Poll: Derek Schmidt, Laura Kelly Statistically Tied in Kansas Governor’s Race

Kansas Attorney General Derek Schmidt , Gov. Laura Kelly
AP Photo/Charlie Riedel, John Hanna
Katherine Hamilton

Kansas Gov. Laura Kelly (D) has a 3-point lead over Republican challenger Derek Schmidt ahead of the state’s gubernatorial race, a new poll from Emerson College Polling and the The Hill shows.

Kelly’s narrow lead over Kansas Attorney General Schmidt of 46 percent to 43 percent falls within the survey’s ±3 percent margin of error, making the results a statistical tie. Five percent of poll respondents say they will support independent candidate Dennis Pyle and five percent say they are undecided. The poll was conducted between Oct. 27-29 with 1,000 very likely Kansas voters.

Schmidt’s campaign manager, CJ Grover, called the poll “inaccurate” and said he believes Kansans will choose Schmidt over Kelly on election day. Grover said in a statement:

Despite the millions of dollars Democrats have spent on dark-money lies about Derek Schmidt and dishonest tactics to prop up a third-party spoiler, and despite the media’s determination to suppress the Republican vote with inaccurate polling like this, Kansans won’t fall for it and will elect Derek Schmidt governor on Nov. 8.
 The new poll shows slight improvement for Kelly, “who saw her support increase by 3 points since the last Emerson College-Nexstar survey in September. Schmidt’s support, on the other hand, has remained at 43 percent,” The Hill reported. 
“Kelly has more cross-party support for Governor than Schmidt: 91 percent of Democrats plan to vote for Kelly, 18 percent of Republicans, and 49 percent of Independents,” said Spencer Kimball, the executive director of Emerson College Polling. 
Both The Cook Political Report and RealClearPolitics give the Kanas gubernatorial race a “toss up” rating. 

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