Tim Carpenter, Kansas Reflector

TOPEKA — Gov. Laura Kelly objected to Republican governor candidate Jeff Colyer’s fundraising appeals tied to a devastating tornado that tore through Pratt, Stafford and Reno counties in May.

In a letter obtained by Kansas Reflector, Kelly criticized Colyer for issuing two fundraising messages in June that alleged Kelly’s response to the storm fell short of expectations after an EF3 tornado barreled into the communities of Grinnell and Plevna. Damage to buildings and equipment was substantial, but no one was killed.

“You should know better than to use an emergency disaster response for patently political purposes,” Kelly said in the letter to Colyer. “Beyond tacky and crass.”

She said it was wrong to manipulate damaged Kansas communities for campaign photo opportunities or to package such heartbreaking events to attack a political rival.

“Just to set the record straight, Jeff, my emergency management team was in communication and on the ground with local responders immediately,” Kelly’s letter said. “And, as soon as my presence would be helpful, and not get in the way of recovery efforts, I was there.”

Colyer’s requests for campaign donations of $25, $50 or $100 were laced with claims Kelly was slow to seek disaster assistance. He said he was building a “movement to put Kansas first, to ensure no community is left behind and to deliver the kind of leadership that doesn’t flinch in a crisis.”

Colyer, who served nearly a year as governor following the resignation of Gov. Sam Brownback, said he would have immediately deployed the Kansas National Guard and promptly ordered removal of storm debris after the May 18-19 storm.

He said he would have requested the presidential disaster declaration before Kelly did on June 17.

“This is a moment for leadership and compassion,” Colyer’s campaign messages said. “Our neighbors are hurting. I’ve walked their shattered fields and seen the wreckage of a lifetime.”

Colyer asserted — falsely, the governor’s office said — that neither Kelly nor administration officials visited the damage zone before June 3. Colyer published images of him touring storm damage with a half-dozen state legislators.

In a news release published June 18, Kelly said the Kansas Division of Emergency Management began coordination of the storm response with local officials on May 18.

The Kansas Department of Transportation mobilized the night of the tornado to close Interstate 70 and clear debris and downed powerlines, the governor said. KDOT organized traffic control for interstate lane reductions until new power poles were installed by May 21.

Officials with the Kansas Department of Health and Environment issued a disposal-without-a-permit to Grinnell on May 20 for on-site burial of disaster debris. KDHE issued a fee waiver to Plevna for the Reno County landfill.

On May 21, KDHE suspended fees for obtaining certified copies of birth and marriage certificates for Gove County residents through July 18.

The governor said she visited Grinnell on May 22, secured U.S. Small Business Administration low-interest loans for nine counties on May 31, issued a state disaster emergency proclamation for 11 counties on June 4, initiated the process of documenting damage for the Federal Emergency Management Agency on June 5 and submitted the major presidential disaster declaration on June 17.

“You owe the people of Grinnell and Plevna an apology,” Kelly’s letter to Colyer said. “Next time, before you make a fool of yourself, call me. I’ll be glad to give you the facts.”

In response to Kelly’s communication with Colyer, Republican Reps. Kyle Hoffman, Kevin Schwertfeger and Joe Siewert and Republican Sen. Michael Murphy issued a statement that said “Kelly is out of touch and in full campaign mode.”

The legislators’ said they invited Colyer to tour the property damage and recovery efforts to bring greater awareness to the challenge of rebuilding. There was a sense two weeks after the storms, the statement said, the Kelly administration was “ignoring our communities.”

“Governor Kelly is upset that her team was forced to respond weeks after the leadership shown by Governor Colyer. It’s also clear what Republican candidate she’s most scared of,” the statement said. “Jeff Colyer has been a hero to our communities through this trial, while Governor Kelly has been asleep at the wheel.”

The GOP primary for governor in August 2026 is expected to include Colyer, Secretary of State Scott Schwab and Insurance Commissioner Vicki Schmidt in addition to others. Kelly, who is in her second term as governor, cannot seek reelection.

Former Gov. Jeff Colyer maneuvers closer to 2026 GOP campaign for Kansas governor

by Tim Carpenter, Kansas Reflector
May 12, 2025

TOPEKA — Former Gov. Jeff Colyer’s campaign for governor accelerated with appointment of a treasurer in advance of filing for the Republican Party’s nomination in 2026.

Colyer, 64, served as Kansas chairman of last year’s campaign by President Donald Trump. He is a former Johnson County member of the Kansas House and Senate who was lieutenant governor on the ticket with GOP Gov. Sam Brownback. Upon Brownback’s resignation to serve in the first Trump administration, Colyer was sworn in as governor in 2018.

Colyer sought a full term as governor but narrowly lost the 2018 primary to Republican Kris Kobach, who was defeated in the general election by Democratic Gov. Laura Kelly. In terms of the 2026 race, Colyer has yet to formally register as a candidate with the secretary of state.

EXCLUSIVE: Breastfeeding mom of US citizen sues Kristi Noem after being grabbed by ICE

Colyer did announce selection of state Rep. Kyle Hoffman, a Coldwater Republican, as treasurer for his gubernational campaign.

“Kyle is a leading voice for rural Kansas and a great advocate for fiscal responsibility and conservative values,” Colyer said. “He’s going to be a huge asset as we carry our winning message to every county in Kansas.”

Kelly, who followed her defeat of Kobach with a victory over former GOP Attorney General Derek Schmidt in 2022, cannot seek reelection. Colyer was poised to seek the Republican nomination for governor in 2022, but withdrew following a diagnosis of prostate cancer.

Democratic Governors Association spokesman Sam Newton said in a statement Colyer was the “failed right-hand man” to Brownback.

“Besides reminding Kansans of the broken budgets and underfunded public schools of the Brownback era, Colyer’s announcement confirms that the GOP primary field is going to be crowded, chaotic and focused on extreme partisan policies,” Newton said.

Newton said Kansas would be better off with a governor like Kelly who took a middle-of-the-road approach to leadership, balanced the state budget, promoted business investment and ended the state’s sales tax on groceries.

Hoffman, treasurer of Colyer’s campaign, said Colyer was “more than a politician, he is a humanitarian – selflessly serving those in need around the world. He’ll make a great governor.”

Colyer, a surgeon in the Kansas City area who served international medical missions, was the state’s 47th governor from January 2018 to January 2019.

He was lieutenant governor under Brownback from 2011-2018. He was in the Senate from 2009-2011 and the Kansas House from 2007-2009. In 2002, he unsuccessful sought the GOP nomination for U.S. House.

Kansas Reflector is part of States Newsroom, a nonprofit news network supported by grants and a coalition of donors as a 501c(3) public charity. Kansas Reflector maintains editorial independence. Contact Editor Sherman Smith for questions: info@kansasreflector.com.

TOPEKA — The bullhorn-powered war of words between Satanists and Catholics boiled over into brawling and a handful of arrests Friday during an extraordinary event at the Kansas Capitol that pushed boundaries of free speech and the separation of church and state.

After about two hours of speeches, prayers and sign waving among hundreds of people mostly segregated by barricades staffed by law enforcement officers, Satanic Grotto president Michael Stewart, with supporters and reporters in tow, entering the Statehouse to conduct what he had described as a black mass. He was warned at the door to the visitors’ center that any formal protest inside the building that violated a permit limiting his religious expression to the lawn or steps of the Capitol would result in his arrest for trespassing.

In the rotunda, Stewart began the rebellious form of a mass and was interrupted by three people intent on stopping was could be interpreted as a mockery of their faith. An unidentified man and woman, with young kids at their side, physically intervened to stop Stewart. He turned away from them. Counter-protester Marcus Schroeder joined the fray and twice reached to take papers from Stewart’s hand. Stewart responded by punching Schroeder in the face twice. More than half a dozen Capitol Police wrestled Stewart to the floor to make the arrest.

“I’m not resisting. I’m not resisting. I’m not resisting,” Stewart repeatedly yelled.

