Kansas

Bitter Democratic primary narrows options in newly crafted Kansas Senate district • Kansas Reflector

Published

2 years ago

August 10, 2024

Bitter Democratic primary narrows options in newly crafted Kansas Senate district • Kansas Reflector

TOPEKA — Democrat Patrick Schmidt brought old-fashioned door-to-door campaigning to east Topeka on a sizzling day ahead of the primary election, but the 97-degree temperature was eclipsed by scorched-earth opinions of some voters who stepped onto the porch to talk about the Kansas Senate primary.

Schmidt, who walked a neighborhood east of the Capitol wearing a long sleeved U.S. Navy shirt, reminded folks he was running in the newly formed District 19. He moved through those streets knowing Gov. Laura Kelly’s Middle of the Road PAC had his back. Schmidt’s chief rival was Kansas House Minority Leader Vic Miller, who had spent decades in public life in state and county government and as a Topeka municipal judge.

“Is there anything I could do for you?” Schmidt asked repeatedly. “Can I count on your vote?”

Most declined to share their personal political agenda. There were offers of verbal support for Schmidt. A registered Libertarian wished him well. Others weren’t certain they’d take part in the Aug. 6 primary election. Several who answered their door along Lime and Lake streets said they were exasperated by Miller’s style of politics and ready to see the names of a new generation of Democratic candidates on the ballot.

“We voted for you, dude,” an elderly man told Schmidt.

It was anecdotal evidence the Senate campaign wasn’t shaping up to be a cake walk for Miller, who possessed the most significant name recognition and the deepest reservoir of policy decisions to pick apart.

The Kelly nudge

On Tuesday, registered Democrats put an end to speculation. Schmidt carried 53% of the vote, drawing support of 2,554 Democrats. Miller trailed with 1,638 votes or 34% of the total. In third place was Topeka community activist ShaMecha King Simms, who captured 601 votes or 13%.

“I was just really humbled and grateful for the trust and support of everyone I met,” said Schmidt, who gained financial and voter traction through Kelly’s endorsement. “I knew Laura Kelly is highly respected and accomplished in this district.”

During the campaign, Miller told voters the gap between himself and the governor wasn’t wide. He said he would “be there to help Governor Kelly deliver a safe, secure and fiscally sound Kansas, lower residential property taxes and bring an expanded Medicaid program to 150,000 uninsured Kansans.”

In May, Miller created controversy at a candidate forum by telling Simms, who is Black, she ought to run for office “another day, another place.” The governor’s Middle of the Road PAC denounced Miller for supporting a Republican bill that would have created a single-rate, flat income tax in Kansas that was opposed by Kelly.

Schmidt, an officer in the Navy Reserve, said the 19 percentage point margin between himself and Miller in the primary was somewhat of a surprise.

“It’s hard to read the label from inside the bottle,” Schmidt said. “I kind of thought we were somewhere around that just by what I heard knocking at the doors.”

Schmidt, who was born in Johnson County and moved to Topeka, lost a campaign for the U.S. House by 35,000 votes against incumbent Republican U.S. Rep. Jake LaTurner in 2022. Schmidt filed for the state Senate race in late 2023.

The new Senate district up for grabs extends from central Topeka to northern Lawrence. It includes a swath of rural Shawnee and Douglas counties that takes in the cities of Lecompton and Tecumseh and parts of Kanwaka, Wakarusa and Soldier townships. Overall, the district leans Democrat.

‘Refuse to talk bad’

In the November general election, Schmidt will face Republican Party nominee Tyler Wible, a Topekan who defeated moderate Cynthia Smith in the primary by a comfortable 61% to 39% margin.

Wible said he was a constitutional conservative concerned about erosion of individual rights. He said he brought to the Senate campaign an appreciation for the region in which he attended school, faced poverty, bought his first home and built a construction business.

He said voters there lacked representation from someone committed to lowering taxes and minimizing the size of state government.

“We’ve got to keep government out of private industry,” Wible said. “The bigger that government is, the more interference with our rights.”

Wible said he wasn’t familiar with Schmidt’s positions on key issues, but had no interest in taking part in the style of campaigning illustrated by Miller and Schmidt.

