and ambassador sam brownback. before going any further, i want to extend our prayers and condolences to the victims of the tragic shooting in jacksonville florida. that was a terrible thing indeed and how it happens, nobody really knows. but they have done an incredible job down in jacksonville as they always do it or not and through -- always do in florida and throughout the country. condolences. also our hearts and prayers are going to the family of senator john mccain. will be a lot of activity on the next couple of days. we very much appreciate everything senator mccain has done for our country area [applause] we are here this evening to celebrate america's heritage of faith, family, and freedom. in recent years, the government tried to undermine religious freedom but the attacks on communities of faith are over area we ended it. unlike some before us, we are protecting religious liberty. last 18 months alone, we have stopped the johnson amendment mentor hearing with your first amendment rights. it's a big dea

the republican is sam brownback 2.0. this congressman is just like sam brownback and this state rep and they try to link everybody with him. and with governor colyer, it is easier to do, because he was brownback's lieutenant gov r nor. >> you have a big issue on your side, which is what happened with that voter fraud thing, which really seemed to have been a complete witch hunt from the outside. not only did your commission never deliver anything substantive in terms of finding voter fraud, but it seemed to be a fool's errand that the president wanted out there to forward his notion of millions of illegal votes that was never true. >> yeah, i couldn't disagree with you more. the commission was shut down because of more than a dozen lawsuits filed by groups from the left that didn't want the commission to do its work, and it became so hobbled by lawsuits that it had to shut down. but in the time that the commission was in existence, the commission pointed out more than a thousand cases of convictions for voter fraud, almo

and the party as a whole is not doing well because sam brownback, who only left because he was appointedident, was in horrible shape. >> 19% popularity. >> budget cuts. so people are not feeling good broadly about the republican party because of sam brownback and that situation there. if that is the case, and if we do have, remember, the democratic enthusiasm that's going on across the country, even in red states like kansas, that could make a difference. and it could hurt someone like chris kobach, and help a democrat become governor. when you look at the democratic governor, to build back the party that lost a thousand seats, and nationwide during the eight years of obama, the governor's mansions are where you've got to do it too. >> stand, by everyone, back to coverage in special election in ohio. too close to call. bringing in senior writer and analyst, here's harry enton. harry, thanks for joining us. balderson was up one point before trump came to ohio. what effect did the president really have? he's tweeting tonight claiming victory. what effect did he have in is. >> if he was up

on the republican side, as you said, we either have sam brownback's long-term lieutenant governor, his secondhand guy who was responsible for a lot of the economic downturn, cutting schools, cutting taxes, doing a number of things that sent the state into economic freefall or kris kobach, who is now nationally known as a strong anti-immigration, voter restriction, regressive politician who has been under court sanction and actually sent back to school by a judge. so either one of those individuals, i think, is not going to be a very attractive nominee for kansas. we know a strong woman can be elected in kansas. i served two terms, was elected twice in this state. i also got elected twice statewide as an insurance commissioner, so this is not hyperbole to say democrats who are pro choice and strongly positioned can win a seat in kansas. it's been done very recently and laura kelly is really well positioned to do that. the other thing i heard your other report about the 25 seats that are top -- >> i think we have a map that we can put up there or at least some results. that was very clos

republican and very conservative, the republicans have had a tough go of it in kansas because of sam brownback, the now former governor. lots of budget cuts, lots of issues. and his popularity is very low. and that is dragging republicans down. so they feel like they have a shot there. but i do think that it will be interesting before we kind of get to that point to see how successful the president is in this republican primary, if he is going to get the candidate of his choice. >> yeah. >> because he has a mixed bag on the general election, of course, on all these special elections. but republican primaries and the people whoa he endorse, the majority of them he has made a difference. mark sanford in south carolina. look what happened to martha roby in alabama. >> no downtown it. gloria borger, thank you. dana bash, we're going to keep an eye throughout the next hour and throughout the evening. just ahead, the stunning confession in the paul manafort trial. not from the defendant, but from his top aide who is testifying against him. the revelation came when he was under attack from one of man

votes, jeff colyer, that's the incumbent republican governor, he had been the lieutenant governor, sam brownback left colyer takes over sort of an unelected as governor at least, here's the key though to keep in mind. the outstanding vote in kansas is almost all in johnson county. we talk about those more upscale suburbs, college changed all that stuff. we talked about them in ohio right outside kansas city. colyer leading by 13 points. certainly on paper you look and say maybe colyer despite being behind but a very close race. joining me now jason johnson, from the root.com and msbc contributor. john podder ritz and jason. the president will try to find a way to declare victory with any of these. he's doing it in ohio tonight. maybe the republican party will be happy with that one. in can is if kobach were to win this thing, that is something the republican establishment doesn't want to see. >> the president is still the biggest loudest voice for the republican party. he can claim victories tonight and he has proven he can be successful in moving people in primaries. apparently trumpism only wo

