GARDNER, Kan. — The race for Kansas governor is expected to be a close one which is why political candidates are pounding the pavement and shaking hands in parades across the state.
On Saturday, the city of Gardner, Kansas had its parade downtown and several candidates on both sides of the political aisle hoping to sway undecided voters.
Current Gov. Jeff Colyer and challenger Kris Kobach points to their lead in the polls, “It's nice to see a little lead in the polls,” said Colyer.
“We got a 10-point lead in the polls that we see, so hopefully the polls are right,” said Kobach.
Each of them hopes their message connects with voters come election day.
“Our unemployment rate is going down, we have more Kansans working in about any time in history, but we're working on better value jobs,” said Colyer.
“They have done nothing about illegal immigration, they've had many opportunities to stop Kansas from being the sanctuary state and they've done nothing,” said Kobach.
But the primaries aren’t all about the GOP, there’s a few Democrats hoping the national “blue wave” washes through Kansas.
“We are making sure, that we leave no rock unturned,” said Democratic candidate for governor, Carl Brewer who thinks Kansans are looking for change, “Morale is low here in the state of Kansas, under the Brownback administration and Colyer.”
41 Action News reached out to the other candidates, Laura Kelly was campaigning in western Kansas on Saturday, and said in a statement, ““The Laura Kelly campaign is making its final push headed into Primary Election Day on Tuesday. We are visiting 19 communities - mostly out west - in the final three days. Everywhere we go we hear from enthusiastic Kansans ready to put the Brownback-Colyer experiment behind them and rebuild our state. Laura Kelly is working hard and is ready to make a change in November."
The Josh Svaty campaign said he was campaigning in both Johnson and Wyandotte Counties on Saturday.
While Kansas is referred to as a “red state”, Brewer believes Kansans sees past party lines.
“80-percent of the people are just common sense people, we just belong on different teams but what we want is we want common sense, is someone to listen to us, provide an opportunity for us to be a the table,” said Brewer.
The Kansas and Missouri primaries are on August 7th.
