By

Ed Kilgore,

political columnist for Intelligencer since 2015

The ideological and generational “struggle for the soul of the Democratic Party” raged on in Michigan during yesterday’s primaries. But the vibe was very different among Democrats in Kansas, which also held primaries on August 4.

Kansas is a resolutely red state where Republican extremism periodically gives Democrats an opening. The Democratic Party has won four gubernatorial elections dating back to 2002, when Kathleen Sebelius exploited GOP divisions to win; now two-term incumbent Democrat Laura Kelly, a tough-minded moderate in the Sebelius mode, is leaving office amid high Republican expectations that they will reimpose a one-party rule on the state.