Newsweek: “Democrats Let Kansas Governor Laura Kelly Lead—Now They’re Winning”

Newsweek: "Democrats Let Kansas Governor Laura Kelly Lead-Now They're Winning"

New reporting from Newsweek highlights how DGA Chair Governor Laura Kelly has played a critical role "as a leader of the Democrats' national effort to counter Trump and elect governors" and paved the way for the historic 2025 victories of Mikie Sherrill in New Jersey and Abigail Spanberger in Virginia.

The piece covers how Governor Kelly's success "informing rural voters in Republican strongholds of her experience and proposed solutions" and "laser focus on Kansas issues" was similar to that of Govs.-elect Abigail Spanberger and Mikie Sherrill's campaign strategies in Virginia and New Jersey, with the two of them winning landslide victories by wider margins than a Democrat has in either state in decades.

Read more from Newsweek here, or check out some highlights below:

Newsweek: Democrats Let Kansas Governor Laura Kelly Lead-Now They're Winning

• However, Kansas Governor Laura Kelly is far from a normal post-2016 politician.

• She, along with Kentucky Governor Andy Beshear-who serves as vice chair to the Democratic Governors Association (DGA) that Kelly chairs-are the only two "red state" Democratic governors. As chair of the DGA, she led the national effort to elect two Democrats to governorships this year.

• Kelly sees her success as a red state Democrat as a product of her ability to focus on Kansas policy over D.C. politics.

• This situation set the stage for Kelly's rise to the governorship as she campaigned with a laser focus on Kansas issues and largely shunned national topics in route to reelection in 2022. Yet, as now head of the DGA, Kelly serves as a leader of the Democrats' national effort to counter Trump and elect governors, playing a key role in the 2025 victories of Mikie Sherrill in New Jersey and Abigail Spanberger in Virginia.

• It's no coincidence to Kelly that the politicians leading the way in reasserting the Democratic Party's voice are candidates for governorships. During a time of historic economic inequality and large-scale distrust in institutions, people are generally inclined to have more faith in the leaders near home versus the ones far away in Washington. Kelly says this is especially true when D.C. politicians exhibit a greater focus on advancing party ideals over tending to the issues facing their states. She acknowledges her rise to power came in part because of this shift.

• Informing rural voters in Republican strongholds of her experience and proposed solutions was key to Kelly's success, she said, as she "turned the shade of red a little lighter" in those areas, piling otherwise red votes atop those from her urban base. This same strategy yielded success for Sherrill and Spanberger, Kelly said-and it's playing out in deep red Mississippi, where in 2024, Democratic candidate Brandon Presley lost by less than 3.5 percent and during this past cycle, Democrats broke the GOP supermajority in the state legislature.

###