Schroeder, who wore a shirt declaring “Death is not welcome here,” wasn’t arrested by Capitol Police. In an interview, he defended his maneuvering to thwart Stewart.

“I tried to take his papers. He punched me in the face,” he said.

After the area cleared, two other satanists tried to pick up where Stewart left off and were taken into custody. One other person was cuffed and taken away by law enforcement outside the Capitol on Friday. An individual grabbed Stewart by the legs in a bid to stop Stewart from stomping on crackers intended to represent those used in a Catholic mass to represent the consecrated body and soul of Christ. In that brief exchange, Stewart also punched the guy before law enforcement stepped in.

Hundreds of Christians upset with an organization’s plan to conduct a satanic black mass at the Capitol delivered a robust counter-protest to emphasize their disdain for followers of Satanic Grotto. Both sides of the debate used bullhorns to punctuate their messages, creating a blended sound that was difficult for anybody to hear clearly. (Tim Carpenter/Kansas Reflector)

“He was was trying to tackle me to get to the cracker underneath,” Stewart said. “I was able to kind of fend him off. I do think he may have picked up the crumbled cracker and ate it. Did I get physical with him? Yes.”

The opposition

The colorful display of affection and affliction for organized religion culminated attempts by Gov. Laura Kelly, Attorney General Kris Kobach, leaders of the Kansas Legislature and Archbishop Joseph Naumann of Kansas City, Kansas, to derail the demonstration planned by Satanic Grotto.

Kelly had the group’s permit amended so no protest could transpire inside the Capitol. Legislative leaders modified policy regarding use of the Capitol to specifically target Satanic Grotto. Senate President Ty Masterson, R-Wichita, said the First Amendment didn’t protect offensive speech or violations of law.

Francis Slobodnik, a Topeka representative of the American Society for the Defense of Tradition, Family and Property, told hundreds of Catholics gathered on the south side of the Capitol that state public officials shouldn’t have allowed satanists to assemble on public property. He said the event reflected a misguided understanding of freedom of speech and religion and a lack of appreciation for how a black mass represented worship of Satan.

“Today’s horrific event, the first of its kind in the history of Kansas, is a sacrilege,” Slobodnik said. “Of course, there have been terrible crimes and injustices that have happened in our state over the years. However, nothing in our past compares with what is happening today where God is being directly challenged on the state Capitol grounds. The state Capitol represents all of us.”

He praised the people present at the rally to stand in opposition to Satanic Grotto, referring to them as the Navy Seals of the Catholic faith. He said these activists were willing to confront God’s enemies head-on as if on a field of battle. He said the great sin perpetrated by Stewart and other worshipers of Satan meant that others had to step into the void.

“Satanists do not realize that Satan hates all of God’s creation, including them,” Slobodnik said. “Their reward for worshiping and serving him will be eternal fire.”

And, an exorcist

Former U.S. Rep. Tim Huelskamp, who served in the Kansas Senate before elected to Congress, said he consulted with a priest with experience in exorcism to figure whether he should participate in a television interview with Stewart.

“Father had a simple question: ‘Why would you do this? What do you hope to gain?’ I stumbled around in my answer,” Huelskamp said. “I wanted to share the truth about Christ. The truth about the Eucharist. His summary response was quite stunning to me. He said, ‘There is no good that could come from being in the same room with a Satanist.’”

Huelskamp said it was suggested his participation in the interview with Stewart might serve interests of Satan. The former Republican congressman woke ill the next day, and cancelled the interview. In the end, Huelskamp said he decided it was important to run to the fire created by Satan rather than shrink from it. He said it was the same as making his views known about the evil of abortion and defending the sanctity of marriage between a man and woman.

“I am quite stubborn and hardheaded,” he said. “We cannot be silent. We are required, if we call ourselves Christians, if we call ourselves Catholic, we are publicly required to defend the faith and to stand up for the truth.”

In an interview amid calm before the storm of his arrest, Stewart said he was convinced Catholics assembled around him didn’t understand why Satanic Grotto was at the Capitol to talk about religious oppression.

“What we only want is the rights that every American has,” Stewart said. “I’ve heard people say we’re setting a precedent. Well, if the precedent is freedom of religion for everyone in public spaces, yes, that’s what we’re trying to establish. We are dragging this issue out in the light and we’ll let the people look at it. The issue is that we’re not all being treated the same here.”

This story was produced by the Kansas Reflector which is part of States Newsroom, a nonprofit news network, including the Daily Montanan, supported by grants and a coalition of donors as a 501c(3) public charity.

TOPEKA — Sister Therese Bangert stood alone before the House Federal and State Affairs Committee to denounce a resolution urging Gov. Laura Kelly to do everything in her power to support the immigration enforcement agenda of President Donald Trump.

Bangert, who has been with the Sisters of Charity of Leavenworth for more than 60 years, said the nation’s immigration system had been broken for decades. By default, she said, the federal government had allowed migrant laborers to fill jobs in the United States without extending to those individuals an accessible path to legal residency or citizenship.

She said people targeted by the Kansas Senate-approved resolution were Kansans in every way except for possession of U.S. immigration documents.

“I suspect these are the immigrant women who are milking cows in the western Kansas dairy industry, the men and women on the killing floors of Kansas slaughterhouses and those roofing the homes in my neighborhood,” said Bangert, who was worried they were all vulnerable to deportation. “I find troubling the heated rhetoric when speaking about our sisters and brothers who are immigrants.”

No one showed up at the House hearing to argue in favor of Senate Concurrent Resolution 1602. Likewise, there was no one present to articulate a neutral position. Wichita Republican Rep. Tom Kessler, chairman of the House committee, said written testimony lauding the resolution had been submitted, but it wasn’t publicly available.

When the Senate conducted its hearing in January on the resolution, Bangert wasn’t given the opportunity to speak to lawmakers. Sen. Mike Thompson, chairman of the Senate Federal and State Affairs Committee and sponsor of the resolution, said Bangert needed to notify the committee 24 hours in advance to be granted permission to testify. Proponents of the measure, including Attorney General Kris Kobach, were permitted to address Thompson’s committee.

The Senate went on to approve the resolution on a party-line vote of 31-9. It was expected to pass the House by a wide margin.

During the House committee hearing, Rep. Susan Ruiz, D-Shawnee, noted the absence of a throng of in-person witnesses to argue on behalf of the Senate resolution.

“There is no one here as a proponent, which I find really odd,” Ruiz said.

The void was partially filled by Republicans on the House committee who offered commentary demonstrating their sense that Kansas governors ought to authorize use of state resources to help patrol the national border, including deploying Kansas National Guard troops, and to assist with Trump’s strategy of detaining and deporting thousands or millions of people. There was no evidence of support for a concurrent crackdown on Kansas businesses hiring people without proper documentation.

Rep. Brian Bergkamp, R-Wichita, said the state and nation needed a higher standard of border security to address immigration among people without permission to remain temporarily or permanently in the United States. The security concept mirrored justification for a metal-detector at the main entrance to the Capitol instead of relying on an antiquated open-door policy for visitors, he said.

“I definitely stand for immigration,” Bergkamp said, “but in a more orderly fashion.”

GOP Rep. Kyle McNorton of Topeka said it was wrong for anyone to view people in the country without permission as law-abiding individuals.

“They broke the number one law coming across our border without permission and are still here,” McNorton said.

In response, Wichita Democratic Rep. Angela Martinez said the majority of people in the United States without authorization had overstayed a Visa rather than enter by sneaking across the border in defiance of immigration authorities.

“I support the deportation of criminals,” said Martinez, who was temporarily placed on the committee to coincide with debate on the resolution. “I ask this committee to sit and be honest with yourself. If you were subject to violence and tyranny and you couldn’t support your children and there was an opportunity for a better life … would you go?”

Rep. John Alcala, a Topeka Democrat among temporary appointments to the committee, said proponents of the resolution hadn’t taken into account economic harm that would fall on Kansas if full deportation occurred.

