Ty Masterson bragged, in his own words: “The Brownback Plan, which by the way, I wrote”
Looks up the ad's factual claims in fact-checkers, primary sources and wire reporting. Takes up to a minute.
Political ads · 2026 · KS
Kansas Governor 2026: the ads, and who's paying for them
Cindy Holscher (Democrat) and Ty Masterson (Republican) are the candidates for governor of Kansas in the November 3, 2026 general election. Semblen has analyzed 43 ads in this race; 16 used at least one manipulation technique, most often loaded language and name calling. Next date for voters: Registration deadline: Tue, Oct 13.
Cindy Holscher (DEM), Ty Masterson (REP). On the ballot as listed by Ballotpedia. 43 ads analyzed, 16 with at least one technique in the copy. Newest first. The paid-for-by line is the advertiser's own filing. Updated 2026-10-08.
How to vote in Kansas
From Kansas's official election office. Each line links to the official page it came from.
Next: Registration deadline: Tue, Oct 13 (in 5 days)
| Registration | Register by Tue, Oct 13Source: sos.ks.gov ↗ |
|---|---|
| Early voting in person | Varies by county; check your county’s schedule (Counties may start Oct 14 and all must start by Oct 27)Source: sos.ks.gov ↗Source: ksrevisor.gov ↗ |
| By mail | Anyone can vote by mail; request a ballot by Tue, Oct 27 (The Tuesday of the week before the general election (K.S.A. 25-1122(f)(1)(B))); return it by Tue, Nov 3 (By statute, ballots must be received by close of polls (normally 7 pm; counties may set 6 am-8 pm hours). A court injunction may extend this to Friday Nov 6 for ballots postmarked by Election Day; the appeal is pending.)Source: sos.ks.gov ↗Source: sos.ks.gov ↗Source: ksrevisor.gov ↗ |
| Election Day | Tue, Nov 3. Polls: 7:00 a.m. to 7:00 p.m.Source: sos.ks.gov ↗ |
| ID at the polls | Photo ID is required to vote in person. An ID with an expiration date must not be expired.Source: sos.ks.gov ↗ |
Checked October 6, 2026. Rules can change; confirm with the official site before you go.
Something wrong or out of date? Tell us
A person reads every report and fixes errors the same day.
Findings
As of 2026-10-08. Counts are of distinct ads; the same text run many times is one ad.
- Ads analyzed
- 43 (Meta 42, YouTube 1) · started running between 2026-07-07 and 2026-10-07
- With at least one technique
- 16 of 43 (37%)
- Most common techniques
- Loaded Language · 12 adsName Calling · 9 adsAppeal to Prejudice · 8 ads
- Meta
- 15 of 42 (36%) flagged · Loaded Language (12), Name Calling (9), Appeal to Prejudice (8)
- YouTube
- 1 of 1 flagged · Bandwagon Appeal (1), Flag-Waving (1), Glittering Generalities (1)
- Reported Meta spend
- $291,700–361,038 on all ads, $113,800–141,924 on flagged ads · Meta reports ranges; these are the sums of their ends
- Example
- “who will fight for” — Loaded Language, paid for by AMERICANS FOR PROSPERITY · the flagged ad with the highest reported spend that shows the most common technique
Embed this race on your site
A small box with these findings and the newest ads, updated as new ads are analyzed. Free for newsrooms, blogs and campaigns alike; it links back here.
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An email when new ads come in from either side or the outside groups: the techniques, the words doing the work, and who paid. And each debate's analysis the morning after. One-click unsubscribe.
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Who is running these ads
Each side is the campaign plus the groups backing it. How a group is placed is explained below the table.
| Side | Ads | With at least one technique | Most common |
|---|---|---|---|
| Holscher (D) | 12 | 7 of 12 (58%) | Loaded Language (4), Name Calling (3), Appeal to Fear (2) |
| All from the campaign; no ads here from groups placed on this side. | |||
| Masterson (R) | 14 | 0 of 14 (0%) | |
| All from the campaign; no ads here from groups placed on this side. | |||
| Not placed on a side (9 sponsors) | 17 | 9 of 17 (53%) | Loaded Language (8), Appeal to Prejudice (6), Name Calling (6) |
Read this before comparing the sides. Ads that attack an opponent use these techniques far more often than ads that introduce a candidate, whoever runs them, so the side running more attack ads shows a higher share. A technique is about wording, not about whether an ad is true. These are online ads only (Meta and YouTube), not television.
