Voters in Kansas faced one of the busiest ballots in recent years. Offices of governor, U.S. Senate, secretary of state, insurance commissioner and the state’s four congressional districts were up for grabs. Here’s a look at Tuesday’s biggest results:

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TOP OF THE TICKET

The hottest contest came in the Senate, where three-term incumbent Republican Pat Roberts turned back wealthy independent Greg Orman in a battle seen as key to Republican hopes of taking the Senate. A year ago, a serious challenge to Roberts seemed nearly implausible, but skeptical tea party conservatives put forward a primary challenger against Roberts in August. Roberts survived, but many of those conservatives remain unconvinced he deserves a fourth term.

Roberts’ former Senate colleague, Gov. Sam Brownback, won re-election over Democrat Paul Davis. Like the Senate race, a close contest for governor seemed unlikely a year ago, but that was before unhappiness emerged — even among some Republicans — over Brownback’s successful push to aggressively cut income taxes that critics say are jeopardizing the state’s budget.

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KOBACH CRUISES

Down the ballot, Kris Kobach easily kept his job as secretary of state against Democrat Jean Schodorf. Schodorf seemed to score points during her campaign by suggesting Kobach overreached in his job by advocating for tougher voter ID laws while also pressing Democrats to field a new Senate candidate after Chad Taylor’s surprising exit from that race. Still, Kobach’s fight to toughen voter registration laws made him a champion among social conservatives, and he was the favorite.

Worth noting: Retiring Republican insurance commissioner Sandy Praeger endorsed Democrat Dennis Anderson in the race to succeed her over the GOP’s Ken Selzer. But it didn’t matter, as Selzer won handily. Praeger was a political oddity in Kansas, where she has broken ranks with her party over the Affordable Care Act and backed challengers to both Roberts and Brownback.

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REPUBLICAN SWEEP IN CONGRESS

Republicans swept to re-election in the state’s four congressional districts, with Kevin Yoder, Lynn Jenkins, Mike Pompeo and Tim Huelskamp all cruising to wins.

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WHAT DID TUESDAY TELL US?

It turns out Roberts had an easier time turning back Orman than many thought. But the race for governor was anything but a cakewalk for Brownback.

A Brownback loss would’ve spoken volumes about how citizens viewed Brownback’s effort to rewrite the state’s tax rules. Months of tax collection shortfalls since the cuts were enacted created worries among many Kansans that the cuts went too far, and his critics say they’ve hurt the state’s ability to fund education. But the tight victory over Davis Tuesday suggested many Kansans remained skeptical of how the tax cuts would affect the state’s economy.

Brownback has said he would like to eventually get rid of the state’s income taxes altogether.

JOHN HANNA, AP Political Writer

TOPEKA, Kan. (AP) — Republican Gov. Sam Brownback has narrowly won re-election in Kansas against a Democratic opponent who attempted to make their race a referendum on the incumbent’s conservative fiscal experiment.

Brownback’s contest with Democrat Paul Davis remained closed as ballots from Tuesday’s election were counted. The challenger made some headway with disaffected GOP moderates and unaffiliated voters.

But with most of the unofficial returns counted, Brownback had just shy of 50 percent of the vote. Davis had 46 percent and Libertarian Keen Umbehr had 4 percent.

Brownback argued that personal income tax cuts enacted by legislators at his urging are creating jobs and boosting the economy. Davis said the cuts wrecked the state’s finances and endangered school funding.

The governor portrayed Davis a liberal supporter of Democratic President Barack Obama.

LAWRENCE, Kan. (AP) — Democratic challenger Paul Davis has conceded the Kansas governor’s race to Republican incumbent Sam Brownback.

The Associated Press has not yet called the race for Brownback, who built a lead in Tuesday’s election with most of the vote counted.

The governor successfully pushed the GOP-dominated Legislature during his first term to slash personal income taxes to boost the state’s economy. The state cut its top rate by 26 percent and exempted the owners of 191,000 businesses from income taxes altogether.

Davis argued that the cuts wrecked the state’s finances. He told supporters at a rally in his hometown in Lawrence that the state faces real challenges and people must work together.

Republicans painted Davis as a liberal supporter of Democratic President Barack Obama.

TOPEKA, Kan. (AP) — Kansas has legalized charity fundraising raffles.

Voters approved an amendment to the state constitution in Tuesday’s election. The measure allows nonprofit, religious, veterans and other organizations to hold raffles as fundraisers.

But organizations will not be allowed to sell raffle tickets through electronic gambling or vending machines or contract with professional lottery or raffle companies to operate their contests.

Legislators sought to allow such contests by law in 2013, but Republican Gov. Sam Brownback vetoed the measure, seeing a violation of the state constitution.

The constitution originally prohibited all forms of lotteries. Under existing Kansas law, raffles are essentially private lotteries.

Kansas now has a state lottery and state-owned casinos, but they’re permitted under a 1986 amendment making an exception to the overall ban on lotteries.

DAVID A. LIEB, Associated Press

OVERLAND PARK, Kan. (AP) — Republican U.S. Pat Roberts has won re-election while turning back a challenge from suburban Kansas City businessman Greg Orman.

Roberts’ victory Tuesday continues a dominating streak for Kansas Republicans, who have not lost a U.S. Senate race since 1932.

But it didn’t come easy.

Roberts first survived a close GOP primary against a tea party challenger. Then Orman emerged a formidable independent candidate after the Democratic nominee dropped out.

Orman asserted Roberts had become part of the partisan gridlock in Washington after spending 18 years in the Senate and 16 before that in the U.S. House.

Roberts told voters his re-election was essential to Republican hopes of gaining control of the Senate and standing up to President Barack Obama. His campaign was aided by numerous high-profile Republicans.

TOPEKA, Kan. (AP) — Republican Derek Schmidt has won re-election as Kansas attorney general against an underfinanced Democratic opponent.

Schmidt prevailed in Tuesday’s election over Democrat and Topeka attorney A.J. Kotich (KOH’-tich).

Schmidt won his first four-year term in 2010.

He filed a petition last month with the Kansas Supreme Court to overturn an order from the chief district court judge in Johnson County clearing the way for the state’s first legal gay marriage. The same-sex wedding took place, but the Supreme Court blocked further marriages until the case is heard.

Kotich is a former special assistant attorney general and chief counsel for two state agencies, but he raised only about $24,000 in cash contributions for his campaign through late October.

Schmidt has raised more than $490,000 since the start of 2013.