect “our freedom of speech. Our freedom of religion. Our right to bear arms. And the sanctity of life.

“We’re going to fight for secure borders, a strong military … and always, we’re going to stand up for our law enforcement.”

At the end of his acceptance speech, Marshall also said: “I don’t know what’s going to happen nationally, but I think Kansans have chosen freedom over socialism. Kansans have chosen liberty over tyranny, and we’ve chosen liberty over lockdown.”

Marshall will succeed Roberts, who is the only person in U.S. history to have served as chairman of the agriculture committees in both the House and Senate. Marshall, who is on the House ag committee currently, has said he intends to land a seat on the Senate’s committee.

(Note: Counties will send their election results to the state within two weeks and the state’s Board of Canvassers must meet by Dec. 1 to certify the election.)

Jim McLean is the senior correspondent for the Kansas News Service. You can reach him on Twitter @jmcleanks or email jim (at) kcur (dot) org.
The Kansas News Service is a collaboration of KCUR, Kansas Public Radio, KMUW and High Plains Public Radio focused on health, the social determinants of health and their connection to public policy. Kansas News Service stories and photos may be republished by news media at no cost with proper attribution and a link to ksnewsservice.org.

See more at https://www.kcur.org/politics-elections-and-government/2020-11-03/republicans-keep-kansas-open-senate-seat-by-electing-roger-marshall