He said the National Immigration Law Center estimated Kansas’ workforce was comprised of thousands of people without documents to stay in the United States. He said an NILC study indicated there were 25,000 in manufacturing, 17,000 in food service and 16,000 in construction. In 2020, he said, NILC estimated those workers paid more than $600 million in state and federal taxes.

“I don’t think people realize what the impact will be on businesses that are struggling with labor shortages,” Alcala said. “How are we going to offset that economic loss? Can Kansas afford that loss of revenue? I don’t think so.”

Lawrence Rep. Brooklynne Mosley, a Democrat, said issues of human dignity and moral injury might not have been considered by champions of the resolution.

“What does that do to the cloth of a community when they start to see families being ripped apart?” she said.

TOPEKA — Members of the Kansas congressional delegation gathered on the U.S. House floor for a moment of silence in honor of people killed when a military helicopter collided with a civilian commercial aircraft from Wichita on approach to Reagan Washington National Airport.

U.S. Rep. Ron Estes, R-Kansas, said the idea was to come together with members of Congress impacted by the Jan. 29 accident that killed 64 passengers and crew on Flight 5342 and three U.S. Army personnel aboard the Black Hawk helicopter.

“As we mourn the loss of these 67 individuals, there are truly no words to adequately describe the heartbreak we feel,” Estes said. “We grieve with the families and friends they left behind and pray for those in our districts who are still in shock at the loss of their loved ones.”

“They were young skaters, a rural Kansas couple, a college student, a group of friends returning from an annual hunting trip and so many others who were taking a routine flight from the (Wichita) air capital to our nation’s capital,” he said.

Estes said there was a commitment to find answers for the midair crash and how other similar disasters could be avoided.

U.S. Rep. Sharice Davids, D-Kansas, said the silence of dozens of people on the House floor recognized lives lost and devastation felt by families.

“In this time of grief, we stand united with the victims’ families, offering our support and compassion,” Davids said. “While no words can undo the pain they are feeling, we are committed to ensuring their loved ones are never forgotten and will work tirelessly to help prevent such a tragedy from happening again.”

Meanwhile, U.S. Sen. Jerry Moran, R-Kansas, and U.S. Sen. Tammy Duckworth, D-Illinois, urged the Federal Aviation Administration to continue restrictions on non-essential helicopter operations near Reagan Washington airport.

They asked that limitations on helicopter flights remain until conclusion of the National Transportation Safety Board’s preliminary report and after the FAA briefed the Senate’s commerce subcommittee on aviation, space and innovation.

“Until investigators complete this work, restricting helicopter operations, while allowing for essential medical support, active law enforcement, active air defense and presidential transport traffic will help keep the area safe and improve public trust in commercial air travel,” Moran said in a letter to the FAA.

Moran, who chairs the Senate subcommittee, said the panel would examine expert findings to determine whether policy changes were necessary to increase safety and improve public trust.

TOPEKA — A Kansas House member was shoved to the floor at a Topeka bar during an argument between a Wichita City Council member and a Democratic state representative from Wichita who disagreed about plans to test Wichita residents potentially harmed by a toxic chemical spill in a historically Black neighborhood.

Rep. Henry Helgerson, an Eastborough Democrat attending an informal gathering adjacent to the Capitol, was knocked backward while attempting to intervene in the Wednesday night dispute between Democratic Rep. Ford Carr of Wichita and Wichita City Council member Brandon Johnson.

Video of the disturbance showed Helgerson smashing into a table and breaking glassware after shoved by Carr. Helgerson was helped to his feet by two people. Helgerson again tried to restrain Carr, who continued the back-and-forth argument with Johnson at the reception for Wichita-area politicians.

“Ain’t nobody scared of your punk a--,” Johnson shouted in a two-minute video clip widely shared at the Statehouse.

“Bring it on,” replied Carr, still wearing his identification badge as a state legislator.

“No. No. No,” Helgerson said, while temporarily moving Carr away from Johnson. “You don’t want to hurt me, do you?”

At one point, Carr threw his suit jacket to the floor in anger. Several people went in and out of view on the video as they attempted to end the spat or stay clear of the primary combatants. Johnson eventually left the bar amid more shouting.

In an interview, Johnson said he was at the Celtic Fox, a bar across the street from the Statehouse in Topeka, when Carr confronted him about handling $2.5 million set aside by the 2024 Kansas Legislature and $125,000 allocated by City Hall to begin a testing program to learn more about extent of chemical contamination in a northeast Wichita neighborhood.

A chemical spill in the Union Pacific railyard decades ago apparently allowed cancer-causing trichloroethylene, or TCE, to infiltrate groundwater and spread for several miles. Wichita residents in path of the spill weren’t informed of possible health complications until 2022.

Johnson said he was eager to focus on important work of addressing health ramifications of the spill in Wichita. He said he was less interested in debating the bar feud.

“That event will be properly investigated. And the video and those present can speak to the specifics of what happened and by whom,” Johnson said. “I don’t want that incident to in any way distract from the genuine, positive efforts and progress we’re making for residents to address the vitally needed testing and remediation at the 29th and Grove neighborhoods.”

Carr, who advocated for state funding for testing during last year’s legislative session, said municipal government officials in Wichita hadn’t moved quickly enough to advance the initiative.

He said the Wichita City Council and Sedgwick County Commission should have launched testing months ago. The required $1 million local match has yet to be secured, but the city and county appear to have found consensus on how to proceed.

Carr said the animated conversation at the bar was inspired by concern the state appropriation could be rescinded if the cash wasn’t spent before the fiscal year ended in June.

“They wanted me to give them an attaboy or a pat on the back for having this plan,” Carr said in an interview. “I told them I’m appreciative that they came up with a plan, but I’m not going to stand up and rejoice a plan that took eight months to develop. At that point, Brandon Johnson took it personally.”

Carr said he hadn’t consumed an intoxicating beverage, but indicated Johnson appeared to be drinking a dark ale.

“I’m not going to say he was inebriated. I’m just going to say that’s what he was drinking,” Carr said. “His voice began to get elevated. And, after his voice elevated, he made a physical gesture, put his finger in my face, and at that point I stood upright, so then he equally stands.”

Carr said he interpreted Johnson’s gesture at the bar as a threat.

“And I’ve always been the kind of person that you can start that trouble — I know how to finish it,” Carr said.

He said he didn’t realize in the moment that it was Helgerson who attempted to intervene. He said he regretted shoving Helgerson hard enough that he fell to the floor. He referred to Helgerson as a friend.

“I pushed Henry out of the way. Apparently, in the heat of passion, I’m a little stronger than I thought,” Carr said. “I can’t say that I regret moving him out of the way, but I just regret that he lost his balance and fell. It was never intended to be any harm to Rep. Helgerson.”

Helgerson, who was at the Capitol on Thursday, wasn’t available to comment on the incident.

House Minority Leader Brandon Woodard, a Lenexa Democrat, declined to discuss the bar incident but issued a statement.

“We are taking this matter seriously and are committed to resolving it,” he said. “Our focus remains serving the people of Kansas and advancing policies that meet their needs.”

TOPEKA — Demand for abortion in Kansas skyrocketed by 58% during 2023 in response to near-total bans on the procedure in Missouri and Oklahoma and strict limits in other Midwest states.

The Kansas Department of Health and Environment says Kansas documented 7,849 abortions in 2021. The U.S. Supreme Court’s decision to strike down Roe v. Wade and the 2019 Kansas Supreme Court’s opinion that women had a state constitutional right to terminate a pregnancy were factors in the rise in Kansas abortions to 12,319 in 2022.

Kansas’ total of abortions substantially escalated in 2023 to 19,467, KDHE said, for the 58% uptick compared to 2022.

In 2022, nonresidents received 8,475 abortions. The number of out-of-state patients reached 15,111 in 2023. In terms of Kansas residents, last year’s 4,356 abortions was an increase of 512 from 2022.

“Access to abortion shouldn’t depend on zip codes, but legal battles in states like Arizona mean that access to care is hanging in the balance,” said Trust Women, which operates a clinic in Wichita.

