The 2014 Kansas gubernatorial election took place on November 4, 2014, to elect the

governor of Kansas A governor is an administrative leader and head of a polity or political region, in some cases, such as governors-general, as the head of a state's official representative. Depending on the type of political region or polity, a ''governor'' ma ...

, concurrently with the

election An election is a formal group decision-making process whereby a population chooses an individual or multiple individuals to hold Public administration, public office. Elections have been the usual mechanism by which modern representative d ...

of Kansas' Class II U.S. Senate seat, as well as other elections to the

United States Senate The United States Senate is a chamber of the Bicameralism, bicameral United States Congress; it is the upper house, with the United States House of Representatives, U.S. House of Representatives being the lower house. Together, the Senate and ...

in other states and elections to the

United States House of Representatives The United States House of Representatives is a chamber of the Bicameralism, bicameral United States Congress; it is the lower house, with the U.S. Senate being the upper house. Together, the House and Senate have the authority under Artic ...

and various state and local elections. Incumbent Republican governor

Sam Brownback Samuel Dale Brownback (born September 12, 1956) is an American attorney, politician, and diplomat who served as a United States Senate, United States senator from Kansas from 1996 to 2011 and as the List of governors of Kansas, 46th governor of K ...

ran for re-election to a second term. He was opposed in the general election by

Democrat Democrat, Democrats, or Democratic may refer to: Politics *A proponent of democracy, or democratic government; a form of government involving rule by the people. *A member of a Democratic Party: **Democratic Party (Cyprus) (DCY) **Democratic Part ...

Paul Davis, the Minority Leader of the

Kansas House of Representatives The Kansas House of Representatives is the lower house of the legislature of the U.S. state of Kansas. Composed of 125 state representatives from districts with roughly equal populations of at least 19,000, its members are responsible for craftin ...

, and Libertarian attorney Keen Umbehr. The election was viewed as a referendum on Brownback's aggressive tax cutting initiatives and his conservative values. The consensus among ''

The Cook Political Report Amy Elizabeth Walter (born October 19, 1969)"Profile: Amy Walter"
Governing'', ''

The Rothenberg Political Report Stuart Rothenberg (born 1948) is an American editor, publisher, and political analyst. He is best known for his biweekly political newsletter ''The Rothenberg Political Report'', now known as ''Inside Elections''. He was also a regular columnis ...

'', ''

Sabato's Crystal Ball Larry Joseph Sabato (; born August 7, 1952) is an American political scientist and political analyst. He is the Robert Kent Gooch Professor of Politics at the University of Virginia, where he is also the founder and director of the Center f ...

'', ''Daily Kos Elections'', and others was that the contest was a tossup. Brownback won the election by a margin of 3.69%. Davis carried seven counties, all in eastern Kansas. This is the last gubernatorial election in which a Democratic candidate won Jefferson County, as well as the last time that a candidate was elected Governor of Kansas by winning a majority of counties.

Republican primary

Candidates

Declared

, incumbent

governor A governor is an politician, administrative leader and head of a polity or Region#Political regions, political region, in some cases, such as governor-general, governors-general, as the head of a state's official representative. Depending on the ...

:*Running mate:

Jeff Colyer Jeffrey William Colyer (born June 3, 1960) is an American surgeon and politician who served as the 47th governor of Kansas from January 31, 2018, to January 14, 2019. A member of the Republican Party, he was the 49th lieutenant governor of Kan ...

, incumbent

lieutenant governor A lieutenant governor, lieutenant-governor, or vice governor is a high officer of state, whose precise role and rank vary by jurisdiction. Often a lieutenant governor is the deputy, or lieutenant, to or ranked under a governor — a "second-in-comm ...

* Jennifer Winn, businesswoman :*Running mate: Robin Lais, advertising agency owner and natural healing shop owner :*Former running mate: Ethan McCord, Iraq War veteran

Declined

Kris Kobach Kris William Kobach ( ; born March 26, 1966) is an American lawyer and politician who has served as the attorney general of Kansas since 2023. He previously served as the 31st secretary of state of Kansas from 2011 to 2019. A former chairman o ...

Secretary of State of Kansas The secretary of state of Kansas is one of the constitutional officers of the U.S. state of Kansas. The current secretary of state is the former speaker ''pro tempore'' of the Kansas House of Representatives, Scott Schwab, who was sworn in on Ja ...

( running for re-election) * Steve Morris, former president of the

Kansas Senate The Kansas Senate is the upper house of the Kansas Legislature, the state legislature of the U.S. State of Kansas. It is composed of 40 senators elected from single-member districts, each with a population of about 73,000 inhabitants. Members o ...

Sandy Praeger Sandy Praeger (born October 21, 1944) is a former American politician from the U.S. state of Kansas who served as the Kansas Insurance Commissioner from 2003 to 2015. Prior to her term as insurance commissioner, she was a member of the Kansas S ...

Kansas Insurance Commissioner The Kansas Insurance Commissioner (KIC), in full the Kansas State Insurance Commissioner, has the primary responsibility to the people whose personal lives are protected by insurance in the state of Kansas. It is an elected position and is curr ...

