Republican state Senator Vicki Schmidt, from the 20th District in Topeka, has fought off a primary challenge and won her party’s nomination for another term. Stephen Koranda reports.
This was a rematch from four years ago. Schmidt, a moderate-leaning Republican, was being challenged by conservative former Kansas House member Joe Patton. Voters like Michelle Cox helped push Schmidt to victory.
“It is ridiculous, the position our state has put itself in.”
She supported Schmidt because she’s concerned about issues like education and she says some Republicans have gone too far to the right.
“I’m a registered Republican, although I don’t think the Republican Party any longer represents the people. I think that they’ve become so ingrained and to the far right that they don’t listen to the average American,” says Cox.
Schmidt will face off in the fall election against Democrat Candace Ayars, who won a four-way race for her party’s nomination.