Race Analysis

10/28/14 -- Like the Senate race, the polling here is a little bit all over the place. This is looking like a very close battle.

10/19/14 -- The state's underlying partisan dynamics seem to be asserting themselves here, as Brownback has shot upward in the past few weeks. The state's Senate race might even be helping him by making the race less of a referendum on him and more of a partisan affair.

10/7/14 -- Davis's lead is small, but steady. Brownback is in real trouble.

10/1/14 -- The race has tightened somewhat, and it remains an open question whether Davis can really hold on to a lead against Brownback in a year like this one.

----------Race Preview----------

While Kansas has fairly consistently voted Republican at the federal level since the end of the Great Depression, the state has elected a number of Democratic governors. In fact, Republicans have only held the mansion for 20 of the past 50 years, and no Republican has succeeded another Republican in the state since the 1960s.

In 2002, Kathleen Sebelius was able to take advantage of a longstanding split between moderate and conservative Republicans to edge into the governor’s mansion. She then won a large victory in 2006. Republican Sen. Sam Brownback succeeded her, winning by a large margin in 2010. But Brownback has been a controversial governor, and many of his actions have served to inflame the tensions between conservatives and moderates. He starts out in a very tough position against his Democratic opponent.