it s been an ugly week of fighting about that all week long. tonight, jeff colyer unexpectedly conceded. msnbc s steve kornacki is still with us. i was prized this happened tonight. it seemed like it was still too close to call. this has big implications. this is the outcome democrats were hoping for. they think this gives them a shot at winning the governorish. they think if kobaching is the face of the party nationally, there will be a backlash against that. kobach now as the republican nominee squares off against laura kelly. there are suburbs right around kansas city, johnson county, kansas in particular a quarter of all votes in the giant state of kansas will come out of this one county, bedroom community right outside kc. traditional republican voters say those voters would be unnerved by kobach.
the incumbent conceding the race a week after the election took place. it was a close race. alexi and jeff are back with me. alexi, what do you make of the trump factor? how strong is it? what does it say about what we could see in november? take a look at what happened with pawlenty. that is the interesting thing. while the president s candidates and preferred people are winning, he is turning long-shot candidates into stars overnight, winning the primaries. they may not be as competitive in the general. kris kobach thinks they can be competitive, more than they would have been against colyer, but the president gets what he wants. that is something current members of congress are watching. they have no room to deviate from being loyal to him if they want to keep their seats and win. the kris kobach race was very close. he pulled it out. his challenger conceded last night. how big of a victory is that for the president? it is a big victory for the president. he sort of weighed in
learn more at theexplorercard.com happy tuesday. it is primary night tonight. we re watching returns roll in from four states. for the latest, steve kornacki. rachel, yeah, another big primary night. headlines for you. let s start with the biggest headline. there was a surprise tonight. it was in minnesota. tim pawlenty it, form other two-term governor of minnesota, former presidential candidate in 2012, he said he banned to make a comeback bid this year to get his old job as governor back. he is not going to get that job back because he has lost the republican primary for governor of minnesota tonight. tim pawlenty losing hanleyly, nearly ten points to jeff johnson. who is jeff johnson in the republican nominee for governor four years ago in 2014.
there is polling evidence to back up that theory. a poll tested two different republican nominees colyer and kobach against kelly. check this out. here s what it found. colyer the incumbent governor was running ten points ahead of you see the independent. that s a name you might remember from 2014. republicans with colyer were up ten. sub suit. kelly the democrat goes up by one. down ten for the democrats, up one, democrats say that s difference of having kobach and look, you get a midterm year in a climate favorable would help, too. a todd akin situation is what democrats are looking at there. thank you very much. much appreciated. we ll be right back. stay with us.
that was a very good year for republicans nationally. johnson lost that race by six points. he decided to run again. he has defeated tim pawlenty. this the upset of the night. a fascinating race in terms of what it tells us where the republican party is. back in 2016, when donald trump was running for president tim pawlenty called him unhinged and unqualified. jeff johnson said of trump back then, something i can t say on television i m pretty sure. when they campaigned against each other in this primary in 2018, they both debated over who meant what they said new 201 less. jeff johnson tried to get to the right of pawlenty. who he face in the general election? congressman tim walz from the southern part of the minnesota has won the democratic nomination for governor in this state tonight. defeating his opponents. an interesting race in the sense there was some doubt about walz,