Passage of a Missouri constitutional amendment in November to reestablish reproductive freedom could have an influence on nonresident abortions in Kansas during 2025.

“The courts are thoughtfully reviewing years of complex anti-abortion laws and bans in Missouri,” said Planned Parenthood Great Plains. “While this process takes time, rest assured we are committed to continue fighting for Missourians’ access to their new constitutional right.”

In 2019, the Kansas Supreme Court held the state’s Bill of Rights contained the right to control one’s own body and exercise self-determination. The justices said this fundamental state right included decisions about pregnancy.

Soon after reversal of Roe v. Wade in 2022, Kansas voters overwhelmingly rejected a proposed amendment to the Constitution that would have opened the door to more strict abortion laws.

In 2024, Nebraska voters inserted a 12-week ban into its state constitution. Iowa enforces a six-week ban. Missouri and Oklahoma have been prohibiting abortion except to protect individuals from life-threatening situations.

Last year, KDHE reported, 69% of Kansas resident abortions occurred prior to nine weeks of gestational age. About 90% were prior to the 13th week, KDHE said. Eighty-five percent of women receiving Kansas abortions last year were unmarried.

KDHE said the abortion ratio of 128 per 1,000 live births for Kansas residents in 2023 was 14.5% higher than the ratio of 111.8 per 1,000 live births in 2022. The ratio had dropped from 151 abortions per 1,000 live births in 2004.

During 2023, Kansas recorded 34,041 live births among residents of the state. The rate per 1,000 people in Kansas was the lowest since state officials began tracking the figure in 1912.

The number of Kansas pregnancies for individuals under 20 years of age in 2023 was 2,041, down 2.6% from 2022. It represented the lowest pregnancy rate for this age group in 20 years.

TOPEKA — Kansas Republican Party chairman Mike Brown touted preliminary evidence the state’s GOP voters were matching the advance-voting operation typically relied on by Democrats to boost turnout.

Brown, chosen state party chairman after losing the 2022 primary for secretary of state on an election-integrity platform, said on Friday at the Capitol that Kansas voters responded to former President Donald Trump’s plea for his supporters to vote in advance of Election Day on Tuesday.

“We’re seeing it everywhere. The turnout is huge,” Brown said during a pitstop on the Kansas GOP’s bus tour. “At this point, I will say, as a Republican and chairman of the party, I’m very proud of the fact that we rose to the challenge. We spent a lot of time, a lot of money, a lot of resources to make sure that people took it to heart.”

The approach stood in contrast to the election cycle in 2020, when Trump asked Republicans to turn their back on advance voting due to questions about election security. Trump lost his reelection campaign to Democrat Joe Biden, who chose not to seek a second term in 2024. The Democratic nominee, Vice President Kamala Harris, is running a close national race against Trump with the outcome likely to be decided in a handful of swing states.

Trump is expected to carry Kansas after taking the state by 20.4 percentage points in 2016 and 14.6 percentage points in 2020.

Hefty turnout

On Friday, Secretary of State Scott Schwab said 516,776 ballots had been cast through advance voting by Kansans. At this point in the 2020 election cycle, 642,724 advance ballots had been forwarded to county election offices. In 2016, 375,857 advance ballots were submitted by this juncture.

“While we are comparing this year’s advance voting data to 2020 and 2016 elections, remember that the 2020 cycle was unusual due to the pandemic. Take that year with a grain of salt,” Schwab said. “We are on track to set a record, so I encourage every voter to get out and exercise their constitutional right.”

Of the state’s 1 million registered voters, 65.9% voted in 2020 and 59.7% cast a ballot in 2016.

During brief campaign speeches at the south steps of the Capitol, Republican congressional candidate Derek Schmidt celebrated the GOP’s work on advance voting but insisted conservatives shouldn’t be content. He’s running in the 2nd District against Democrat Nancy Boyda for the seat to be vacated by retiring Republican U.S. Rep. Jake LaTurner.

“There are a lot of people voting in Kansas right now. We’re seeing record-setting advanced voting numbers and, as Republicans, the numbers are looking very, very good,” Schmidt said. “We cannot stop for four more days. Not until 7 p.m. on Tuesday. Even the Kansas City Chiefs lose against a high school team if they quit playing before the game is over. We got to run through the tape.”

“By Election Day, we can save this country. We can turn these things around. We can be better off in four years than we are today. But to do that, we have to win these elections next week,” he said.

GOP supermajorities

State Senate President Ty Masterson, an Andover Republican, said the priorities were to elect Trump, gain GOP control of Congress and protect Republican supermajorities in the state Senate and House.

One of Gov. Laura Kelly’s objectives this year has been to add a few Democrats in the House and Senate so it would be more difficult for Republicans to override her vetoes.

“Do you want to go back to Trump $1.85 gas or do you want to stick where we are? This is such a stark choice,” Masterson said. “We need our supermajorities in order to override some of the mess that we’re in, right?”

Those two-thirds margins must be preserved by Republicans, he said, because “I could have a super-duper majority on the Senate side, but if we don’t have it on the House side, it’s kind of meaningless.”

Advance in-person voting ends at noon Monday in Kansas. To be counted, advance mail-in ballots must be postmarked by Election Day and received by a county election office no later than Nov. 8.

Ballots in Kansas include contests for U.S. president, the four U.S. House seats, all 165 seats in the Kansas House and Kansas Senate, and a collection of local government offices and ballot issues. None of the statewide executive branch offices, including governor and attorney general, are up for grabs in 2024.

U.S. Sen. Roger Marshall, a Republican, could seek reelection in 2026, while U.S. Sen. Jerry Moran, also a Republican, would face another election in 2028. Democrat Gov. Laura Kelly has two years left in her second term as governor.

WICHITA — Wichita State University president Richard Muma failed to give proper credit to more than 20 authors after copying their writing in his doctoral dissertation.

Muma, president of the university since 2020, runs afoul of academic standards and university policies by including extensive amounts of inadequately attributed material into his 2004 dissertation, according to academic professionals who reviewed Muma’s work.

A Kansas Reflector comparison of Muma’s 88-page dissertation with earlier scholarly work uncovered improperly ascribed phrases, sentences and paragraphs. In some cases, text copied from books and journals comprised the majority of entire pages in Muma’s dissertation.

Ten faculty at public and private colleges and universities said in interviews Muma’s dissertation amounted to plagiarism. None embraced Muma’s view that his dissertation adhered to academic publication standards.

Steven Mintz, a history professor at University of Texas-Austin who has authored or edited 15 books and found plagiarism of his own writing in international publications, said Muma’s dissertation would give the university a “black eye.”

“It is a form of theft. In my department, if I let a dissertation get to that stage, well, a student would be expelled, but I would be ostracized,” Mintz said.

WSU stands by Muma

Muma denied he plagiarized his dissertation through Wichita State spokeswoman Lainie Mazzullo-Hart, who said allegations of academic misconduct, especially assertions of plagiarism, were a serious matter.

Despite repeated requests via phone and email over five weeks, WSU declined to make Muma available for an interview.

“What I can share with you is that Dr. Muma vehemently denies any accusation of plagiarism and maintains that the research, analysis and conclusions in his dissertation were entirely original, and all referenced material were properly cited in accordance with academic standards,” Mazzullo-Hart said.

Muma’s dissertation, “ Use of Mintzberg’s Model of Managerial Roles as a Framework to Describe a Population of Academic Health Profession Administrators,” relied on parentheses — in the form of (Bennett, 1983) — to cite sources. He also included reference materials in a bibliography.

But Muma’s research paper lacked routine techniques for attributing other authors’ work. Typically, attribution is made through single or double quotation marks, italics or indentation of margins on the page.

A dissertation review

Muma was a tenured professor and department chair at the time he submitted the dissertation on physician assistant education programs to a faculty review panel at University of Missouri-St. Louis. The project earned him a doctorate in higher education. With that credential, Muma advanced through the hierarchy at WSU from department chairman to vice president, provost and president.

