Scott Schwab cruises in Kansas secretary of state primary. What's it mean for election misinformation?

Secretary of State Scott Schwab brushed aside a primary bid from a conservative supporter of election conspiracy theories, the latest statewide elections official to survive such a challenge nationally.

Schwab defeated former Johnson County Commissioner Mike Brown handily, despite Brown's backing from a host of conservative organizations and state lawmakers.

The result is a sign that while unfounded concerns about election integrity and fraud are growing in prominence in Kansas, they haven't necessarily taken over the state Republican Party.

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Still, Brown's bid drew legitimate traction. He has gone on the offensive in recent days, criticizing Schwab over a Kansas Court of Appeals ruling taking him to task for dodging  an open records request seeking provisional ballot data from the 2020 election.

Brown got a $60,000 boost from the Virginia-based Election Integrity PAC and spent $84,000 since Jan. 1 on his campaign.

But Schwab spent over twice as much in that same time period, was backed by party establishment luminaries, including former Gov. Sam Brownback, and has maintained that he has been effective on election security issues.

Brown's platform, by contrast, has been based on eliminating ballot drop boxes, tightening restrictions on mail voting and enhancing election audits, though some of those items are the purview of the Legislature, not the secretary of state's office.

More: Secretary of State Scott Schwab broke open records law in provisional ballot ask: Court

He has argued there is evidence of fraud in the 2020 election, pointing to the fact that President Joe Biden won Johnson County, the first Democrat to do so in a presidential election in over 100 years.

Bob Beatty, professor of political science at Washburn University, said Schwab's victory shows this type of rhetoric isn't as popular as initially believed.

"It's possible the Trump election denial message is losing some steam in Kansas," he said.

Andrew Bahl is a senior statehouse reporter for the Topeka Capital-Journal. He can be reached at abahl@gannett.com or by phone at 443-979-6100.

This article originally appeared on Topeka Capital-Journal: Amid Kansas election misinformation, Scott Schwab wins re-nomination