Republicans in Kansas and well beyond fear voters are quietly souring on President Donald Trump's economic record and foreign policy, but are staying publicly loyal until enough of them decide the MAGA dam has finally broken, according to a report Tuesday.
Kris Clark, a 40-year-old software engineer in Olathe, the state's fourth largest city, says he can sense something shifting among the most devoted Republicans in his own life, but so far they're staying quiet about their change of heart, reported the Washington Post.
"Everyone who is extreme Trump is having a hard time walking that back because they're afraid of looking like idiots," Clark told a reporter outside a Walmart Supercenter in the Kansas City suburb, describing his own politics as pro-human rights with a desire for fiscal responsibility.
Clark's read on his neighbors captures the growing GOP anxiety that brought Vice President JD Vance to Kansas on Monday as part of a post-Labor Day midterm push, underlining how nervous Republicans have become about a map favoring Democrats even in territory Trump carried by 16 points in 2024.
Sen. Roger Marshall's once-safe reelection has turned into a real contest against Democrat Adam Hamilton, founding pastor of the prominent United Methodist Church of the Resurrection near Kansas City, and interviews with voters in Olathe suggest the erosion is real but uneven.
Jayne Jones, a 67-year-old retired teacher and lifelong Republican, said she will not vote for Marshall despite agreeing with him on abortion and immigration, citing his absenteeism and his tight alignment with Trump, whose focus on trade fights and renaming bodies of water frustrates her. "Something has to bend," Jones said.
Donna Stratton, a 64-year-old retired nurse who once considered herself "really big on Marshall," said revelations that he sued hundreds of patients over unpaid bills while working as an obstetrician turned her against him. "I was like, whoa, you're a doctor. I'm sure you've got plenty of money," she said.
But the same voters who are abandoning Marshall are not necessarily embracing Hamilton or repudiating Trump himself.
Kelda Zabel, a 63-year-old retired dental hygienist, called Hamilton persuasive but said she could never support him over their disagreement on abortion rights.
Travis Swift, a construction business owner, praised Marshall's support for the Save America Act, which would tighten voter ID and mail voting rules nationwide, and dismissed Hamilton's use of faith on the campaign trail as disingenuous.
Even Joyce Scott, an 85-year-old former business owner who says she sometimes finds Trump "distasteful" and worries about rising costs, said she would likely stick with Marshall simply because he's a Republican.
“Between you and me, sometimes I think he needs to keep his mouth shut,” Scott said of the president, but added that she probably wouldn't abandon the party. “The Democrats are not like they used to be."