(endorsed Paul Davis)

Polling

Results

Democratic primary

Candidates

Declared

* Paul Davis, Minority Leader of the

:*Running mate: Jill Docking, businesswoman, former member of the

Kansas Board of Regents The Kansas Board of Regents is a body consisting of nine members that governs six state universities in the U.S. state of Kansas. In addition to these six universities, it also supervises and coordinates nineteen community colleges, five techni ...

and nominee for the U.S. Senate in 1996 (running for

)

Declined

* Carl Brewer,

mayor In many countries, a mayor is the highest-ranking official in a Municipal corporation, municipal government such as that of a city or a town. Worldwide, there is a wide variance in local laws and customs regarding the powers and responsibilitie ...

of Wichita * Jill Docking *

Tom Holland Thomas Stanley Holland (born 1 June 1996) is an English actor. The recipient of numerous accolades, including a BAFTA Award, he featured on the ''Forbes'' 30 Under 30 Europe list of 2019. Some publications have called him one of the most ...

, state senator and nominee for

2010 The year saw a multitude of natural and environmental disasters such as the 2010 Haiti earthquake, the Deepwater Horizon oil spill, and the 2010 Chile earthquake. The 2009 swine flu pandemic, swine flu pandemic which began the previous year ...

Deb Miller Debra L. "Deb" Miller was the vice chair of the Surface Transportation Board. She previously served as the Kansas Secretary of Transportation under three successive Governors of Kansas between 2003 and 2011. She is Kansas' first female and longes ...

, former secretary of the

Kansas Department of Transportation The Kansas Department of Transportation (KSDOT) is a state government organization in charge of maintaining public roadways of the U.S. state of Kansas. Funding issues Since 2012, over $2 billion has been diverted from its coffers to the Kans ...

* Stephen Morris, former Republican president of the

Mark Parkinson Mark Vincent Parkinson (born June 24, 1957) is an American businessman and former politician serving as head of the American Health Care Association (AHCA) and National Center for Assisted Living (NCAL). He served as the 47th lieutenant governor ...

, former

, president and CEO of the American Health Care Association and the National Center for Assisted Living *

, Republican

* Joe Reardon, former

Kansas City The Kansas City metropolitan area is a bi-state metropolitan area anchored by Kansas City, Missouri. Its 14 counties straddle the border between the U.S. states of Missouri (9 counties) and Kansas (5 counties). With and a population of more t ...

* Joshua Svaty, vice president of

The Land Institute The Land Institute is an American nonprofit research, education, and policy organization dedicated to sustainable agriculture, based in Salina, Kansas. Their goal is to develop an agricultural system based on perennial crops that "has the ecolog ...

and former Secretary of Agriculture of Kansas

Results

Libertarian nomination

Candidates

Declared

* Keen Umbehr, attorney :*Running mate: Josh Umbehr, physician and son of Keen Umbehr

General election

Debates

Complete video of debate
September 6, 2014 -

C-SPAN Cable-Satellite Public Affairs Network (C-SPAN ) is an American Cable television in the United States, cable and Satellite television in the United States, satellite television network, created in 1979 by the cable television industry as a Non ...

Complete video of debate
October 21, 2014 -

Endorsements

Predictions

Polling

Results

Counties that flipped from Republican to Democratic

* Crawford (largest city:

Pittsburg Pittsburg may refer to: Places United States Cities, towns, townships and counties *Pittsburg, California * Pittsburg, Florida *Pittsburg, Kansas, Crawford County *Pittsburg, New Hampshire * Pittsburg, Oklahoma *Pittsburg, Texas *Pittsburg Coun ...

) * Jefferson (largest municipality: Valley Falls) *

Lyon Lyon (Franco-Provençal: ''Liyon'') is a city in France. It is located at the confluence of the rivers Rhône and Saône, to the northwest of the French Alps, southeast of Paris, north of Marseille, southwest of Geneva, Switzerland, north ...

(largest municipality: Emporia) *

Riley Riley may refer to: Businesses * Riley (brand), British sporting goods brand founded in 1878 * Riley Motor, British motorcar and bicycle manufacturera 1890–1969 * Riley Technologies, American auto racing constructor and team, founded by Bob ...

(largest municipality:

Manhattan Manhattan ( ) is the most densely populated and geographically smallest of the Boroughs of New York City, five boroughs of New York City. Coextensive with New York County, Manhattan is the County statistics of the United States#Smallest, larg ...

) *

Shawnee The Shawnee ( ) are a Native American people of the Northeastern Woodlands. Their language, Shawnee, is an Algonquian language. Their precontact homeland was likely centered in southern Ohio. In the 17th century, they dispersed through Ohi ...

(largest municipality:

Topeka Topeka ( ) is the List of capitals in the United States, capital city of the U.S. state of Kansas and the county seat of Shawnee County, Kansas, Shawnee County. It is along the Kansas River in the central part of Shawnee County, in northeaste ...

)

References

External links

Campaign websites * *
Tresa McAlhaney for Governor

Keen Umbehr for Governor

Jennifer Winn for Governor
{{DEFAULTSORT:Kansas gubernatorial election, 2014

Gubernatorial A governor is an administrative leader and head of a polity or political region, in some cases, such as governors-general, as the head of a state's official representative. Depending on the type of political region or polity, a ''governor'' ma ...

2014 The year 2014 was marked by the surge of the Western African Ebola epidemic, West African Ebola epidemic, which began in 2013, becoming the List of Ebola outbreaks, most widespread outbreak of the Ebola, Ebola virus in human history, resul ...

2014 United States gubernatorial elections November 2014 in the United States