JUNCTION CITY, Kan. (AP) – Jennifer Winn is running a shoestring Republican primary race against Kansas Gov. Sam Brownback on a platform that includes legalizing marijuana.

He and Democratic challenger Paul Davis have largely ignored her for months.

But Brownback’s foes are now seeing Winn’s fortunes in the Aug. 5 election as a potential barometer of the governor’s vulnerability in November.

The 44-year-old Winn is the owner of a Wichita-area building and landscape maintenance company.

Her entry into the race in January was fired by a first-degree murder charge against her son over what authorities say was his involvement in a marijuana deal gone bad last year that left a Wichita man dead.

But she’s also pitching herself to voters as an up-by-the-bootstraps entrepreneur and as a champion of working-class voters.