{"id":103990,"date":"2026-07-31T08:36:41","date_gmt":"2026-07-31T14:36:41","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.kcnonline.com\/wp\/?p=103990"},"modified":"2026-07-31T08:36:42","modified_gmt":"2026-07-31T14:36:42","slug":"trump-calls-on-kansans-to-vote-early","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.kcnonline.com\/wp\/2026\/07\/31\/trump-calls-on-kansans-to-vote-early\/","title":{"rendered":"Trump Calls on Kansans to Vote Early"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

By Anna Kaminski, Kansas Reflector<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n

TOPEKA \u2014 President Donald Trump encouraged Kansans to vote leading up to Tuesday\u2019s primary election while on a phone call Wednesday to boost Kansas GOP gubernatorial candidate Ty Masterson\u2019s profile.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Much of the Republican Party has rallied behind Masterson, who is facing six other Republicans, in an attempt to turn the governor\u2019s office red and maintain supermajority strongholds in the Legislature.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Wednesday\u2019s call was at least the second \u201ctele-rally\u201d Trump has participated in this week. He touted Masterson\u2019s record as a state legislator, denigrated immigrants and praised Kansas values in a roughly five-minute spiel. He called Kansas\u2019 primary an \u201cimportant\u201d election.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cEarly voting is open now, so get out and vote early if you want, or if you prefer, you can go vote on Election Day,\u201d Trump said, encouraging voters to cast ballots for Masterson.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The president has appeared on calls nationwide, vouching for his hand-selected Republican candidates ahead of primary elections in mostly red states, including incumbent members of Congress in Alabama, Louisiana<\/a> and, most recently, Tennessee<\/a>, and gubernatorial candidates in Georgia<\/a> and South Carolina<\/a>. The latter two, and his pick for Iowa, didn\u2019t win their primaries.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Wednesday\u2019s call came after Trump spent time in Michigan, where he gave pep talks to GOP candidates<\/a> and commended his own inflated accomplishments in the manufacturing sector.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Trump lauded his own success record in Kansas, and credited Masterson\u2019s more than 20 years as a state legislator. The past six have been spent as Senate president. Trump endorsed the Andover Republican in May.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cI\u2019m so honored to have your endorsement and want you to know I\u2019m working every day to win this thing, and I want Kansas to be reliably red and America first,\u201d Masterson said to Trump.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Hans Torgerson, a spokesperson for the Kansas Democratic Party, said that on the call, Masterson pledged to an agenda characterized by \u201ccutting Medicaid, taxing Kansas farmers and small businesses through chaotic tariffs, and sending grocery and gas prices through the roof.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cFor Ty Masterson, it\u2019s Washington first and Kansas last,\u201d Torgerson said.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Trump highlighted legislation that passed under Masterson\u2019s leadership, including bills that cut property taxes, ceased public assistance programs for immigrants and restricted trans youths\u2019 sports participation.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

He faulted Biden for letting millions of people into the country illegally, creating an \u201copen borders dilemma.\u201d <\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cWe\u2019ve caught most of them \u2014 many of them \u2014 and we\u2019re never going to give up on that one,\u201d Trump said.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Since Masterson received Trump\u2019s endorsement in May, the campaign has announced a slew of endorsements from high-profile conservative organizations and figures, including U.S. Sen. Roger Marshall and former Gov. Jeff Colyer, who planned to compete with Masterson for the Republican nomination for governor this year. Colyer dropped out of the race after Trump\u2019s endorsement, just ahead of the state filing deadline.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Trump has also endorsed Marshall and incumbent U.S. Reps. Ron Estes, Tracey Mann and Derek Schmidt. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Masterson owns a consulting business and has held a position at Wichita State University, which was the subject of a recent Kansas City Star investigation<\/a> in which political opponents called it a \u201cno-show job.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Masterson\u2019s fellow Republican candidates include former Johnson County Commissioner Charlotte O\u2019Hara, Nick Reinecker, Stacy Rogers, businessman Philip Sarnecki, Secretary of State Scott Schwab and state Insurance Commissioner Vicki Schmidt. The winner will compete in November with one of three Democratic candidates \u2014 state Sens. Ethan Corson and Cindy Holscher and Overland Park Mayor Curt Skoog \u2014 to replace outgoing Democratic Gov. Laura Kelly.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Masterson\u2019s campaign said \u201cthousands\u201d participated in the call.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

By Anna Kaminski, Kansas Reflector TOPEKA \u2014 President Donald Trump encouraged Kansans to vote leading up to Tuesday\u2019s primary election while on a phone call Wednesday to boost Kansas GOP gubernatorial candidate Ty Masterson\u2019s profile. Much of the Republican Party has rallied behind Masterson, who is facing six other Republicans, in an attempt to turn […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":5,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[23],"tags":[810,2939],"class_list":["post-103990","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-state","tag-donald-trump","tag-elections"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.kcnonline.com\/wp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/103990","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.kcnonline.com\/wp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.kcnonline.com\/wp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.kcnonline.com\/wp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/5"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.kcnonline.com\/wp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=103990"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/www.kcnonline.com\/wp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/103990\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":103991,"href":"https:\/\/www.kcnonline.com\/wp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/103990\/revisions\/103991"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.kcnonline.com\/wp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=103990"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.kcnonline.com\/wp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=103990"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.kcnonline.com\/wp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=103990"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}