Kansas Gov. Sam Brownback on his growing unpopularity: It's Obama's fault!

The GOP guv in the reddest of red states fared poorly in the primary, which is apparently the president's doing

Published August 7, 2014 7:37PM (EDT)

  (AP/Charlie Riedel)
(AP/Charlie Riedel)

After launching a truly radical program to turn his state into a conservative utopia, Gov. Sam Brownback now finds himself in an unusual position: He's a Republican politician in blood-red Kansas, and he very well could lose reelection.

Following a relatively poor showing in his party's primary election (in which nearly a third of voters cast a protest vote against him), Brownback attempted to explain his growing unpopularity by relying on a tried and true method for embattled Republicans everywhere — he blamed Obama.

"I think a big part of it is Barack Obama," Brownback said, referring to his only securing two-thirds of the primary vote. "[A] lot of people are so irritated at what the president is doing, they want somebody to throw a brick."

Brownback continued: "I think it's a lot of deep irritation with the way the president has taken the country, so much so that people are so angry about it they're just trying to express it somehow."

Why Kansas voters would be so irrational as to punish Brownback, who in many ways represents everything Obama does not, for the president's sins, the governor did not say.

[h/t TPM]


By Elias Isquith

Elias Isquith is a former Salon staff writer.

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Barack Obama Conservative Gop Kansas Republican Party Sam Brownback Tea Party