Ty Masterson

Subject: Ty Masterson, Republican nominee for governor of Kansas, 2026, president of the Kansas Senate from Andover Compiled: October 27, 2026 for the On Point Politics watchdog database, onpointpolitics.us Data cutoff: July 23, 2026 for state ethics commission filings. Outside spending through October 26, 2026. Next scheduled data drop: The Kansas pre-general candidate report due October 26, 2026, which was not yet retrieved for this file.

Bottom line up front

Masterson won a seven candidate Republican primary on August 4, 2026 with 43 percent, carried by President Trump's endorsement, per the Kansas Reflector on October 20, 2026, newsfromthestates.com. Trump reaffirmed it at a Park City rally on October 19.

His July report shows $766,535.24 raised from January 1 to July 23, 2026, $1,023,845.63 spent, and $430,211.71 left, per his filing, kansas.gov. That is about $365,000 more cash than Holscher held on the same date.

Three interests combine money and a decision:

1. The RGA. Right Direction PAC reserved about $6.9 million against Holscher.
2. The data center and AI industry. Building the Future, an offshoot of Leading the Future, is spending more than $1.5 million for him. He voted for SB 98, the 20 year data center sales tax exemption, and defends it.
3. Agriculture. The Kansas Farm Bureau PAC, the Kansas Grain and Feed Association and the Kansas Agribusiness Retailers Association endorsed him. The lever is the property tax cap.

Committee structure and treasurer

The candidate committee files as Ty Masterson for Governor, filer code SW01TM, with Tom Devlin as treasurer. His nonprofit, Take Back Kansas, entered 2026 with $700,000, per the Kansas Reflector on January 19, 2026, newsfromthestates.com. That article does not say whether the nonprofit is tied to the campaign. His running mate is Sen. Jeff Klemp of Leavenworth.

Vendors on the July report: Brabender Cox for radio and TV placement, $200,000 on June 4 and further payments the scan shows as about $383,787 and a $208,802 commission, and LW Gillis & Co for fundraising, about $32,601. Only the $200,000 line parsed cleanly.

Bloc: Party and leadership

Documented. Right Direction PAC reserved about $6.9 million from the end of the primary through the general, per the Sunflower State Journal on August 5, 2026, sunflowerstatejournal.com. Its ads hit Holscher on property taxes, California and trans care. In the primary, three groups booked a little over $1 million in one day on June 23, 2026, including Farmers First Fund, a Virginia entity with no listed officers that was expected to back him, and a PAC linked to Masterson.

Inference: The RGA reservation is about two and a half times the DGA's KVI reservation, so the outside money gap favors him more than the candidate cash gap does.

Bloc: AI industry and data centers

Documented. Building the Future is spending more than $1.5 million for him, per a person familiar who spoke to NBC News on October 26, 2026, yahoo.com. Leading the Future is funded heavily by Marc Andreessen, Ben Horowitz and OpenAI's Greg Brockman, per TechCrunch on August 31, 2026. NetChoice requested the bill that became SB 98, and NetChoice president Steve DelBianco gave Masterson $8,000, per the Kansas Reflector on October 9, 2026, hppr.org. Holscher claims IT and AI interests have put nearly $1 million into his campaign. That claim was not checked against filings. Evergy Metro gave $4,000 on July 23, 2026.

What they want. Keep the SB 98 exemption and local siting control. He says data centers should pay full electricity costs in every KCC rate case, opposes eminent domain for them, and wants a security review to block Chinese technology.

Inference: His ratepayer pledge answers the attack without touching the tax break the industry values most.

Bloc: Agriculture and allied labor

Documented. Kansas Farm Bureau PAC, the Kansas Grain and Feed Association and the Kansas Agribusiness Retailers Association endorsed him, along with SMART Transportation Division, IBEW Local 124 and the Kansas State Council of Fire Fighters, per the Kansas Reflector on October 12, 2026, kansasreflector.com. His property tax plan caps growth in taxable assessed value at 3 percent or less a year by constitutional amendment.

Inference: A valuation cap protects existing farm and home owners most, and critics say it shifts the burden to new buyers and commercial property.

Positions and record

He served in the House from 2005 to 2009, in the Senate since, and as Senate president since 2021. He negotiated the 2024 tax plan with Speaker Dan Hawkins and Gov. Laura Kelly, voted to bar transgender girls from girls' sports, and blocked university diversity programs, per KCUR on October 14, 2026. He backs tax credit scholarships and a Mississippi style literacy push. He declined further televised debates.

Own finances and disclosure history

He is director of GoCreate, a Wichita State University makerspace KWCH describes as Koch Foundation funded. His salary was $163,000 in 2025 and $217,350 in 2026 per the WSU budget, per KWCH on July 13, 2026, kwch.com. Reports put his GoCreate pay at more than $1 million since 2017. He took unpaid leave from August 17, 2026, and his spokesman says he will leave the post on taking office. His legislative salary is about $85,000, per Holscher and the DGA. He was a contractor and owner of Masterbuilt homes and filed personal bankruptcy in 2010 after it failed. No statement of substantial interests was retrieved.

Enforcement and controversies

• GoCreate no-show charge. Contested. Rivals and the DGA call it a no-show job. WSU says his duties go beyond office presence. Masterson says the work is administrative and he is on site two or three days a week at times.
• State ethics complaint. Dismissed. Former Sen. Mark Steffan, a Sarnecki backer, alleged campaigning on public time. The state commission dismissed it before the primary. The campaign called it bunk, per KWCH on August 11, 2026.
• Brownback quote. Contested. A DGA ad quotes him saying he wrote the Brownback plan. He says the clip was chopped and referred to a 2007 or 2008 ratchet idea. An Emporia State expert says he shepherded the plan but did not write it.

Deal table

Levers and calendar

Calendar. The election is November 3, 2026. The new governor takes office in January 2027 with the 2027 session.

What we could not verify

• Itemized donors above $4,000; Crossland related gifts on June 16 could not be matched to amounts. Most Brabender Cox amounts parsed from scanned text.
• The October 26 pre-general report.
• Take Back Kansas filings and donors; Farmers First Fund funders; Kansas Comeback PAC funders.
• The Koch Foundation's dollar support for GoCreate.
• His response to the bankruptcy attack. His statement of substantial interests.
• Bodies not read or only partly read: paywalled Sunflower State Journal stories of June 23, June 30, August 5, August 13 and September 29, 2026; the Kansas City Star GoCreate story, seen only as quoted by the DGA at democraticgovernors.org; kctv5.com not viewed; the Washington Examiner report of his seven figure ad buy, seen only via multistate.us.