Misappropriated text started with the first sentence in his dissertation: It was a mirror image to the opening of the 1983 book “Managing the Academic Department” by John Bennett, who earned a doctorate at Yale University, served as a college provost and authored more than 100 articles and six books.

“Important? Definitely. Overworked? Probably. Prepared for the job? Rarely. This is the typical academic department chairperson,” Bennett wrote.

Muma copied the sequence word for word, but didn’t place quotation marks around the text to show readers the prose was created by someone else. Muma replicated that pattern dozens of times in his dissertation.

Of 255 words on the first page of Muma’s dissertation, more than 150 were copied from published work by Bennett and two other scholars, Kathleen Stassen Berger and Allan Tucker.

In a lengthy passage on Page 22, Muma deleted quote marks from borrowed text, keeping the reader in the dark that there was an original author. On Page 24 of the dissertation, three-fourths of 284 words were copied from other scholarly writing and pasted into the dissertation. All but a handful of 230 words on Page 29 were drawn verbatim from previously published academic work.

In 2002, for example, Berger wrote an academic article on “Inevitable Conflicts of a Department Chair.” Her distinctive opening lines: “Too much to do, too little time. Deadlines ignored; demands not met; requests trashed. Students, faculty, staff, and administrators queue up with phone messages, mailbox memos, emails and knocks on my door.”

Muma’s casting two years later echoed Berger: “It seems that academic department chairs have too much to do and no time to do it. Frequently they ignore deadlines, have demands that are not met, and requests are not answered.” That was followed by verbatim text: “Students, faculty, staff, and administrators queue up with phone messages, mailbox memos, emails, and knocks at the door.”

Defining plagiarism

Higher education institutions most often describe this type of academic misconduct as seizing work of others without full credit. Plagiarism could result from insufficiently paraphrasing research and writing performed by others or by inadequately citing thoughts of others. Lesser infractions might occur because of carelessness in conducting research or lack of familiarity with U.S. standards for academic writing.

The American Association of University Professors’ statement on plagiarism, adopted nearly 35 years ago, says those who claimed words, ideas or methods of others with the intent of being credited for that work committed “theft of a special kind.” AAUP said plagiarism was the antithesis of “honest labor that characterizes true scholarship.”

Concern about plagiarism among college students escalated in recent years along with access to generative artificial intelligence capable of completing academic assignments. Sophisticated software has been deployed at universities to test students’ work for plagiarism. AI cross-check resources weren’t a prominent feature of higher education when Muma was in graduate school and completed his dissertation.

Anxiety about academic dishonesty has infiltrated U.S. faculty ranks, including Harvard University where the university’s president resigned, in part, over allegations of plagiarism.

Other recent faculty cases of alleged plagiarism have emerged at Columbia University, University of Maryland, University of Wisconsin-Madison and University of Washington.

Wichita State University president Richard Muma inserted phrases, sentences and paragraphs into his doctoral dissertation without proper credit to original authors. Muma declined requests for an interview, but WSU says the 2004 dissertation is “original.” In this image, highlighted phrases denote inadequately attributed material. (Sherman Smith/Kansas Reflector)

‘A shortcut’

In five chapters of Muma’s dissertation, which included findings of an opinion survey of health educators and professionals, Kansas Reflector identified approximately 55 passages of inadequately attributed material.

“That’s a problem in my eyes,” said Jonathan Bailey, founder of Plagiarism Today and a copyright and plagiarism consultant in New Orleans. “When you copy and paste wholesale like that, you’re not proving you have the knowledge and understanding. This person did a shortcut.”

U.S. colleges and universities discipline students, including dismissal, for violating policies requiring they avoid plagiarism by distinguishing their original expression from information drawn from other sources. Plagiarism is considered an especially grave error when perpetrated by graduate students or faculty members expected to be well-versed in scholarly writing.

Individuals engaged in higher education research, teaching or administration told Kansas Reflector the insufficient attribution in Muma’s dissertation reached the level of plagiarism.

Tim Hill, professor of political science at Doane University in Nebraska and recipient of a 2003 doctorate from Ohio State University, said his review led to an undeniable conclusion.

“The standard of the profession says this counts as plagiarism,” Hill said. “I keep thinking (of) being a faculty member at that institution when this breaks. How do you walk into the classroom and say academic honesty is important? From the perspective of the audience, he’s lying to them. It harms everyone involved.”

The International Day of Action for Academic Integrity will be Oct. 16. Wichita State scheduled events during the month to emphasize academic integrity as the responsibility of all faculty, staff and students.

Kansas Rep. Kirk Haskins, a Topeka Democrat who earned a doctorate in higher education at the University of Kansas and a master’s degree at WSU, said he was trained to include quotation marks and other attribution when making use of scholarship from other people.

Haskins, who serves as chairman of graduate-level programs at Baker University in Baldwin City, said taking material without sufficient attribution could suggest an individual didn’t understand dissertation writing practices. Or, he said, it could demonstrate what a person thought he or she could get away with while producing a capstone educational achievement.

“(Muma) has done a commendable job in his time as president,” Haskins said. “However, I find these issues should be taken seriously because it pulls threads of higher ed’s academic integrity.”

Kansas Reflector also interviewed college and university educators without identifying Muma, his job title or employer. These interview subjects were informed of the breadth of attribution issues and that the author was awarded a doctorate, remained a faculty member and was employed as an administrator.

Kansas Sen. Molly Baumgardner, a Louisburg Republican who taught at Johnson County Community College and is now an associate vice president at Pittsburg State University, serves as chairwoman of the Senate Education Committee.

“Every step of the way, it’s a matter of ‘show us your work,’ ” said Baumgardner, who holds a master’s degree. “This notion of appropriation of someone else’s work is critical. A reputation is what can make or break an institution. Anytime someone dishonestly advances, it leaves another in the dust.”

Wichita State University policy on professional ethics says faculty derive obligations from membership in a community of scholars, which includes a duty to “acknowledge their academic debts” to other scholars. In addition, WSU’s definition of research misconduct includes fabrication, falsification and plagiarism. (Thad Allton for Kansas Reflector)

WSU policies

At Wichita State, students found to have violated plagiarism policy could fail a class or receive a warning, probation, suspension or expulsion.

WSU requires faculty to “practice intellectual honesty.” The statement says faculty have a duty to “acknowledge their academic debts.”

“As members of their institution,” the policy manual says, “faculty members seek above all to be effective teachers and scholars.”

Policies regarding research misconduct at WSU, adopted in 1997 and last revised in 2017, cover “fabrication, falsification, plagiarism or other practices that seriously deviate from those that are commonly accepted within the scientific community.”

The Kansas Board of Regents policy manual is silent on faculty plagiarism, said Matt Keith, spokesman for the board. The Board of Regents has responsibility for hiring presidents and chancellors at the state’s six public universities.

Muma was named acting president in September 2020 by the Board of Regents simultaneous to the departure of WSU president Jay Golden. The state board formally appointed him the 15th president of WSU in May 2021.

WSU made Muma its first gay president and Muma was the first physician assistant in the country to rise through the ranks to become a university president.

Muma, in his fourth year as WSU president, received a 4% raise in July to increase his annual salary to $520,000.

Kansas Reflector is part of States Newsroom, a nonprofit news network supported by grants and a coalition of donors as a 501c(3) public charity. Kansas Reflector maintains editorial independence. Contact Editor Sherman Smith for questions: info@kansasreflector.com. Follow Kansas Reflector on Facebook and X.

LAWRENCE — The debate between vice presidential candidates Tim Walz and J.D. Vance on Tuesday could offer an unusually consequential blend of policy provocation, personal attack and rhetorical flair given the tight presidential race with a month left in the campaign.

Robert Rowland, a University of Kansas professor of communication studies who has written extensively about political messaging, said during a recording of the Kansas Reflector podcast that Vance and Walz would be assigned similar tasks of avoiding a humiliating stumble and making people a bit more comfortable with them in the No. 2 spot on the Republican and Democratic tickets.