“I refuse to talk bad about anybody,” Wible said, noting Schmidt could come after him during the fall campaign. “I’m ready for it. I’m not going to lose myself to run for politics.”

Miller and Schmidt engaged in back-and-forth assaults with a series of mailers sent to potential Democratic voters. Schmidt included on the postcards a mugshot of Miller’s 2019 DUI booking, while Miller placed an image of Schmidt’s face on the body of a woman spinning yarn on a wooden spindle.

A central element of their conflict was Miller’s vote for a 2017 bill that expanded state regulation of abortion clinics. The law was struck down by the Kansas Supreme Court. Schmidt referred to Miller’s vote as a “betrayal” of women and a vote that helped “extremist Republicans.”

In response, Miller sent out a colorful postcard that claimed “Schmidt and his dark money special interests are working overtime to spin yarn about Vic Miller.” Miller, who didn’t respond to a request for post-election comment, said in his mailers that he voted 16 times in support of abortion rights and reproductive freedom during the past two legislative sessions.

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Kansas

Deadly 4-car crash kills 2 people, injures others in Kansas City

Published

10 hours ago

March 2, 2026

Press Room

Deadly 4-car crash kills 2 people, injures others in Kansas City

KANSAS CITY, Mo. (KCTV) – A crash near a busy highway killed two people and injured two others.

Emergency crews responded to the crash at U.S. 71 Highway and Meyer Boulevard around 12:40 p.m. on Monday, March 2.

When crews arrived they determined four cars were involved in the crash.

Police are investigating how the crash happened.

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Kansas

Homegrown Jayhawk stars ready to shine at Big 12 Tournament in Kansas City

Published

22 hours ago

March 2, 2026

Press Room

Homegrown Jayhawk stars ready to shine at Big 12 Tournament in Kansas City

LAWRENCE, Kan. (KCTV) – As Kansas women’s basketball prepares to enter the postseason at the Big 12 Tournament in Kansas City, they’ll be led by two Overland Park natives who have been two of the most electrifying players to watch in the country this year.

Junior guard S’Mya Nichols and freshman forward Jaliya Davis have played integral roles in the recent growth of the program. Both cite the desire to help grow the Jayhawks into something special as reasons for committing there.

“Where we wanted to take Kansas women’s basketball, I wanted to be a part of that growing evolution,” Nichols told KCTV5.

“We [my family] were also really big Jayhawk fans. We came to a lot of games,” Davis said about her childhood.

The two were both 5-star recruits in high school, and their commitments marked historic recruiting victories for the KU women’s basketball program.

First came Nichols in the Class of 2023, picking KU over Tennessee and Oklahoma.

“I genuinely wanted to go to Kansas,” she said.

Then Davis became the highest-rated player to ever commit to KU as part of the Class of 2025.

“When you go back to S’Mya Nichols being a local, Kansas City, Overland Park product, a nationally respected player, Jaliya was really the next one that was very important for the Jayhawks to keep home,” said head coach Brandon Schneider.

Now as a junior, Nichols has established herself as one of the most consistent scorers and physical guards in the nation.

But it’s the Shawnee Mission West’s alum’s leadership that defines her legacy in Lawrence.

“The team leader, the quarterback,” Coach Schneider described Nichols. “I think oftentimes the player that everybody looks up to off the court.”

“I mean it means everything. Knowing that I’m important to the team, and that they see me as that as well,” said Nichols with a smile.

Both Nichols and Davis were recruited by the Jayhawks for years, going all the way back to seventh grade.

“Well, we offered her in middle school,’ Coach Schneider said with a laugh about Davis.

“Oh he put in a lot of work,” laughed Davis. “I mean, obviously, seventh grade, that’s a long time.”

It was that dedication from Coach Schneider that led her to choose the Jayhawks over Texas, South Carolina, Baylor, and Oklahoma – where he dad played ball.

“I think it really was the relationship we had and grew. He was always there, every single one of my games,” Davis said about Schneider.

After just one practice as teammates, Nichols voiced a big belief about Davis into existence – and it’s probably going to come true.

The Jayhawks are the 11-seed in the Big 12 Tournament, and will face 14-seed UCF in the first round on Wednesday at 8:00 p.m.(KCTV5)

“I saw her first practice, and I sent her a text, and I’m like ‘I think you can win Freshman of the Year’, and I still stand by that,”

Davis is averaging 21.0 points per game, and has been named the Big 12 Freshman of the Week for eight weeks in a row. That sets a power conference all-time record.

