ELECTION/GOP/TRUMP PEOPLE: “The Republican candidate endorsed by U.S. President Donald Trump in the Kansas governor’s race, Kris Kobach, saw his lead cut to only 91 votes on Thursday [8-9-18] after a county clerk corrected the vote total from Tuesday’s election. Kobach, the current Kansas secretary of state and a staunch ally of Trump, now leads current Governor Jeff Colyer in the Republican primary by a razor-thin margin of 126,257 to 126,066 with potentially thousands more provisional and absentee ballots outstanding. Thomas County Clerk Shelly Harms confirmed to Reuters that Colyer’s vote total had been corrected to 522, up 100 votes from the 422 initially reported. Both candidates are listed as having 41 percent of the vote in the contest, which is seen in part as a test of Trump’s popularity in the Midwestern state. Kobach is a national leader of the push to restrict illegal immigration and pass more restrictive voting laws, advised Trump’s presidential campaign on immigration issues and served as vice chairman of his short-lived voter fraud commission.”
-Dan Whitcomb, “Trump-backed candidate for Kansas governor’s lead cut to 91 votes,” Reuters, August 9, 2018 1:50 pm