If a Kansas governor or lieutenant governor candidate dies or drops out after filing but before the deadline, can the other one just find a new running mate and stay on the ballot?

Plain-English summary

The Kansas Secretary of State asked what happens when one member of a Governor/Lieutenant Governor candidacy, having already obtained ballot access by filing a declaration and paying the filing fee, withdraws or dies before the filing deadline passes. No statute directly addresses this exact gap in time.

The Attorney General concluded the candidacy simply ends. Kansas requires the Governor and Lieutenant Governor to run and be elected as a joint "pair," and K.S.A. 25-4004 only puts a candidacy on the ballot once both members have qualified. The opinion contrasted this silent gap with two points in the process where the Legislature did write in a fix: after the filing deadline but before the primary (K.S.A. 25-3906), and after the primary (K.S.A. 25-3905), both of which let a surviving Governor candidate carry on and fill a Lieutenant Governor vacancy, or send the ticket to a party convention. Because the Legislature built those safety valves for later-stage vacancies but wrote nothing for a vacancy occurring between filing and the deadline, the opinion concluded lawmakers meant for the candidacy to terminate at that stage rather than continue. The surviving candidate remains free to team up with someone new, but that new pairing is legally a fresh candidacy that must independently satisfy every ballot-access requirement, including paying the full filing fee again with no credit for the fee already paid.

What this means for you

Candidates and campaign staff for Governor or Lieutenant Governor: the opinion holds that if your running mate withdraws or dies after you've filed but before the filing deadline, your original candidacy is over. You can find a new running mate, but you must file all over again as a new joint candidacy and pay the full filing fee a second time; there is no refund or credit for the fee already paid.

Election officials processing these filings: the opinion confirms there is no statutory basis to treat a post-vacancy replacement filing as a continuation of the original candidacy, so it should be processed as an entirely new filing subject to the ordinary requirements.

Common questions

Does the surviving candidate get any credit toward the new filing fee?
No. The opinion points out that K.S.A. 25-306d(b) already bars refunding a filing fee after a pre-deadline withdrawal, and nothing in K.S.A. 25-4006 allows splitting or crediting part of a filing fee to a different candidacy.

Is this different from what happens if the vacancy occurs later, like after the primary?
Yes. The opinion notes that K.S.A. 25-3906 and K.S.A. 25-3905 both provide statutory mechanisms, a convention or an automatic fill-in by the surviving Governor candidate, for vacancies that occur after the filing deadline. The gap only exists for vacancies between initial filing and the filing deadline itself.

Background and statutory framework

Kan. Const. art. 1, § 1 and K.S.A. 25-4003 require Kansas's Governor and Lieutenant Governor to be nominated and elected jointly as a single ticket. K.S.A. 25-4004 governs primary ballot access for a candidacy that files a declaration and pays a fee rather than gathering nominating petitions, and only prints a candidacy's names on the ballot once each "pair" has qualified. K.S.A. 25-306a lets either member of a pair formally withdraw before the filing deadline, and the opinion read that withdrawal (or an equivalent death) as breaking the "pair" needed for ballot access.

The opinion then surveyed how the Legislature handled vacancies at later stages to show it knows how to write a fix when it wants one: K.S.A. 25-3906(d)-(e) covers vacancies after the filing deadline but before the primary, sending a fully vacant ticket to a party convention while letting a surviving Governor candidate absorb a Lieutenant Governor vacancy directly; K.S.A. 25-3905(c) does the same for vacancies after the primary election. Because no comparable provision exists for a vacancy occurring in the narrow window between initial filing and the filing deadline, the opinion applied the interpretive principle that courts (and the Attorney General) should not read language into a statute that is not there, and concluded the candidacy simply terminates in that scenario. K.S.A. 25-4006 sets the filing fee for the joint candidacy as a single, indivisible sum tied to one year's gubernatorial and lieutenant gubernatorial salary, with no statutory mechanism to transfer any part of a terminated candidacy's fee to a new one.

Citations and references

Statutes:
- Kan. Const. art. 1, § 1
- K.S.A. 25-4003, 25-4004, 25-4006
- K.S.A. 25-306a, 25-306d(b)
- K.S.A. 25-3906 (incl. (d), (e))
- K.S.A. 25-3905(c)
- K.S.A. 25-3908

Cases:
- Grogan v. Graves, 1990 WL 182377 (D. Kan. 1990)
- N. Nat. Gas Co. v. ONEOK Field Servs. Co., 296 Kan. 906 (2013)
- State v. Nambo, 295 Kan. 1 (2012)
- State v. Crawford, 39 Kan. App. 2d 897 (2008)
- Anderson v. Celebrezze, 460 U.S. 780 (1983)

