Kansas Governor Race Uncalled, Holscher Leads by 5,557 Votes

Kansas will wake up on Wednesday without a governor-elect. Democrat Cindy Holscher led Republican Ty Masterson by 5,557 votes in the Associated Press count, 546,587 to 541,030, with 98.78 percent of precincts reporting and an estimated 97.89 percent of the vote counted. The AP listed the race for governor as too early to call.

Both candidates are state senators who have spent years on opposite sides of the same chamber in Topeka. They are running to succeed Gov. Laura Kelly, a Democrat who is term limited and cannot seek a third term. The Topeka Capital-Journal, in its live results, put Holscher's edge at the same 5,557 votes on unofficial results and reported that both campaigns sent their supporters home without a resolution.

A lead that kept shrinking

Holscher's margin narrowed all night. The Capital-Journal reported that she led by 7,131 votes at midnight, and by 5,873 votes when only three precincts had not reported. In Johnson County, the state's largest county and her home base, she took 61 percent of the vote and built a cushion of 71,628 votes over Masterson.

Holscher spoke to her watch party in Lenexa just after midnight on November 4. She said she felt really, really good about where the race stood. There are just a few more votes that need to be counted, she said, but she was confident that once all the votes are counted, her campaign will win. Masterson addressed his supporters in Wichita and said the race was too close to call.

What is left to count

Bryan Caskey, the state election director, posted at 1:09 a.m. on November 4 that all counties had reported their unofficial election results. That does not end the count. Updates on Wednesday will add advance ballots sent by mail and postmarked by election day, along with any other ballots not included in the election night totals, the Capital-Journal reported. With a margin of 5,557 votes out of more than 1.08 million cast, those ballots can decide the race, and the next few days will be a key part of determining a winner.

Kansas voters settled the state's Senate race on the same night. The AP called that contest for Democrat Adam Hamilton, who beat Sen. Roger Marshall and became the first Democrat to win a Senate seat from Kansas since 1932. The governor's race is now the state's last big unanswered question from election night.