Illustration by Roberto Parada via Mother Jones

One Wednesday afternoon in mid-August, Govs. Sam Brownback of Kansas and Chris Christie of New Jersey stopped for a photo op-and $54 worth of pork ribs and sausages-at Oklahoma Joe’s, a gas station barbecue joint on the outer fringe of Kansas City. Along with hickory smoke and diesel fumes, there was a mild aroma of desperation in the air. Brownback’s approval ratings hovered in the mid-30s, and one recent poll had his Democratic opponent, state House Minority Leader Paul Davis, beating him by 10 points. Now Christie, the chair of the Republican Governors Association, had parachuted in to lend some star power as Brownback made a fundraising swing through the wealthy suburbs outside of Kansas City. A day earlier, the RGA had announced a $600,000 ad buy in support of Brownback. “We believe in Sam,” Christie assured the scrum of reporters who’d accompanied the governors to Oklahoma Joe’s.

That the RGA had been forced to mobilize reinforcements in Kansas spoke to just how imperiled […]