December 23rd, 2025 Len’s Political Note #776 Ethan Corson Kansas Governor
2026 General Election
Ethan Corson
His hero was George Brett. A great fielder, a fiery leader, and a great hitter after he got instruction from Charlie Lau, one of finest hitting coaches in baseball history. I wonder if Ethan Corson gave his Bar Mitzvah speech about Kansas City third baseman George Brett.
Ethan Corson was not much of a hitter. He was a pretty good pitcher. But he was not recruited by big-time college baseball programs. Nor was he drafted by the pros. He did get a baseball scholarship. After graduating from suburban Kansas City Shawsheen Mission South High School, he went to Kansas City’s Garden City Community College to pitch. Garden City CC was not a powerhouse in the junior college baseball circuit. They have sent one baseball player to the majors. And he stayed a year.
Ethan Corson may have hoped to be noticed by and play for one of the Kansas universities. While at Garden City, it became evident that, for him, baseball would be just a game. He applied to one of the great private academic universities in the Midwest — Washington University of St. Louis. He got his BA there and stayed to get his JD. He also found a wife there. She too was getting her JD.
If baseball was not Ethan Corson’s route to the larger world, how about politics? While in school he had a stint as an intern for Dick Gephardt, the House Minority Leader. After completing his law degree, Ethan Corson returned to Washington as an attorney with Arnold & Porter. He stayed for seven years.
Ethan Corson served a year as a senior staffer for Commerce Secretary, Penny Pritzker and another year as staff chief for the International Trade Administration. He returned to Kansas to be Executive Director of the state Democratic Party and eventually a Fellow at the Dole Institute of Politics at the University of Kansas.
Ethan Gorson turned to the private practice of law in Kansas City. He is still a member of the firm Gates Shields Ferguson Swall Hammond in Overland Park, the section of Kansas City where he was born and grew up. In 2020, Ethan Gorson was elected to the State Senate, but State Senators in Kansas are not paid as if that work is a full-time job. He was not leaving the law firm.
Kansas has a distinctive recent history. US Senator Sam Brownback decided to run for governor. Elected, he led Kansas to try the right wing theory that the more you reduce taxes the more business and industry and wealthy people will invest their saved money and make their community prosper. That was the theory. Private investment did not increase in Brownback’s Kansas. Public services, especially the schools, were starved.
Kansas has been a Republican state. The last Democratic Senator was elected in 1930. Democrats have done better running for governor. Kathleen Sebelius was elected Governor in 2002. When she became Health and Human Services Secretary, her Lt. Governor replaced her. Sam Brownback was elected and followed by an acolyte. Kansans elected Democrat Laura Kelly as governor to rescue the state from Brownbackian economic devastation. She is completing her second term and is term-limited. She cannot run for reelection.
No Democratic governor has been succeeded by another elected Democratic governor of Kansas. Ethan Corson has a task in front of him. As a state senator and a member of what seemed like a permanent minority party, he viewed his Senatorial role to be a collaborator for goals that enough Republicans would agree with. Republicans and Democrats joined to do away with the sales tax on groceries, to exempt social security benefits from the state income tax, and to provide support to veterans, seniors, and the middle class. Ethan Corson was a particular opponent of a proposal to make the Kansas Supreme Court an elected body. He argued that dark money would be spent to elect judges. He urged Kansans to retain its system of gubernatorial appointment from a list of finalists produced by a merit-review committee.
Ethan Corson has the support of Kansas’s Democratic establishment. He will get the nomination. His website does nothing to jeopardize that probability. His issues, he says, are “kitchen table issues.” Better schools, lower taxes. He does not make a single proposal that the Republicans can attack. The Republican state party chair attacked anyway. She claimed Ethan Corson’s ideas are those of “radical Washington Democrats [not] the commonsense voters of Kansas.”
An octet of Republicans are convinced they can take advanrage of the expectation that a Democrat cannot succeed another Democrat as governor. Each of the Republicans running for governor think Kansas is inevitably Republican and they are the perfect representative of that Republican state. The announced Republicans include: Podcaster Doug Billings, Ex Governor and Brownback acolyte Jeff Colyer, Businesswoman Joy Eakins, State Senate President Ty Masterson, County Commissioner Charlotte O’Hara, Financial Services Executive Philip Sarnecki, Insurance Commissioner Vicki Schmidt, and State Secretary of State Scott Schwab.
The Republican candidates may have to spend their money to demean and defeat each other, leaving room for Ethan Corson to accumulate funds for his campaign against whoever wins the August 4 primary.
Outgoing governor Laura Kelly is clear where she stands. “When I think about the type of leader Kansas will need to keep us on the path to prosperity, it’s someone laser focused on the issues Kansans really care about. Someone who understands how to bring people together to get good things done for Kansas. That’s exactly who Ethan Corson is.”
DONATE to Ethan Corson’s campaign. He just might make Kansas less Republican.
Other Kansas races
US Senate: It is too early to recommend a Democratic opponent to Senator Roger Marshall. I will say this, he won, in 2020, by 11.4 points. A swing of 13 points would defeat him.
Attorney General: Former local cop, Chris Mann, became a national opponent to drunk driving after being injured by one during a traffic stop. He lost to anti-immigrant fanatic Kris Kobach by less than 2 points in 2022. 2026 might create a more favorable climate for him. DONATE. See Len’s Political Note #752
Neighbors
Nebraska. US Senate: Independent Dan Osborn to defeat Incumbent Republican Pete Rickets. DONATE. See Len’s Political Note #765
Missouri 02: Veterans Advocate Fred Wellman to defeat incumbent Republican Ann Wagner. DONATE. See Len’s Political Note #772
Colorado 05: Former Biden staffer Jessica Killen to defeat incumbent Republican Jeff Crank. DONATE. See Len’s Political Note #768
