Kris Kobach, the Trump-loving Republican candidate for governor in deep-red Kansas, went down in flames on Tuesday despite running in a state that voted for President Donald Trump by more than 20 points.
Republican strategists and operatives are now telling the Kansas City Star that they were flabbergasted by the campaign Kobach ran and they blamed him for repeatedly ignoring their advice in setting up important get-out-the-vote operations.
Among other things, the party operatives say that Kobach failed to regularly pay his campaign staff on time, while also noting that his campaign actually failed to call back people who said they wanted to volunteer for him.
"It was the most dysfunctional thing I’ve ever seen in my life," one operative tells the Star.
GOP consultant Scott Paradise all but called Kobach lazy when it came to doing the important basic work needed to win, including "fundraising, grassroots organizing, or asking voters for their support."
Another GOP official shared that assessment -- and even expressed something close to relief that Kobach lost his race.
"He does things his own way, check logic and reason at the door," the official tells the Star. "I think it’s probably for the best that he didn’t win."