By james art 
Kansas’ Republican House and Senate committees and Gov. Laura Kelly’s PAC have invested hundreds of thousands in competitive legislative races.
BY: ANNA KAMINSKI
Kansas Spotlight
TOPEKA — Kansas Gov. Laura Kelly’s PAC and the Kansas Republican Senatorial Committee have poured about half a million dollars each into competitive Kansas legislative races, campaign finance reports released this week show. The Republican campaign spent almost $1 million.
More than $470,000 from Kelly’s Middle of the Road PAC has been spent since the August primary on Democrats involved in battleground races, according to records released Monday through the Kansas Secretary of State’s campaign finance reporting system. The Republican Senatorial Committee has spent more than $498,000 over the same time period on the four races at risk of going Democratic. The House Republican Committee has spent its $978,000 since August on advertising costs for a dozen candidates and the state Republican Party, financial records show.
Republicans have held a supermajority in the Kansas House of Representatives since 2010, and Republicans have held a supermajority in the Senate since 1997. Democrats need to flip two House and three Senate seats while maintaining their existing cache to crack supermajorities.
Senate committee treasurer Michelle Schroeder said the group’s spending was “solely focused on protecting and expanding our Republican supermajority.”
Kelly, a Democrat, launched a middle-of-the-road PAC in August 2023 to support moderate candidates from both major parties and in an effort to break the Republican legislative majority. Recipients of nearly $500,000 were 12 Democrats. Those expenses are just a fraction of the nearly $1.5 million the PAC has spent since the end of July.
Senate District 5 incumbent Sen. Jeff Pittman, a Leavenworth Democrat, received the highest cumulative dollar amount from Middle of the Road PAC. Election projections favor Pittman winning by a narrow margin over his opponent, Republican Jeff Klemp of Lansing. The Senate committee spent almost twice as much on Klemp as Middle of the Road spent on Pittman.
Mike Pompeo, the US secretary of state during the Trump administration and former Kansas GOP congressman, endorsed Klemp on October 30.
Both the middle-of-the-road PAC and the senatorial committee spent funds on the remaining three Johnson County Senate races. Middle of the Road PAC also spent on another district in the Johnson County area, Senate District 35, an open seat held by the same Republican for the past decade.
Middle of the Road PAC spent the least on Rep. Jason Probst, a Hutchinson Democrat running for re-election. His Republican opponent, Kyler Swilley, was recently the subject of a Wichita police investigation and online backlash after a video circulated in which he appeared to jump and hold a pillow over the head of a motionless woman in bed. The Republican committee spent just under $9,000 on Sweee, while Middle of the Road spent more than $13,000 on Probst, according to campaign finance records.
Will Lawrence, senior adviser to Middle of the Road PAC, said in a statement that the PAC has “invested in hard-working candidates” and those “who are aligned with Governor Kelly’s values.”
“The PAC has rolled out a strategic program that includes mail, digital ads and support for GOTV (get out the vote) efforts,” Lawrence said. “Supporters of our PAC can rest assured that their investment has been well spent.”
Representatives of the Republican House committee did not respond to Kansas Reflector’s requests for comment Friday.
The last day to vote in legislative and US presidential races is Tuesday.