“I do think it means this debate is important,” said Rowland, sitting in a KU office populated with political memorabilia of George H.W. Bush, Franklin Roosevelt and Ronald Reagan. “I think the potential for a gaffe is important.”

At the same time, he said, the vice presidential nominees were certain to lock onto talking points of the GOP’s Donald Trump, who won the presidential election in 2016 and lost in 2020, and Democrat Kamala Harris, the vice president and part of the team with President Joe Biden that dethroned Trump.

Rowland said a special assignment for Vance would be to humanize himself for voters who might be uncertain whether he cared about Americans broadly rather than exclusively the MAGA base.

“Vance is fulfilling a role often played by vice presidential candidates — attack dog carrying the nationalist-populist message of Donald Trump. The focus of his campaign has been on activating core Trump supporters,” Rowland said.

Vance, a first-term Republican U.S. senator from Ohio and the author of “Hillbilly Elegy,” might be able to do that by focusing on the economy and high consumer pricing that emerged during the COVID-19 pandemic.

Rowland also said Vance could drill into U.S. election integrity and concerns about undocumented immigration, despite Trump’s demand that Republicans derail a bipartisan federal legislation that would have dealt with elements of border security.

Rowland said Walz, as a two-term governor of Minnesota, former member of the U.S. House and one-time teacher and football coach, would most certainly track Harris’ agenda on abortion rights, health care, taxation, and wars in Ukraine and the Middle East. The objective would be for Walz to address those issues in a manner easily consumed by rural, male Midwestern voters, Rowland said.

“In a way, both Vance and Walz present a vision of the paternal — of what a father might look like,” Rowland said. “But Vance comes across as a very judgmental thou-shalt-not father. Walz comes across as the kind of loving, goofy dad. It’ll be a battle between those persons.”

Rowland said Vance should be careful not to insult potential voters, including women generally, while espousing conservative political ideals. Vance ought to leave backstage his critique of “childless cat ladies” because there was nothing to be gained by attacking Taylor Swift and millions of her fans, he said.

Walz would help himself by avoiding comments that portrayed himself as a radical liberal. Walz should avoid the temptation to get too far into the policy weeds on issues, Rowland said.

“Walz is broadening the message,” he said. “It’s obviously an appeal to rural voters and an appeal to the working class. Walz made a point of saying that he and none of his friends went to Yale — a jab at Vance.”

Rowland said Vance could deal with anti-Trump statements he made in the past by confessing to having had “bad information” and that his appreciation for the former president had grown over the years. It likely wouldn’t be fruitful for Walz to delve into Trump’s ongoing criminal and civil legal problems because that information has already been baked into the minds of voters, Rowland said.

Rowland anticipated fact-checkers would remain busy during the debate — a job made increasingly problematic by erosion of “shared facts” in the United States.

Rowland said the vice presidential candidates would appreciate the elevated potential of the debate in New York City at 9 p.m. Tuesday on CBS. They would be expected to shape remarks to make the most of an opportunity to influence undecided voters in swing states of Michigan, Wisconsin, Pennsylvania, Arizona, Georgia, Nevada and North Carolina.

To this point in the campaign, Rowland said, Vance’s mission was narrow and concentrated on exciting the most fervent MAGA Republicans. The shift toward a wider message could be tricky, Rowland said.

“He’s not been chosen as an outreach candidate. Often candidates are chosen to broaden the appeal of the president. In 2016, (Trump running mate) Mike Pence was the nominee because he was an appeal to evangelicals who had questions about Donald Trump’s morality. Vance, on the other hand, is even more MAGA in some ways than Donald Trump is, but lacking his charisma,” he said.

Rowland said Vance had underperformed expectations as the running mate for Trump, while Walz exceeded what Harris assumed he brought to the table.

“Governor Walz has been perhaps the most effective spokesperson for the message of the Kamala Harris campaign — that Trump, Vance and other MAGA Republicans are weird,” Rowland said.

Kansas Reflector is part of States Newsroom, a nonprofit news network supported by grants and a coalition of donors as a 501c(3) public charity. Kansas Reflector maintains editorial independence. Contact Editor Sherman Smith for questions: info@kansasreflector.com. Follow Kansas Reflector on Facebook and X.

LAWRENCE — Gender politics researchers and authors Mary Banwart and Teri Finneman weren’t surprised the old misogynist playbook for campaigning against women was dusted off when Vice President Kamala Harris stepped forward as the Democratic Party’s presumed nominee for president.

The ability of men and women to undermine legitimacy of female candidates has been a central feature of U.S. politics for more than a century, but cracks in that gender-based foundation emerged with the nominations of Democrat Hillary Clinton and Republican Sarah Palin.

When President Joe Biden removed himself from the 2024 campaign, GOP officeholders and activists quickly labeled the first Black woman and first Asian-American woman locked onto a major party nomination as a “DEI hire.” Former President Donald Trump, the Republican Party’s nominee for the third time, encouraged supporters to embrace the idea Harris wasn’t qualified.

“It feeds Trump’s core supporters because that’s the message they want to hear,” said Banwart, author of “Gender and Politics: Changing the Face of Civic Life” and a professor at University of Kansas. “It implicitly suggests she’s not deserving. In some way, her credentials aren’t appropriate. It was a gift. She didn’t earn it. She doesn’t have what it takes, right? Which is all false, just to clarify, and a lie.”

U.S. Rep. Chip Roy, R-Texas, said the nation “may soon be subjected to the country’s first DEI president.” Likewise, U.S. Rep. Harriet Hageman, a Wyoming Republican, attacked Harris by categorizing the former California attorney general and U.S. senator as a “DEI hire.”

Finneman, a KU associate professor of journalism and author of “Press Portrayals of Women Politicians: 1870s to 2000s,” said on the Kansas Reflector podcast the country’s political sensibilities evolved slowly during the past 150 years.

In 1872, suffragist Victoria Woodhull was the first woman to run for president. In 1916, Jeannette Rankin was the first woman elected to Congress. In 1964, Republican Margaret Chase Smith was the first woman to actively seek the presidential nomination of a major political party. In 1972, Shirley Chisholm was the first Black woman to seek the presidency.

Palin was the 2008 GOP nominee for vice president. Hillary Clinton won the Democratic nomination for president in 2016. Harris is on the precipice of doing the same.

“It’s been a long, long road,” Finneman said. “To go centuries with very little progress and then all of a sudden in the last decade we have Hillary Clinton. Now we have Kamala Harris. The progression of history is just amazing.”

Finneman said the GOP narrative of Harris as a political beneficiary of diversity, equity and inclusion programs common in the workplace would register with some women but alienate others. Women shouldn’t be viewed as a monolithic block, she said, but the disparaging references to DEI could be costly to Trump.

“When you think about the anti-suffrage organizations that existed — groups that were against women getting the right to vote — they were run by women,” Finneman said. “It’s really hard to peg women as a group, but I would say … you have to be concerned about younger voters because its younger voters who have been energized on social media” by Harris’ candidacy.

‘Cut the crap’

U.S. Sen. J.D. Vance, the Ohio Republican chosen by Trump to be his running mate, ignited a firestorm of criticism when video of a 2021 interview on Fox News surfaced. In that segment, Vance asserted Harris and other prominent Democrats “don’t really have a direct stake” in the country’s future because they were “people without children.” Vance also referred to Democrats as “a bunch of childless cat ladies who are miserable at their own lives and the choices they’ve made.”

“It’s a way for them to say she’s not an appropriate woman,” Banwart said.

Finneman said the comment was the result of Vance attempting to form a sound bite without an understanding of American political history or basic facts. Harris has two stepchildren.

“Does he also think that George Washington shouldn’t have been president? He didn’t have his own children,” Finneman said. “This is just pure like sexist whistleblowing.”

Finneman said it was significant U.S. House Speaker Mike Johnson convened a closed-door meeting with Republican members of Congress and urged them to avoid race and gender critiques of Harris. He said the presidential race ought to be “about policies, not personalities.”

“Telling its members to cut the crap here with the racist and sexist commentary, that was fascinating to me for two reasons,” Finneman said. “One, the fact that that was the immediate response. Number two, that you actually had pushback on that.”

