Kansas Republican Senator Pat Robert’s seat might be in jeopardy in November. So too might Republican chances of winning back the Senate. And it’s all because of the huge shakeup that has taken place in the Kansas race this week, which has left state Republicans searching for legal remedies to a political crisis.

Roberts barely won a primary last month against a Tea Party novice, Dr. Milton Wolf, a radiologist who derailed his prospects by posting x-rays on Facebook during the campaign. Roberts no longer possesses a home in Kansas, which can be fatal in Senate elections. Ask former Indiana Senator Richard Lugar. But Roberts was favored to win re-election this November because his opposition was divided between a Democrat, Shawnee County District Attorney Chad Taylor, and an Independent ex-Democrat Greg Orman. In polls, Taylor and Orman split the vote against Roberts.

Initially, Taylor appeared to be the stronger candidate, but since the primary August 5, Orman has showed himself to be the far more formidable challenger and is now leading Roberts when he goes head to head with him in the polls. Orman, a millionaire, could help finance his own campaign, while Taylor was having difficulty raising any money at all. But another factor that lay behind Taylor’s difficulties as a candidate and that led to his withdrawal earlier this week. He had become persona non grata among many female Kansas Democrats; and his troubles among these voters threatened to grow.

Two issues dogged Taylor. First, in 2011, Taylor, in his capacity as district attorney, decided in response to a ten percent budget cut, to stop prosecuting misdemeanor cases that involved domestic battery and violence against women. That created an outcry among Kansas women’s groups. Then the next year, Taylor and the District Attorney’s office were hit by gender and race discrimination suits, several of which remain unresolved.

With Kansas’s Democratic Party unaccountably failing to recruit a first-tier candidate against Roberts, Taylor won the Democratic nomination on August 5 by default. He defeated by 4,500 votes a Lawrence attorney who raised $601 for his campaign. But he soon faced pressure within his own party to withdraw in favor of Orman, who is, in Kansas’s terms, a moderate Democrat who briefly ran as a Democrat against Roberts in 2008 before dropping out. Women for Kansas, a group organized to oppose Governor Sam Brownback and Secretary of State Kris Kobach, endorsed Orman. Taylor was also having trouble raising money—only $110,000 to $1.9 million for Roberts and $500,000 for Orman.