MISSION, Kan. (AP) — Republicans looking to protect their majority in the U.S. Senate have been unable to match the fundraising prowess of a party-switching Democratic state lawmaker in normally reliably red Kansas.

It's unclear how much it matters that state Sen. Barbara Bollier raised $2.35 million during the first three months of 2020 given that the potential GOP frontrunner to replace retiring Republican Sen. Pat Roberts is prominent conservative Kris Kobach.

While the more than $242,000 he raised for the quarter was a little more than a tenth of Bollier's total, Kobach is known as a hard-...