Steve Fitzgerald, (KS Senate District 5) is known for many things — he once compared Planned Parenthood to concentration camps, and he declared his support for a robust Trump agenda when he announced his candidacy in April of 2017. For Kansas Republican establishment, though, Fitzgerald, a candidate for the open seat being vacated by Lynn Jenkins, he also represented something else that may be a first in Kansas — a candidate they see as far too conservative for his district, and potentially dangerous if he were to make it through the primaries.
Immediately following his announcement, Republican recruiters began immediately seeking alternatives. There have been some rough starts — candidates who flirted with the idea and bailed, as well as out of district candidates who fell apart. The agenda was pretty simple: find a candidate with a military background who wouldn’t fall apart — or leave the race to go run the Iditarod (that’s already happened).
With time running low — we are already almost to February, Republicans are looking to take another shot to stop one of their own — and now, Kansas 2nd District will face a multi-way contest, potentially, should the candidate prove serious.
Tannahill, a retired marine fits the mold that GOP operatives claimed they were looking for in someone who would present a powerful opposition to their own in the primary. And, as far as politics, Tannahill may be untouched by Republican taint — he didn’t vote in the 2016 presidential in Kansas meaning he could legitimately say he never supported Trump (as he certainly didn’t vote for him), a contrast to Fitzgerald and Tyson, the two candidates currently in the race.
Tannahill, who will currently be moving from his Overland Park, KS address (Kansas 3rd district) to a rental property in Leavenworth — will run for the congressional seat from inside of Fitzgerald’s own district.
Tannahill moves into a property in an area that most in Leavenworth think of as Democratic row — with his neighbors including state Democratic representative Jeff Pittman (D-Leavenworth).
Now — this is making a huge assumption, that Tannahill will leave his home in the third district to move to this house, or claim it as a residence. In Kansas, by law, you only need to sleep one night a year in a location and declare intent to return to claim it as an address, something many Kansans, including Senator Pat Roberts (R-Virginia and a couch in Dodge City) do.
But is Tannahill’s jump into the second district race enough for Republicans to slow down a candidate they fear is just too far to the right? That is definitely the hope. Republican leadership fears that a Fitzgerald candidacy could be damaging to down ballot Republicans in the district, saying his strident constitutional conservative nature and major proclamations — he began his house race saying one of his major issues was to stand against the “global warming hoax” — could doom spell doom.
Could Republicans have their man? Paul Davis, the Democratic candidate in the district, continues to break fundraising numbers for a Democrat in the district, which was held by Lynn Jenkins, and prior held by Democrat Nancy Boyda, who won in 2006 — when the district was not as “blue” as it is now, before large inclusion of Lawrence, Kansas, in a year where Republican messaging was toxic.
For the first time, though, in my lifetime, a Kansas sitting Republican senator is likely facing down his own party — because even they fear he may be too conservative for his own district. In a heavily divided primary, and a very late start from out of district, can Kansas Republicans embrace a hopeful non-voting candidate to stop one of their own?