the tenant governor for several years and took over for sam brownback in january when he took a position in the trump administration. he's supported by the state farm bureau, national rifle association, and the dean of kansas g.o.p. bob dole, longtime senate leader and the present he strikes a more moderate and measured tone. even running neck and neck with the kansas secretary of state fiscal back is aggressively anti-illegal immigration. quoted as being trump before trump was trump. also forced voters to bring identification to the polls. a federal judge, a federal judge appointed by president bush, struck it down as unconstitutional. just hours before the polls open, president trump tweeted his endorsement of chris goldbach. it may move some of his advisors and the republican governors association opposed. but he won kansas by 20 points a couple of years ago. his endorsements have been gold, 9 for 9 in people he backed in late elections. polls close at 7:00. shannon? >> shannon: thank you. in missouri, primary voters are setting up a key senate race with democrat incumbent claire mcca

. >>> kansas is very controversial republican governor sam brownback left office to take a job in theion. that elevated his lieutenant governor jeff colyer to the governor's seat. last he weekcombier had a primary to try to hold on to that seat. it was too close to call. it's been a very ugly week of fighting about that too close to call race all week long. but tonight jeff colyer sort of unexpectedly conceded. msnbc's steve kornacki's still with us. i was surprise that this happened tonight. it seemed like it was still too close to call. but this obviously has big implications in kansas. >> this is the outcome democrats were hoping for in kansas. within the state they think this gives them a shot at winning the governorship. nationally they think hey, if kobach is the face of the republican party nationally that's something that will help them nationally there will be a backlash against that potentially. let's look within kansas. kobach against the republican nominee will square off against laura kelly, the democratic candidate. the theory the democrats have is there are suburbs righ

interesting elements of chris kobach, education funding that's given democrats a boost in that state, sam brownbacks re-elect by four points in large part because of a tax plan he pushed through that the republican legislation repealed. chris kobach supports that tax plan. that has no support in the state right now and he's pushing to reimplement it. democrats feel like they have an opening there. can they win something? i will tell you in kansas keep an eye in two races, kansas 2 and kansas 3, those are two races to keep an eye on as democrats look at those 23 potential seats to try to flip the house in november. >> phil mattingly -- >> you made us much smarter. >> here all week on "early start," so wake up early. >> very early. >> set your alarm for 4:00 a.m. >> the show is half over by then. you have to set it for 2. i know from experience. >> yes, you do. >> tune in tonight to cnn for complete election results starting at 8:00 p.m. eastern. >>> after his war of words with the president, lebron james has a new project looking at the role of athletes in the current political climate, timing is ev

people will be thinking about sam brownback and his experiment when trying to figure out how to votehink democrats could win that state? >> a lot of folks in kansas. a lot pflof polling showing the people don't feel the state is going in the right direction. and i think you'll have people really looking at something else and that's what a lot of people are seeing. >> what do you tell a republican who calls you up and says trump carried my district by six points. i feel good but my democratic challenger is raising more money than me. >> stop feeling good. stop feeling good. if you -- even if you think you've got an okay shot at winning, you need to run like you are many, many points down. you need to remind your core voters why they should turn out. if republicans even have a slight dip in turnout from what they're used to in midterms, that's what the democratic wave is going to crash over. >> what else did we see last night? >> a lot of women candidates winning in all kinds of races in primaries. by 2 to 1, you see women winning -- we've talked about this before. women winning their

sam brownback is now in the trump administration and there's nobody that symbolizes the face right nowary kobach is farther right of the party and while colyer is conservative, he is a little hesitant to quite inherent that brownback mantle considering how controversial brownback's tenure was in the state. >> so handicap this for us a little bit. we've seen some polling that shows kobach would be a weaker candidate than colyer. we have the independent businessman greg orman who many people thought was sort of ran as a de facto democrat against pat roberts back in 2014. so you have a democratic nominee, someone who is thought of as a de facto democrat and the republican nominee. what happens here? >> well, again, it's really not clear. the question gets, okay, would orman take away votes from somebody like kobach. you look at somebody like state senator laura kelly, she has forged a record of working with moderate republicans in the legislature. she's well liked by both democrats and moderate ri republicans and that's something orman doesn't have. he doesn't have that list of legislativ