“I think it’s really cool. I mean obviously it’s a team effort, they’re always looking for me,” Davis said about her historic accomplishment.

“Just a phenomenal stretch of basketball for her, and so well deserving,” said Coach Schneider.

Now these two homegrown stars are at the forefront of a late-season push to earn a bid to the NCAA Tournament. Right now, CBS Sports bracketology has them as a ‘First Four Out’ team.

But a few wins in the Big 12 Tournament could certainly help seal their invite to the big dance.

“Obviously we’re not in the position that we were hoping to be in, but I think we can make the most out of it, and get to where we want to be,” Davis said about the opportunity at hand in the Big 12 Tournament in Kansas City.

The Overland Park kids are especially fired up about starting the postseason in their own backyard.

“I have a big support system. So I bet my family will take a big chunk of that area during that tournament,” Davis laughed.

“I remember being younger, and the College Basketball Experience is right next door. So I felt like at one moment that was the big stage, when I got to play my little AAU tournaments in there. And then all of a sudden I’m literally in T-Mobile Center on the actual big stage, so it’s pretty cool,” said Nichols.

The Jayhawks are the 11-seed in the Big 12 Tournament, and will face 14-seed UCF in the first round on Wednesday at 8:00 p.m.

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Kansas

Why Matthew Driscoll continues to say Kansas State is ‘close’

Published

2 days ago

March 1, 2026

Press Room

Why Matthew Driscoll continues to say Kansas State is ‘close’

MANHATTAN — David Castillo sank his free throw to finish off a three-point play to cut TCU’s lead to two late in the second half. Kansas State had a chance to play spoiler to a team that was on the NCAA Tournament bubble.

For the previous 36 minutes, the Wildcats were more engaged than they had been all season. You wouldn’t have recognized they were just under two weeks removed from their head coach getting fired. The Wildcats were in the middle of a competitive basketball game when there haven’t been many this season.

And then the final four minutes happened, and the Wildcats lost once again.

Kansas State pulled within one score six different times in the second half against the Horned Frogs, only to never take a lead, and then go 4 minutes, 4 seconds without a point after Castillo’s late bucket, leading to a 77-68 loss.

K-State interim coach Matthew Driscoll compared the loss to a broken record, when the Wildcats have been close late, only to fall apart in the end.

“We get there, and then, for whatever reason, we can’t break through,” Driscoll said. “When we got it to a one-point game, I thought that this was when we were going to turn the corner. It just seems like we keep getting close, and we can’t break through that wall.”

Kansas State (11-18, 2-14 Big 12) has been within striking distance in a handful of games this season, only to go on lengthy scoring droughts and come up short in the end.

While there are plenty of games in which the Wildcats were blown out or didn’t show half the effort they showed against the Horned Frogs, there have been enough games that if the Wildcats finished, they wouldn’t be fighting to not finish at the bottom of the Big 12 standings.

K-State’s Feb. 25 loss to Colorado is another example, having two five-plus-minute spurts in which it didn’t score a point. The Wildcats held late leads against West Virginia and Oklahoma State, and in their first game against TCU, only to choke away those leads.

“There’s a lot of frustration,” Khamari McGriff said. “It’s been a fight to continue to focus on the next right thing and let whatever has happened in the past, and just try to get to a point where we can compete for 40 minutes. We gotta look at it with the perspective that we’ve been close a lot of times, and we just gotta figure out how to take that next step.”

Kansas State is running out of opportunities to achieve that “next step.” The Wildcats have a home game on Tuesday, March 3, against a beatable West Virginia team before closing the regular season at Kansas on March 7. After that, it would be surprising if the Wildcats get more than two games at the Big 12 Tournament.

But Driscoll hasn’t seen his team quit, which is almost all he can ask for after what has been a season to forget.

“We just haven’t completed the deal,” Driscoll said.

Wyatt D. Wheeler covers Kansas State athletics for the USA TODAY Network and Topeka Capital-Journal. You can follow him on X at @WyattWheeler_, contact him at 417-371-6987 or email him at wwheeler@usatodayco.com

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