Kansas Supreme Court Agrees to Take Democratic Senate Candidate off Ballot

The Kansas Supreme Court decided Thursday to take Chad Taylor — the Democratic nominee for Senate — off of this fall's ballot.

The Kansas Supreme Court decided Thursday to take Chad Taylor — the Democratic nominee for Senate — off of this fall's ballot.

Taylor tried to drop out of the race earlier this month when it become clear that independent Greg Orman had a better chance of beating incumbent Republican Sen. Pat Roberts. The state's Republican secretary of state, however, rejected Taylor's request earlier this month on the grounds that he never said why he was unfit to serve in the Senate.

A Tuesday poll from the left-leaning Public Policy Polling found that Orman led Roberts 41 percent to 34 percent, with Taylor pulling 6 percent. With Taylor off the ballot, Orman's lead would grow to 10 percent. That being the case, today's ruling is good news for Democrats. It's not clear whether Orman will vote, but as FiveThirtyEight noted, Orman and Taylor's ideologies are very similar and Orman ran as a Democrat against Sen. Roberts in 2008 before withdrawing.

And, of course, there's also the question of which party will control the Senate. Without Taylor pulling votes away from Orman, the possibility of Republicans losing a seat has risen dramatically.