Banwart said the directive from GOP House leadership might color edges of campaign rhetoric, but the Trump campaign would stick with gender and racial attack lines.

“What’s scary is the way in which that translates to those who attend his rallies. The type of merchandise that’s created. The violent imagery that goes along with it,” Banwart said. “It’s a misogynist playbook of: Lie about credibility. Lie about what they bring to the table. And, then, objectify them. By objectifying them, they really tie it all together and they remove their humanness at the end of the day.”

The PEW study

The PEW Research Center released a national survey in 2023 that sought to identify reasons there were more men than women in high political office.

More than half of respondents said women were required to do more to prove themselves on the campaign trail when competing against men. There were differences of opinion between men and women as well as wide gaps between Republicans and Democrats, but 47% said the disparity was tied to gender discrimination.

In addition, 47% said women received less support from party leaders. Forty-six percent were convinced American voters weren’t ready to elect a woman to higher office.

“It doesn’t surprise me at all when you look at the media coverage during campaigns, when you look at some of the advertising during campaigns, when you look at party structures,” Banwart said.

In the PEW study, Republicans were twice as likely as Democrats to say women were less interested in holding office.

Democratic women were the most likely to identify with reasons for gender disparities, while Republican men were the least likely to agree with factors standing in the way of women. Sixty-five percent of participants in the poll said they believed U.S. voters were more likely to vote for a white male candidate.

“It is so engrained, these attitudes, in American culture and every woman who steps up trying to make a dent in the glass ceiling has taken the brunt of this and felt it,” Finneman said.

OLATHE, Kansas — The Rev. Bobby Love of Second Baptist Church endorsed a campaign Thursday to awaken Americans to the threat of white Christian nationalism and press for wider appreciation of how democracy could be damaged by a movement intent on undermining inclusive communities.

“Together we must reject the notion of placing one race above the other,” Love said. “We must reject the notion of intolerance. We must reject the notion of violence under the banner of Christianity.”

He said Second Baptist Church — which in 1882 put up a building two blocks from where the crowd gathered outside the courthouse in Johnson County, Kansas — was founded by Black Exodusters who migrated to the Great Plains from the South. He said nearly 150 years of trials and tribulations hadn’t destroyed the congregation’s sense of community.

He pointed to the late Rev. Martin Luther King Jr.’s vision of a “beloved community” in which a critical mass of people committed to the philosophy and methods of nonviolence. King recognized the human experience included personal, group and national conflict, but he also said those differences should be resolved through reconciliation among adversaries.

In the end, King preached, cooperation and goodwill could win out.

It was King, Love said, who put forth the idea that Americans had to find ways to live together as brothers and sisters or perish together as fools.

“If you feel like that today, let us reject the notion of divisive rhetoric. Let us reject the notion of violence,” Love said. “Let us together build up the beloved community.”

‘Growing partisan movement’

The noon event was coordinated by the Metro Organization for Racial and Economic Equity, or MORE2. It’s a Kansas City-based, nonpartisan social justice organization committed to transforming communities. The organization included members of different faith traditions, cultural backgrounds, races and economic means.

The rally was the fourth of seven scheduled from April through October in counties of the metropolitan area in Kansas or Missouri. The next is set for 7 p.m. Aug. 15 in downtown Parkville.

The coordinator of the two-state campaign, the Rev. Stephen Jones of First Baptist Church of Kansas City, said the issue of Christian nationalism was relevant as voters marked ballots during the 2024 election cycle.

“White Christian Nationalism is a growing partisan movement of grave concern to many in our society,” said Jones, co-paster of First Baptist Church. “In these monthly rallies leading up to the November elections, we want to lift up the dangers of white Christian nationalism to our American democracy.”

Rev. Laura Phillips, who serves the Overland Park Christian Church, said King’s vision of the beloved community granted equal status to women, men and all persons in terms of leadership and opportunity for expression.

“I’m in favor of unity,” said the Rev. Barry Dundas of Grace United Methodist Church of Olathe. “I think we’re all in favor of unity.”

Dundas said it was proper to address the issue of unity following the assassination attempt on former President Donald Trump during a campaign rally in Pennsylvania.

He said the alarming attack on Trump added urgency to the quest for bridging gaps among Republicans and Democrats and to engage in dialogue on fostering a more collaborative approach to politics.

‘Not a religion’

Rev. Chris Wilson, who serves the congregation at Saint Andrew Christian Church of Olathe, Kansas, said it was important for Kansans to gain a broad understanding of harmful ideologies that sought to distort religion for political gain.

Christian nationalists were in the business of eroding the separation of church and state by arguing government and Christianity should be one and the same, he said.

“Christian nationalism is not a religion,” he said. “Christian nationalism is a political ideology that is distorted. White Christian nationalism is a distorted ideology that seeks to pressure and misuse the term Christian to forward a system that enlarges power and privilege to those that already have it.”

Wilson said a core ideal of Christian nationalism was to marginalize and suppress views of people who deserved a seat at the table of government. It was elemental, he said, for Kansans to “vote their own values” in the August and November elections.

This story was originally published by Kansas Reflector, a States Newsroom affiliate.

TOPEKA — A U.S. District Court judge issued a preliminary injunction directly applicable in Kansas and three other states that blocked Biden administration rules deepening anti-discrimination protections for LGBTQ+ students and broadening the definition of sexual harassment at college and schools.

Kansas Attorney General Kris Kobach argued the case last month in Wichita on behalf of special-interest groups with members in Alaska, Utah, Wyoming and Kansas interested in derailing the U.S. Department of Education’s plan to implement in August policies amplifying Title IX civil rights protections. The court also asked plaintiffs Female Athletes United, Young America’s Foundation and Moms for Liberty to submit by July 15 a list of schools attended by students affiliated with those organizations who would be covered by the injunction.

Judge John Broomes, an appointee of former President Donald Trump, said in the order that plaintiffs were likely to win in court on constitutional claims the education department’s final rule was deficient.

“The court finds that plaintiffs are likely to prevail on their claims that the final rule is contrary to law and exceeds statutory authority,” Broomes said. “The final rule is an unconstitutional exercise of legislative power under the spending clause, the final rule violates the First Amendment and the final rule is arbitrary and capricious.”

Broomes’ order followed previous federal court decisions that likewise found merit to constitutional claims in opposition to the Biden administration rulemaking.

Kobach, who has made a habit of filing lawsuits against President Joe Biden, said Wednesday the Democratic administration sought to improperly rewrite federal regulations as it applied to transgender students. The Kansas court decision was an important step toward ending Biden’s maneuver to violate the rights of students, he said.

“It protects girls and women across the country from having their privacy rights and safety violated in bathrooms and locker rooms and from having their freedom of speech violated if they say there are only two sexes,” Kobach said.

The attorney general said implementation of Biden’s rule would require public schools to allow transgender males who identified as female to compete on sports teams designated for girls or women and to use school locker rooms assigned to “biological” girls or women. However, the Biden administration said the rule change didn’t apply to sports participation. Kansas law also forbids a transgender girl or woman from playing on school or college teams with females.

“If President Biden had his way, a 16-year-old female high school student on an overnight field trip could be forced to share a hotel room with a male who identifies as a girl, or the district would risk losing federal funding,” Kobach said a statement issued by the Alliance Defending Freedom. “We’re pleased the court ruled to rein in the administration’s vast overreach. It’s unconscionable, it’s dangerous for girls and women, and it’s against federal law.”

Kobach highlighted text of Broomes’ order that raised the possibility an “industrious older teenage boy may simply claim to identify as a female to gain access to the girls’ showers, dressing rooms or locker rooms so that he can observe his female peers disrobe and shower.”

The federal judge also said it would be wrong for the education department to “require schools to subordinate the fears, concerns and privacy interests of biological women to the desires of transgender biological men to shower, dress and share restroom facilities with their female peers.”

