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2026 candidates we're tracking in KS-2
Derek Schmidt
Top priorities
- Border security and community safety
- Curb federal spending and extend tax relief for families, small businesses, and farmers
- Support law enforcement and victims of crime
Per the campaign site.
About Derek Schmidt
Derek Schmidt, of Independence, is the sitting U.S. Representative for this district and the Republican nominee for re-election, taking about 79% of the August 4 Republican vote. He served 12 years as Kansas attorney general before winning this seat and personally argued three cases before the U.S. Supreme Court. He now serves on the House Armed Services, Judiciary, and Small Business committees, per his campaign site.
Don Coover
Top priorities
- Make housing, food, and health care more affordable
- Protect Medicare and support rural hospitals
- End insider practices such as political stock trading and no-bid contracts
Per the campaign site.
About Don Coover
Don Coover is the Democratic nominee for this district, unopposed on the August 4 ballot. He is a veterinarian and Army veteran from Galesburg, a West Point graduate who served as an infantry officer with the 1st Infantry Division and later as an Army pilot in Korea before earning his veterinary degree from Kansas State University and returning to the Army with its K-9 units, per KCUR's district guide and his campaign site. He now runs a cattle genetics company and a livestock veterinary practice.
John Hauer
Top priorities
- Eliminating the federal income tax and drastically cutting spending
- Bringing all troops home and closing foreign military bases
- Attacking inflation, which he ties to federal waste
Per the campaign site.
About John Hauer
A delivery driver and warehouse worker in Topeka and an Iraq War veteran with two deployments, per the Kansas News Service. He is the Libertarian nominee for this district and runs a self funded campaign that does not accept donations, per the Kansas News Service. Libertarian nominees are chosen at party convention and appear on the November 3 ballot only, per the Kansas Secretary of State.
About this race
Kansas's 2nd Congressional District elects one member of the U.S. House of Representatives to a two-year term. Every House seat in the country is on the ballot in 2026. The Kansas primary is Tuesday, August 4, 2026, and the general election is Tuesday, November 3, 2026.