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- Cindy Holscher’s win breaks a 70-year trend of party shifts in Kansas.
- Laura Kelly said Holscher became the first Democrat to succeed a Democrat.
- Bob Beatty called the result a miraculous victory for Kansas Democrats.
Kansas’ election of Cindy Holscher breaks a 70-year trend in Kansas politics: shifting power between Republicans and Democrats without allowing either party to hold it for more than eight years.
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The last time any single party held the governor’s office in Kansas for more than eight years was during the nearly two-decade reign of Republicans who won the governor’s office between 1939 and 1957.
The period of dominance fizzled out with John McCuish’s 14-day term. He controversially appointed the prior Gov. Fred Hall to the Kansas Supreme Court after Hall lost the Republican primary. George Docking succeeded McCuish, and was the first Democrat to ever win a second term, which at the time was two years.
For the next seven decades, the parties ping-ponged power back and forth. Docking was succeeded by Republican John Anderson Jr., who won two terms, and Republican William Avery, who served one term.
Then Docking’s son Robert Docking won four consecutive two-year terms as a Democrat. Since four-year gubernatorial terms were established in 1974, only two governors that won the seat have failed to win a second term.
Gov. Laura Kelly, a Democrat, called the win “historic” in a statement congratulating Holscher. The statement noted that it was the first time in Kansas history that a Democrat succeeded a Democrat as governor.
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“Congratulations to Governor-elect Cindy Holscher on her historic victory,” Kelly said. “Leadership is about more than the office one holds or the title next to a name. It’s about what you do with the opportunities you’re given, the people you bring along with you, and whether the decisions you make today will benefit others for generations to come.”
Holscher’s win is a “miraculous victory,” according to Bob Beatty, a Washburn University political science professor.
“Kansas has never elected Democrats to the Senate, governor, and AG in the same election,” Beatty said. “(Democrats) have been, almost shockingly, handed a huge amount of influence in at least the next two years in Kansas, and they need to think hard about what they want to do with it.”
This story was originally published November 12, 2026 at 3:10 PM with the headline “Cindy Holscher’s win breaks a 70-year trend in Kansas politics. ‘Miraculous victory’.”
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