A lot of people said Kobach was "unelectable" during the primary race.
Kobach was only unelectable due to moderate establishment Republicans taking their ball and going home when they did t get their preferred nominee. Conservatives are of course expected to fall in line for the general every time their guy comes up short in primary, but when it’s the other way around, well, loyalty doesn’t go both ways apparently.
It’s a bad loss. Kobach is not a Moore/Akin/Mourdock type of candidate, which is to say he’s not an idiot who did himself in with stupid comments and behavior. He was targeted and maligned as an extremist by the media, and a large slice of Kansas Republicans bought the lie.