Kansas Governor 2026
Election day is November 3, 2026. A statewide contest in Kansas.
Who is favoured in Kansas Governor?
Run the forecaster to pull current reporting on this race, score it issue by issue, and see who it favours.
What the Kansas Governor election decides
State government decides most of what touches daily life directly: schools, roads, policing, public health, utilities regulation, and the state's share of healthcare programs. A governor's veto and budget proposal set the boundaries of what a legislature can do.
A governor signs or vetoes state law, proposes the state budget, commands the state's emergency response, and in most states shapes how elections themselves are administered. Kansas decides this alongside its 4 House seats and a U.S. Senate seat. Governors are judged on results inside the state rather than on national mood alone, which is why governor's races often break differently from federal contests held the same day.
How Kansas votes
Kansas is a Republican-leaning state with a pragmatic streak: its suburban Johnson County has become genuinely competitive, and statewide contests have occasionally broken from the partisan default, including on ballot measures. That backdrop is the ground any Kansas campaign fights on, and it is what the Electorate HQ simulation reads first when it weighs a ticket's platform against this contest.
About this race
The 2026 Kansas gubernatorial election took place on November 3, 2026, to elect the next governor of Kansas. The primary elections took place on August 4, 2026. Incumbent Democratic governor Laura Kelly was term-limited and ineligible to seek a third consecutive term. This was one of five Democratic-held governorships up for election in 2026 in states that Donald Trump won in the 2024 presidential election, and the only one of those states that Trump won by a double-digit margin.
Democrat Cindy Holscher and Republican Ty Masterson competed in the race. With 99% of votes counted, it remains close, and a winner has not yet been called.
Background
Latest coverage of the Kansas Governor race
Kansas governor's race deadlocked between Republican Ty Masterson, Democrat Cindy HolscherKansas 2026 Election ResultsKansas governor election: What to know about the candidates running in NovemberKansas Governor Election Live Results 2026Democrat Cindy Holscher's campaign for Kansas governor highlights distinctions from GOP rivalKansas 2026: Hamilton and Marshall in Tight Senate Race; Masterson Leads for GovernorVoter guide: Here’s what to know about the candidates for Kansas governorTrump affirms endorsement of Ty Masterson in Kansas governor's race, belittles Cindy HolscherThe rest of the Kansas ballot
Every Kansas House district, the counties inside each one, and an address lookup that resolves your exact districts are on the Kansas state page.
Other 2026 races in Kansas
Analysis covering Kansas
Nebraska's 3rd district contains 79 counties. Forty-four states contain fewer.
A portrait of the most county-dense district in the country, and what a 79-county constituency does to the arithmetic of campaigning.
Twenty-six states elect a senator and a governor on the same day in 2026
The overlap between the Senate class and the gubernatorial cohort is a coincidence of two unrelated calendars, and it decides where money goes.