Source

• Landing page: https://www.ag.ks.gov/reports-resources/ag-opinions
• Original PDF: https://www.ag.ks.gov/home/showpublisheddocument/24628/638920572028270000

Original opinion text

The full opinion as issued by the Office of the Kansas Attorney General:

August 29, 2025

ATTORNEY GENERAL OPINION NO. 2025-19

The Honorable Scott Schwab
Kansas Secretary of State
Memorial Hall, 1st Floor
120 SW 10th Ave.
Topeka, Kansas 66604

Re: Elections—Election and Terms of State Officers—Governor and Lieutenant Governor; Nomination and Election Jointly

Elections—Election and Terms of State Officers—Governor and Lieutenant Governor; Filing of Nomination Petitions or Declaration of Intention to Become Candidates; Deadline for Filing

Elections—Election and Terms of State Officers—Governor and Lieutenant Governor; Declaration; Fee

Synopsis: Because the candidates for Governor and Lieutenant Governor run together as a joint candidacy, a vacancy in one slot terminates the candidacy unless state law provides a means for filling the vacancy. When the vacancy occurs after the candidacy has filed for the primary election but before the filing deadline, the remaining member cannot fill the vacancy because no statute authorizes him to do so. But he may re-file as part of a new candidacy, which must fulfill all the statutory requirements for ballot access, including paying the full filing fee when submitting a declaration of intention to become candidates. Cited herein: K.S.A. 25-4003; 25-4004; 25-4006.

Dear Secretary Schwab:

As Kansas Secretary of State, you ask about the appropriate course of action when one member of a Governor/Lieutenant Governor candidacy that has already filed for office withdraws or dies before the filing deadline has passed. In your scenario, the candidacy has obtained ballot access by filing a declaration of intention to become candidates and paying the requisite filing fee, as opposed to relying on nominating petitions.1 As you note, no statute addresses this precise situation. But other statutes shed light on the proper procedure.2 We conclude that when one member of the candidacy withdraws or dies after filing but before the filing deadline, the candidacy terminates. And while the other member may re-file as part of a new candidacy—and pay the full filing fee if he does—he cannot fill the vacancy in his original candidacy.

1 See K.S.A. 25-4004.
2 We must consider the relevant statutes "in pari materia with a view of reconciling and bringing [them] into workable harmony if possible" while construing the "statutes to avoid unreasonable or absurd results." N. Nat. Gas Co. v. ONEOK Field Servs. Co., 296 Kan. 906, 918, 296 P.3d 1106 (2013).

In Kansas, the Governor and Lieutenant Governor "shall be nominated and elected jointly."3 In other words, "voters must select a 'team.'"4 K.S.A. 25-4004 governs primary ballot access for the candidacy, and it provides that "[t]he names of candidates . . . shall be printed upon the official primary ballot when each pair thereof shall have qualified to become candidates." If one member of the candidacy departs and there is a formal withdrawal under K.S.A. 25-306a, then there is no remaining "pair" to put on the ballot.5 The candidacy thus terminates barring some other provision of state law. Statutes that address vacancies at other points—after the filing deadline but before the primary election, and then after the primary election—bear this out.

3 Kan. Const. art. 1, § 1; see also K.S.A. 25-4003 ("The candidates for governor and lieutenant governor shall be nominated and elected jointly as provided in this act.").
4 Grogan v. Graves, No. CIV.A. 90-2378-O, 1990 WL 182377, at *3 (D. Kan. Oct. 30, 1990).
5 K.S.A. 25-306a provides that "[a]ny person who has been nominated to be a candidate at any primary election for any . . . state . . . office may cause such person's name to be withdrawn from nomination" by filing a qualifying written request with the Secretary of State before the filing deadline. And "[n]o name so withdrawn shall be printed on the ballots for such office for such primary election." Id. Because the statute uses "person," we interpret this statute to enable either member of a Governor/Lieutenant Governor candidacy to withdraw and thereby terminate the candidacy. And we believe this statute governs withdrawals for candidacies even if they obtain ballot access by submitting a declaration and paying a filing fee. Although the statute uses "nominated," it expressly references the deadline for "the declaration of intent to become a candidate." Id. And K.S.A. 25-306d(b) precludes the Secretary of State from refunding the "filing fee" when a person has "withdraw[n] from candidacy pursuant to K.S.A. 25-306a."