By sponsor (11)
| Paid for by | Side | Ads | With at least one technique | Most common |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Ty Masterson for Governor | Mastersonthe campaign | 14 | 0 of 14 (0%) | |
| Cindy Holscher for Kansas | Holscherthe campaign | 12 | 7 of 12 (58%) | Loaded Language (4), Name Calling (3), Appeal to Fear (2) |
| AMERICANS FOR PROSPERITY | — | 4 | 2 of 4 | Appeal to Prejudice (2), Glittering Generalities (2), Loaded Language (1) |
| Kansas United for Impartial Courts | — | 4 | 4 of 4 | Loaded Language (4), Name Calling (4), Appeal to Fear (3) |
| Philip Sarnecki for Governor | — | 3 | 2 of 3 | Loaded Language (2), Appeal to Fear (1), Appeal to Prejudice (1) |
| Cannabis Justice Coalition Inc | — | 1 | 0 of 1 | |
| Democratic Governors Association | — | 1 | 0 of 1 | |
| Heartland Priorities | — | 1 | 1 of 1 | Appeal to Prejudice (1), Card Stacking (1), Glittering Generalities (1) |
| Isaiah For Kansas | — | 1 | 0 of 1 | |
| Stand Up Blue Valley | — | 1 | 0 of 1 | |
| Whipple For Kansas | — | 1 | 0 of 1 |
How a group is placed: by its own filings with the Federal Election Commission. A group is with a candidate when it reported spending to support that candidate, or to oppose the other one in the general election. The parties' own committees are with their nominee. Spending against a candidate in a primary places a group nowhere, and neither does our reading of its ads: a group with no such filing is listed as not placed. The sponsor table gives the reason for each.
Decide what counts
Not everyone would call every technique manipulation. Untick the ones you'd call ordinary persuasion and the count updates.
37% of the 43 ads here use at least one of the techniques ticked below (16 ads).
- Words picked for the feeling, not the facts. More on loaded language, with examples →
- A label in place of an argument. More on name calling, with examples →
- Playing on dislike of a group. More on appeal to prejudice, with examples →
- Making you afraid so you stop weighing the facts. More on appeal to fear, with examples →
- Feel-good words with no concrete meaning. More on glittering generalities, with examples →
- Hinting at a hidden plot without evidence. More on conspiracy appeal, with examples →
- Only two choices when there are more. More on black-and-white fallacy, with examples →
- Blaming one group for a complex problem. More on scapegoating, with examples →
- "everyone's doing it" in place of a reason. More on bandwagon appeal, with examples →
- Pressure to act before you think. More on false urgency, with examples →
- Only the facts that help one side. More on card stacking, with examples →
- Blowing something up past what is true. More on exaggeration/hyperbole, with examples →
- Wrapping a position in patriotism.
- A catchy phrase in place of an argument.
Leaving out the softer ones (loaded language, glittering generalities, slogans, exaggeration, repetition): 33% of ads.
The words doing the work
The words that show up most in phrases our model flagged as loaded language or name calling in this race's ads, by number of ads.
- agenda in 3 ads · e.g. “keep his MAGA agenda out of the governor's office”, “extreme agendas”
- extreme in 3 ads · e.g. “extreme politics”, “extreme agendas”
- lackey in 3 ads · e.g. “MAGA lackey Ty Masterson”, “MAGA lackey”
- MAGA in 3 ads · e.g. “MAGA lackey Ty Masterson”, “MAGA lackey”
- politician in 3 ads · e.g. “dishonest career politician”, “clean up the mess that the politicians have created”
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Money in this race
Candidates for governor report their fundraising to Kansas's state campaign-finance office, not the FEC. This page doesn't cover those reports yet, so it shows no money figures.
The ads
43 ads, newest first. Video transcripts are shown as the model read them, without caption cues like [music].
Showing the 1 ad paid for by Democratic Governors Association. Show all 43 ads
Follow Cindy Holscher vs. Ty Masterson
An email when new ads come in from either side or the outside groups: the techniques, the words doing the work, and who paid. And each debate's analysis the morning after. One-click unsubscribe.
Semblen LLC · 5900 Balcones Drive STE 100, Austin, TX 78731
What this page is
- An ad is on this page because its own "Paid for by" line is a campaign in this race; or it ran mostly in KS and names a nominee for governor — unless its sponsor is a campaign for some other office (a U.S. Senate or House campaign included), or it also names KS's Senate nominees, in which case it is on the Senate race's page. Ads from outside groups appear alongside the campaigns' own.
- The candidates are the ones certified for the November ballot, from the source linked at the top. Governors are state offices, so there are no FEC filings behind this page: no money figures, and outside groups are placed on a side only when they are a campaign or a party committee.
- Campaigns run one text as many separate ads. Identical text from the same sponsor is one card here, marked with its number of variants.
- A technique is a specific manipulative move in the wording, found by our model and explained in one line. It is not a claim that the ad is false.
- Claims are checked when a reader asks: press "Check this ad's claims" on a card. The check runs once and its result is shown to everyone afterwards. The ten ads with the most money behind them in each race are checked ahead of time.
- Claim verdicts say what the cited sources say. A verdict that an ad is wrong or misleading is shown only when it cites an established fact-checker or an institutional record — Congress, a federal agency, a court — and its confidence is not low; a weaker one is not shown at all. Each verdict shows what it rests on and how confident it is. If we got one wrong, press Disagree: a verdict that readers dispute and no one defends comes down.
- Video ads come from the campaigns' own YouTube channels; the transcript is analyzed. Meta ads are analyzed on their text; their video and images are not, yet.