Rep. Jerry Moran (R-KS) has won the Republican primary for Senate in Kansas to succeed Sam Brownback, a contest that is historically tantamount to election in a deep-red state that hasn’t elected a Dem Senator since the 1930s.
With 94% of precincts reporting, Moran leads his fellow Congressman Todd Tiahrt by 49%-45%. Democrats have nominated college administrator Lisa Johnston, who took 31% of the vote to communications executive Charles Schollenberger’s 24%. Tiahrt had been endorsed by Sarah Palin.
Brownback, meanwhile, easily won his nomination for governor, and is the favorite for the general election against Dem state Sen. Tom Holland after eight years of Democratic governors Kathleen Sebelius (now Secretary of Health and Human Services) and her successor Mark Parkinson.