Kansas governor's race still too close to call. Masterson and Holscher wait for a victor

Dylan Lysen and Matthew Kelly, The Kansas City Star on Nov 4, 2026

By clicking submit, I authorize Arcamax and its affiliates to: (1) use, sell, and share my information for marketing purposes, including cross-context behavioral advertising, as described in our Privacy Policy , (2) add to information that I provide with other information like interests inferred from web page views, or data lawfully obtained from data brokers, such as past purchase or location data, or publicly available data, (3) contact me or enable others to contact me by email or other means with offers for different types of goods and services, and (4) retain my information while I am engaging with marketing messages that I receive and for a reasonable amount of time thereafter. I understand I can opt out at any time through an email that I receive, or by clicking here

The race for Kansas governor remained neck and neck late Tuesday, with no clear winner declared.

Voters appeared almost evenly split on the two candidates, who could set the state on two drastically different paths over the next four years, shaping how taxes are levied, education is funded and abortion is regulated.

As of 11:50 p.m., the Associated Press had not called the race for either Republican Senate President Ty Masterson or Democratic state Sen. Cindy Holscher. With 93% of ballots tabulated, Hoslcher had received 50.4% of the vote to Masteron’s 49.6%, a difference of just 8,000 votes.

Neither candidate has declared victory or conceded defeat.

The consequential race will likely be decided overnight or Wednesday morning.

Holscher: ‘Just a few more votes’

Holscher told a crowd at an election night party in Lenexa that the count may go late into the night, but her campaign feels confident of where things stand.

“There are just a few more votes that need to be counted, but we are confident that once all the votes are counted, we will win,” Holscher said.

Kansas State Sen. Cindy Holscher spoke late Tuesday evening at her watch party as the race remained too close to call. Dylan Lysen - The Kansas City Star

National Republicans viewed Kansas as one of the party’s best opportunities to flip a governorship from blue to red in a tough midterm cycle.

But the nonpartisan Cook Political Report last week adjusted its Kansas governor race rating from “Lean Republican” to “Toss-Up.”

“It’s just way too close to call,” Masterson said near the end of the night. “It’s so close. What I’m afraid is, we’re going to have lawyers involved in this thing.”

Masterson explained that he decided to wind up his event for the night pending results on Wednesday.

“I just wanted to close it down tonight because there’s obviously not going to be either a concession speech or a victory speech tonight. Because it is that close.

“It is literally a fraction of a percent. Last time I looked, I only had to win fifty-five percent of whatever’s left, which is optimistic for me. But either way, it’s going to be razor-thin.”

Stakes for Kansas

Masterson, who has spent the last six years thwarting Kelly’s agenda as a top legislative leader in Topeka’s Republican supermajority, recently made a final pitch for himself by highlighting examples of his bipartisan achievements and describing Holscher as a socialist.

He said his top priority would be to reshape the state’s property tax system to deliver the relief that lawmakers have promised homeowners for years. He’s also touted making “$2 billion in tax cuts” during his time in the Legislature.

Holscher, meanwhile, compared Masterson to former Republican Gov. Sam Brownback, whose tenure was plagued by budget shortfalls after steep tax cuts. Holscher said she also wants to cut property taxes while also working to make healthcare more affordable.

Kansas has regularly gone back and forth between Republican and Democratic governors. The state has gone 62 years without voters electing consecutive leaders from the same political party.

_____