TOPEKA, Kan. (AP) - The Latest on the midterm election in Kansas (all times local):
9:45 a.m.
A deaf Democratic Kansas legislative candidate who lost the support of his party after he was accused by three women of being emotionally abusive has lost.
Chris Haulmark was defeated Tuesday by Republican John Toplikar for an open seat in a GOP-leaning House district in Olathe. The National Association of the Deaf said Haulmark would have been the first deaf legislator - at the state or national level - if he won. But the state party and the Kansas House Democrats dropped their support over the allegations.
Haulmark told The Kansas City Star previously that the decision was “reached prematurely.”
Toplikar previously served in the Kansas House and as a Johnson County commissioner. He lost his re-election bid to the commission in 2008 after he was caught on video removing his opponent’s campaign signs. He was sentenced to probation for misdemeanor theft and later won back his commission seat.
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9 a.m.
Voters in a Kansas City suburb have elected the first openly gay member of the Kansas House.
The Kansas City Star reports that Brandon Woodard, of Lenexa, defeated Republican Wendy Bingesser on Tuesday for the seat being vacated by Republican Randy Powell.
During his campaign for the 30th District seat, Woodard said he favored reducing or eliminating sales taxes on food, expanding Medicaid and investing in education. Bingesser, of Olathe, had won the endorsement of Powell, who has been one of the House’s most conservative members.
Woodard’s election comes despite two citations for driving under the influence of alcohol.
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8:30 a.m.
A GOP state lawmaker who was pushed to end his campaign to keep his seat over a woman’s allegations that he allowed two of her foster children to sit in his lap and rub his chest has won re-election.
The Wichita Eagle reports that Rep. Michael Capps, of Wichita, won election Tuesday to the 85th District legislative seat. He says voters made it clear that they’re “tired of the false allegations.”
The state Department for Children and Families previously confirmed it had found “emotional abuse” by Capps, without providing further details, but its finding was overturned on a “technical error.” The Kansas Republican Party severed its ties with him in August, declaring it did not support his election after reviewing information about the allegation from him and other, unspecified sources.
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1:59 a.m.
Republican Kris Kobach made fighting illegal immigration a key issue in running for Kansas governor, echoing President Donald Trump’s tactics in the campaign’s final weeks. It didn’t work, and Democrat Laura Kelly defeated him.
She won despite Kobach’s national profile and hiss status as Trump’s most visible ally. Trump visited Kansas to campaign for Kobach.
Kelly won the governor’s race by wooing GOP moderates and independent voters.
She made the race a referendum on unpopular former Republican Gov. Sam Brownback’s 2012-13 experiment in slashing income taxes. Kansas endured budget woes and national infamy before lawmakers largely reversed the cuts last year.
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