• K.S.A. 25-3906 governs vacancies that occur after the filing deadline but before the primary election.

o Subsection (d) provides that if the vacancy causes a party to "not hav[e] a pair" running in the primary election, then "a vacancy shall thereby also occur for the other two of such offices," and these "vacancies shall be filled" at a state party convention.6 However, "[i]f the initial vacancy" is in the Lieutenant Governor slot, then the original Governor candidate "shall be the only governor candidate at such convention."7

o Subsection (e) provides that when there is at least one other pair running for the party's nomination, the Governor candidate "shall" fill a vacancy in the Lieutenant Governor slot.8

6 K.S.A. 25-3906(d).
7 Id.
8 K.S.A. 25-3906(e).

• K.S.A. 25-3905(c) addresses vacancies that occur after the primary election in the same manner as K.S.A. 25-3906(d): Both positions are declared vacant to be filled at a party convention, and the Governor candidate "shall be the only governor candidate at such convention" if the vacancy is in the Lieutenant Governor slot.9

9 K.S.A. 25-3905(c).

As shown by these statutes, in certain situations the Legislature has chosen to "save" the ballot access of the candidacy from an otherwise fatal vacancy, either through a convention or a selection.10 But without a statutory procedure, the candidacy terminates. This is best illustrated by K.S.A. 25-3906(e), which addresses vacancies that occur after the filing deadline when more than one candidacy has filed for the same party nomination. While a Governor candidate may fill a vacancy in the Lieutenant Governor slot, no similar provision addresses a vacancy in the Governor slot—there is no elevation, convention, or selection. Instead, the candidacy simply ends.

10 See also K.S.A. 25-3908 (listing the three statutory methods for filling vacancies).

The same holds true for the situation you describe: There is no statutory means for saving the candidacy when a vacancy occurs post-filing and pre-deadline, and it would be inappropriate to "read into the statute language not readily found there."11 The Legislature knows how to prescribe a procedure for allowing a candidacy to continue, and it did not include one for this scenario.12 While the remaining member is free to find another running mate and pursue ballot access, he must do so as part of a new candidacy.13

11 State v. Nambo, 295 Kan. 1, 3, 281 P.3d 525 (2012) (quotation marks omitted).
12 See State v. Crawford, 39 Kan. App. 2d 897, 899, 185 P.3d 315 (2008) ("The maxim expressio unius est exclusio alterius, i.e., the inclusion of one thing implies the exclusion of another, may be applied to assist in determining actual legislative intent which is not otherwise manifest." (quotation marks omitted)).
13 As a practical matter, we note that pre-deadline vacancies do not pose the same issues as post-deadline and post-primary vacancies. Before the filing deadline, the lineup of candidates is still fluid, and it is just as easy for the remaining member to access the ballot through a new candidacy as it is for any other candidacy to access the ballot.

We now turn to the filing fee. Because a pre-filing-deadline vacancy terminates the candidacy, the remaining member may become part of a new candidacy. This candidacy must follow the same rules as any other candidacy to obtain ballot access, including paying any filing fee. There is no statutory provision for crediting a new candidacy with all or part of the filing fee that was paid by a terminated candidacy,14 nor is there any indication that early filers should receive preferential treatment if the candidacy later falls apart.15

14 See Nambo, 295 Kan. at 3. In fact, K.S.A. 25-306d(b) prevents the Secretary of State from refunding filing fees when there is a pre-deadline withdrawal. The Legislature considered the fate of filing fees after withdrawals, and it did not permit the fees to be credited to another candidacy.
15 Cf. Anderson v. Celebrezze, 460 U.S. 780, 788 n.9 (1983) (recognizing the importance of "generally-applicable and evenhanded restrictions that protect the integrity and reliability of the electoral process").

K.S.A. 25-4006 governs the filing fee for "candidates for governor and lieutenant governor," and it treats all candidacies equally. It sets the filing fee at "a sum equal to the total of 1% of one year's salary for governor and 1% of one year's salary for lieutenant governor."16 Thus, the candidacy must pay a single indivisible fee. Although the fee is determined by the salary for each position, there is no indication that the fee may be broken up so that part of it could be credited to another candidacy.

16 K.S.A. 25-4006 (emphasis added).

As with filling a vacancy, the Legislature could have provided an avenue for allowing all or part of a filing fee to roll over to a new candidacy. But it did not. Accordingly, a new candidacy cannot receive any credit for a previous candidacy's filing fee.

In sum, when one member of a Governor/Lieutenant Governor candidacy withdraws or dies after the candidacy has filed for office but before the filing deadline, the candidacy terminates. And while the remaining member is free to pursue a new candidacy with a new running mate, his candidacy must follow the statutory requirements to obtain ballot access, including paying the whole filing fee.

Sincerely,

/s/ Kris W. Kobach

Kris W. Kobach
Attorney General

/s/ Adam T. Steinhilber

Adam T. Steinhilber
Assistant Solicitor General