Kansas Gov. Laura Kelly once called her “so far to the left at this point that it will be very hard for her to come back.”
But now Kelly will have to do everything in her power to help state Sen. Cindy Holscher succeed her despite having campaigned against her in the Democratic primary.
The term-limited governor had backed state Sen. Ethan Corson, but despite a 27-to-1 ad-spending advantage, Holscher defeated Corson by 10 points thanks to a populist, anti-establishment campaign railing against data centers and the sweetheart deal to lure over the Kansas City Chiefs.
Now, Holscher is testing whether that message can work beyond the party’s base—and if it can help her distance herself from the progressive label attached to her during the bitter nomination fight.
On paper, Holscher and Corson held similar voting records: backing tax breaks for data-center construction and supporting a deal with the Kansas City Chiefs. But Holscher then changed her tune on both issues, which propelled her grassroots campaign. She came out for a data-center moratorium while Corson supported continued construction with guardrails, and she opposed the final Chiefs offer that included $1.8 billion in public financing and tax incentives.
“What she did was separate herself with sort of an attitude that, for example, with the big subsidy for a stadium for the Kansas City Chiefs, she said, ‘Yes, I voted for it, but now that I've seen the details of the deal, I don't like it,’" said Michael Smith, a political science professor at Emporia State University. "And same thing with data centers, saying, ‘I'm listening to the people, and they're telling me to slow down on data centers, and I think we need to slow down on data centers.’”
Holscher has more recently tamped down her criticism of the sweetheart deal to lure the Chiefs over the border, which has already been finalized.
“There's a few political no-nos in Kansas, and one is you don't want to be anti-Kansas City Chiefs,” said Bob Beatty, a political science professor at Washburn University.
But data centers could give her a particularly useful avenue in November. Her call for a moratorium, according to Kansas political science professors who spoke to National Journal, could help Holscher portray herself as focused on local interests, contrasting her with Republican nominee Ty Masterson, who, like Corson, supports data-center development with guardrails.
“She didn't position herself as a really strong progressive the way we've seen candidates in some other more blue states, more as sort of a populist fighter,” Smith said. “[Data centers] do not appear to be an issue that's owned by either party, and so she could take that on without being perceived as being really far left, which is generally not seen as the way to win in Kansas, and that's what she did there.”
Holscher won the support of progressive voters in the primary, but she didn’t identify herself as such. Now, she’s trying to carve a moderate lane in a state where Democrats have never held the governor’s mansion for more than two consecutive terms.
“They characterize me as progressive, but the fact of the matter is I'm very mainstream," Holscher told National Journal. "I mean, the things I'm fighting for here in Kansas—Medicaid expansion, funding of our schools—you know, those are very mainstream issues. Even legalizing cannabis.”
For any Democrat to succeed in Kansas, they need to win over a sizable swath of Republicans, who make up nearly half registered voters, and independents, while also motivating Democrats to turn out.
“That’s what she's going to have to do in some fashion, and usually that's issue-based," Beatty said. "The data centers are perfect for that.”
Kansas has seen backlash over data centers. Residents in Emporia, which is southwest of Topeka, submitted a petition to prohibit data centers within the city. A district court ordered the city to allow voters to decide on the measure in November.
An internal poll for Holscher found that just 18 percent of voters feel favorable towards data centers, with 65 percent of them opposed.
“We have some data centers here, and I'm not opposed to them being built," she said. "We just want it done responsibly. We want good partners for our communities. So I am still, like I said, the same perspective. We need to make sure we get these guardrails in place because, you know, once the ground is broken and they're building it, it's too late.”
Masterson, the state Senate president, is offering a different version of the same argument. He hasn’t called for a moratorium. He has pointed to the state’s already existing guardrails and has attacked Holscher for walking back her vote on the data-center tax breaks.
Holscher's attacks on Masterson have been folded into her anti-billionaire messaging, criticizing technology and AI companies who she said “spent close to a million dollars on his primary to help him win.”
Masterson did not respond to National Journal’s requests for an interview.
But while backlash to data centers is bubbling statewide, Smith said it’s too soon to tell which proposal quells voters’ concerns, and how they’ll differentiate between a moratorium and guardrails.
That leaves both candidates with a lane to argue they’ll protect Kansas while still ensuring business interests. But Masterson has picked up the support of some labor unions thanks to his pro-development stance, Beatty noted.
Even as Holscher tries to present herself as a moderate, Masterson and Republicans are quick to pull her populist message into a partisan frame. During the pair’s first debate, where data centers took center stage, Masterson called her the “most radical liberal socialist Democrat ever to be on a statewide ticket in the state of Kansas.”
It’s a message that is making the rounds. The Republican Governors Association already put up $6.5 million in digital ads since the primary, seeing Kansas as their best flip opportunity on the map. So far, their ads have portrayed Holscher as a “liberal” who opposed capping property taxes.
Lanell Griffith, the Shawnee County GOP chair, said that while voters in her area were initially opposed to data centers, they’ve come to develop a more nuanced approach, balancing both guardrails and economic advantages. And she said Masterson’s approach, as opposed to a statewide moratorium, gives localities more agency.
“With the guardrails that Senate President Masterson has in place and will be strengthened into law, we're more free to have those conversations because ultimately it ends up a local decision,” she said.
