Independent Dennis Pyle will be on Kansas ballot in governor race with Kelly and Schmidt

State Sen. Dennis Pyle will be on the Kansas ballot in November as an independent candidate for governor after the Kansas Secretary of State’s Office announced Thursday that it had verified that Pyle had gathered more than the 5,000 signatures required.

Pyle, a conservative state senator from Hiawatha in northeast Kansas, left the Republican party earlier this year before announcing he would run for governor against incumbent Democrat Laura Kelly and Republican Derek Schmidt, the state attorney general.

Libertarian Seth Cordell will also be on the ballot.

In a lengthy press release announcing the certification of his signatures, Pyle described himself and running mate Kathleen Garrison as the “conservative opposites of Kelly and Schmidt.”

Garrison is a Clearwater school board member.

He pledged to be a “pro-life” leader in the wake of the overwhelming defeat of Kansas’ abortion amendment, support parental control over education and “get to the bottom” of election integrity concerns. There is no evidence of widespread election fraud in Kansas.

Independents do not have a track record of winning statewide elections in Kansas, but Pyle’s candidacy could cause problems for Schmidt by dividing voters on the right. In 2018, independent Greg Orman pulled 6.5 % of the vote, a total greater than Kelly’s 5-point victory over Kansas Republican nominee Kris Kobach.

Pyle has criticized the Schmidt for working with Democratic Gov. Kathleen Sebelius during his time as Senate majority leader in the 2000s.

“We now must launch our campaign to inform our neighbors about the stark differences between our conservative beliefs and the radically liberal public policy views of our two opponents, Kelly and Schmidt,” Pyle said. “They are two peas in a pod.”

In a statement Shannon Pahls, the executive director of the Kansas Republican Party, said in a statement that Pyle’s goal was to split the vote so Kelly would be reelected.

“Simply put: a vote for Dennis Pyle is a vote for Liberal Laura Kelly,” Pahls said.