Democrat Laura Kelly wins Kansas gubernatorial race

Governor Laura Kelly (D-KA) has won the seat in Kansas after a hotly contested race, CNN and MSNBC is reporting.

Kelly faced off against Republican Derek Schmidt, and toward the end of the race, Emerson pollsters said Kelly had the lead at 46.4 percentage points looking at 1,000 likely voters. To be a likely voter, one must vote in three or four elections. So, when the Kansas primary saw astronomical support among new voters and young voters to take down the abortion laws in the state, those voters weren't counted in the Emerson polls.

Even Schmidt seemed to know things weren't going well the week the poll was released. His spokesperson was making excuses that Democrats had funded a "spoiler" candidate Dennis Pyle.

The spokesperson attacked Pyle as “fake conservative,” despite the fact that he is considered one of the most conservative members of the Kansas state Legislature. Pyle spent the campaign attacking Schmidt as a RINO (Republican in name only).

The Kansas Reflector explained, "in the new survey, participants were asked who they expected to win the Nov. 8 election for Kansas governor. That result: 52.3 percent predicted Kelly would prevail and 47.7 percent were convinced Schmidt would win. In terms of favorability ratings, 53 percent viewed Kelly favorably and 48 percent thought of Schmidt in favorable terms. The unfavorable marks for Schmidt and Kelly were 43 percent."

The site also explained that Kelly had the support of 91 percent of Democrats, 18 percent of Republicans and 49 percent of independents in the Emerson poll. At the same time, Schmidt still struggled to get full name recognition in the state, with 9 percent who didn't even know who he was, much less that he'd been the attorney general for more than a decade.

Kelly has one more term left as governor in the deep-red state.