his opponent, the incumbent governor right now who took over for sam brownback is essentially portraying-- his campaign is essentially portraying him as the only one who can defeat democrats in the general election. that's a remarkable thing to say in often is deep, red state. who is basically trying to signal to voters, this guy is so toxic, he's a republican who could lose in kansas right now. that's the battle, but i would still say kobach is probably the favorite. >> and there's the "x" factor, greg orman running as an independent. sahil coo pookapur, thank you s for your insights today. >> thank you. >>> up next, president trump's latest move to dismantle obamacare. he's pushing a type of health care coverage that some are calling junk insurance. after the break, we'll break down what the plans really cover. you're watching msnbc. ade for better things than rheumatoid arthritis. before you and your rheumatologist move to another treatment, ask if xeljanz xr is right for you. xeljanz xr is a once-daily pill for adults with moderate to severe ra for whom methotrexate did not work well

votes, jeff colyer, that's the incumbent republican governor, he had been the lieutenant governor, sam brownback left colyer takes over sort of an unelected as governor at least, here's the key though to keep in mind. the outstanding vote in kansas is almost all in johnson county. we talk about those more upscale suburbs, college changed all that stuff. we talked about them in ohio right outside kansas city. colyer leading by 13 points. certainly on paper you look and say maybe colyer despite being behind but a very close race. joining me now jason johnson, from the root.com and msbc contributor. john podder ritz and jason. the president will try to find a way to declare victory with any of these. he's doing it in ohio tonight. maybe the republican party will be happy with that one. in can is if kobach were to win this thing, that is something the republican establishment doesn't want to see. >> the president is still the biggest loudest voice for the republican party. he can claim victories tonight and he has proven he can be successful in moving people in primaries. apparently trumpism only wo

on october 3, we have ambassador sam brownback from the state department, former governor of kansas, former senator from kansas, who is the ambassador at large for religious freedom who will address us on that subject at that time. the speakerthe westminster instd the tonight, dr. sebastian gorka, is no stranger to this precinct. [applause] in eithern associated a direct or indirect way since westminster institute began. for no every series -- for no other reason, his wife was the executive director for the first five years. [applause] the number of the fine publications you will see on the table are because of her work, the conference she put on, the papers that came from it, and the books she edited, including her own work and chapters by sebastian, as well. welcome back, both of you. dr. gorka needs much of an introduction. he is the former deputy assistant to president trump. on fox news and many other networks. he is also the best selling author of defeating jihad, the winnable war, which is available for sale and the authors signature on the table outside. i'm sure he will be h

the republicans are not in good owner in kansas sam brownback had to leave.ch he took the state government there about taxes and other things that blew up. it put the republicans in a bad spot. they were trying to moderate. kobach is coming back and he is now the republicans are going to double down. it's going to be hot, a hot, hot shooting war out there. >> all right. well we have to get out there and see what's going on. let me ask you about these other races there was a primary yesterday there were other changes that the cook political report did. i'm looking up here big beautiful board easy to read. three districts lean from republican to toss-up and one district moves from likely republican to lean republican. but one bit of good news i guess for the g.o.p. is that carlos can seat toss-up to republican. we haven't seen too many changes go that way. cobello must be doing something right in his district. >> he is. it does not look like he is necessarily going to get the kind of challenger that could be ideal to make that race competitive and kabello is a

guest: that is a hot race between governor jeff collier, who ascended when sam brownback went to joinhe administration. he is running against kris kobach, who president trump has asked to be a part of his election commission and president trump and joist -- endorsed at the end. democrats nominated state senator laura kelly, and depending on the scenario, democrats feel good because if you win against kris kobach, you have a polarizing individual has been unabashed in his support for the president, but if you have colyer, you have someone who was lieutenant governor under sam brownback, who was an unpopular governor. so republicans will have to spend time and money defending the kansas governorship. host: has the president himself weighed in on this? guest: he did for kobach at the end, so we will see if that is enough to push him over the top. on twitter, how long will he be in office before he faces another election, was this mandated by state law? and adding that this seems like a huge waste of money in all. whoever wins, once they are certified, will be sworn in, and this election

collier served seven years at lieutenant governor and elevated after president trump made governor sam brownbackmbassador. trump's endorsement of kobach monday night put him over the edge according to the "new york times," a private tracking poll so he went from even in the race with collier to up seven points after trump weighed in. in michigan, republicans nominated another trump endorsed candidate. john james for u.s. senate. james faces an uphill battle against democratic senator debbie stabenow, and in washington's eighth district, republican dino rossi advances in the race for an open republican-held seat clinton won as democrat kim schreyer leads another democrat who who gets to head the general election. >> steve kornacki, professor pearson who would ask us a question that would always be a setup. you knew you were about to get run over and he said, you should see the next question coming at you like a slow-motion low motive, coming out of a tunnel. right at you. well, you could, you could say the same about the republican party's fortune. in fact, we've all been talking about it for a y