Kobach warned the state’s public school district administrators that each should be aware they “must abide by the court’s injunction and that they are prohibited from changing any of the schools’ policies to reflect Biden’s Title IX transgender rule.”

The Southeastern Legal Foundation represents two of the advocacy groups tied to the lawsuit — Moms for Liberty and Young America’s Foundation. The Alliance Defending Freedom, which represents Female Athletes United, in the Kansas lawsuit. Among the plaintiffs was Katie Rowland, a 13-year-old student in Oklahoma who stopped using restrooms in the school for a period of time because certain males were granted access.

“The court was right to halt the administration’s illegal efforts to rewrite Title IX while this critical lawsuit continues,” said Rachel Rouleau, legal counsel to Alliance Defending Freedom.

Kansas Reflector is part of States Newsroom, a nonprofit news network supported by grants and a coalition of donors as a 501c(3) public charity. Kansas Reflector maintains editorial independence. Contact Editor Sherman Smith for questions: info@kansasreflector.com. Follow Kansas Reflector on Facebook and X.

TOPEKA — Kansas congressional candidate Michael Ogle said his personal political quest was to convince voters that exceptional qualities of American values, history and politics were cornerstones of a prosperous national future.

Ogle, a Topekan who works to help military veterans secure federal benefits, said he was seeking the Republican Party’s nomination in the 2nd District of Kansas “because I think that American exceptionalism needs to be pursued” in the context of economic expansion, especially energy independence, and by avoiding unwarranted military entanglements, including defending Ukraine against Russia.

In terms of public policy, Ogle said was would advocate for expanded domestic oil production to help the country break free from reliance on energy resources from abroad.

“Drill here, drill now is the solution to our dependence on foreign energy,” he said on the Kansas Reflector podcast. “Our economy should be secured on the production of American energy, and this will end our need and desire to enter costly foreign entanglements. As far as foreign policy goes, American energy independence is very important for peace and prosperity.”

He said former President Donald Trump had channeled this idea by pushing an agenda tied to MAGA, or Make America Great Again.

“It’s a wonderful slogan,” Ogle said. “But the thing about it is, the citizen has to make America great again. I can get there by providing opportunity through American energy independence and bringing our tax dollars home. We need jobs. We need opportunity. We need American exceptionalism. We need an economy that can run on American energy.”

Ogle, who is in a five-person primary to be decided Aug. 6, said he wasn’t concerned with Trump’s reluctance to avoid exaggerations, distortions and lies.

“As far as President Trump goes, he’s a real estate developer that became a reality TV star. You’re not gonna get Ronald Reagan, the actor, the great communicator. You’re gonna get reality TV,” he said.

Ogle is running against former Trump administration appointee Jeff Kahrs, Attorney General Derek Schmidt, feedlot owner Shawn Tiffany and Lawrence resident Chad Young. These Republicans are competing for the party’s nomination to fill the void of U.S. Rep. Jake LaTurner’s decision not to seek reelection in 2024. The winner of the GOP primary would take on either former U.S. Rep. Nancy Boyda of Baldwin City or Matt Kleinmann of Kansas City, Kansas.

Military policy

Ogle, a retired infantry officer with the Kansas Army National Guard, works for the Veterans of Foreign Wars in Kansas as an advocate for veterans applying for benefits through the U.S. Department of Veterans Affairs. He said Congress should expand the PACT Act, which provided medical care to veterans harmed by toxic chemicals such as agent orange or exposed to burn pits in combat zones.

“For veterans that were exposed to high levels of toxins for long periods of time during service we should recognize all cancer and disease affecting human body systems,” said Ogle, who retired as a major. “We should look at the prolonged effect of ergonomic injury and expand mental health care resources.”

He said the United States must develop a more secure southern border with Mexico to inhibit human trafficking. U.S. Army and U.S. Marine Corps special forces should be deployed to “destroy” cartels engaging in smuggling people across the border into the United States.

The United States had no business devoting billions of dollars in military and humanitarian aid to defend Ukraine from invasion by Russia, Ogle said. He said observation of Russia’s military capabilities indicated it didn’t have the tactical or logistical capabilities to engage in a sustained battle with the United States. He predicted the expansionist urge in Russia would stop at Ukraine.

“I am not for the war in Ukraine,” Ogle said. “It is expensive and American tax dollars should go to solve American problems. Europe can defend Ukraine if they want.”

He argued withdrawal of U.S. forces from Iraq and Afghanistan contributed to subsequent decisions to arm Ukrainians and “keep funding their military industrial complex allies.”

He also was frustrated China had taken over mining lithium used in making batteries for vehicles.

“We just finished a 20-year war in Afghanistan,” he said. “China is buying swaths of land the size of Nebraska in Africa to mine lithium. Mining for lithium is not a ‘green’ process. American energy independence is the path to opportunity, prosperity and peace.”

The nuclear capabilities of the United States should serve as sufficient deterrence to forces aligned against Israel, he said.

Term limits, gun control

Ogle said students should open their day at school by reciting a U.S. constitutional amendment in conjunction with the Pledge of Allegiance.

“The history of America is the long struggle for liberty,” he said. “We must engage in this struggle daily if the blessings of liberty are to be secured for us and our posterity.”

He said term limits should be applied to Congress to put an end to long political careers that led to wasteful government spending and corruption. It was foolish Congress had an approval rating in the teens, he said, but voters were unable to throw out incumbent members of the House and Senate.

The United States shouldn’t restrict the right of citizens to keep and bear arms, but Congress or the states ought to take action against militia organizations, Ogle said.

Abortion shouldn’t be allowed after the point a fetus was considered viable outside the womb, he said. He was wary of all-out bans because that would foster development of black markets and likely introduce more violence into the task of securing abortion services.

Domestic violence

In 2019, Ogle was subdued by Topeka police officers amid a domestic dispute at his home with children inside the residence. His marriage was ending and that legal situation was complicated by his personal struggle post-traumatic stress disorder, he said. On the day the SWAT team was called in, he said he was intoxicated and his now-former wife had been doing illegal drugs.

Ogle eventually entered a guilty plea to aggravated domestic battery. He said he served one year of probation, but the episode had become a campaign issue.

“Coming back from deployment, I had some issues with PTSD,” said Ogle, who indicated he was prescribed medications that made him hostile. “I couldn’t find the right medications.”

He said people who engaged in misconduct should be given a second chance if making a sincere effort to change their life for the better. He said the arrest wasn’t, in his case, relevant to a campaign for the U.S. House.

“Stuff happens in people’s lives. It’s not always the best,” he said. “Some of this trauma, some of these things that have happened to me, have really given me a lot of wisdom, insight, empathy.”

Kansas Reflector is part of States Newsroom, a nonprofit news network supported by grants and a coalition of donors as a 501c(3) public charity. Kansas Reflector maintains editorial independence. Contact Editor Sherman Smith for questions: info@kansasreflector.com. Follow Kansas Reflector on Facebook and X.

LAWRENCE — Former NAACP Legal Defense and Educational Fund president Sherilyn Ifill said the nation should celebrate the 70th anniversary of the Brown v. Board of Education decision by the U.S. Supreme Court as overdue recognition of the necessity to end legal apartheid in the United States.

Ifill, speaking to a diverse audience Friday at the University of Kansas, warned the upcoming May 17 anniversary of the decision declaring racial segregation in public education to be unconstitutional would be celebrated during an era in which forces dedicated to derailing growth of multiracial democracy and citizenship were gaining ground.

She pointed to recent court decisions against race-informed college admissions and the advancement of legislative challenges in Kansas and other states to diversity, equity and inclusion programs on higher education campuses and within private businesses.

“Brown was not just about schools or even just about race,” she said. “Brown was critical to the uniquely American project of creating a healthy multiracial democracy … in which equality and justice are part of the defining national identity.”

Ifill, a distinguished professor at Howard University’s law school and selected to start a new center there focused on the 14th amendment, said the 1954 decision didn’t simply address subordination of Black children through legally sanctioned segregation in a country with a deep history of genocide and enslavement. An intellectually thoughtful person wouldn’t define a country with rigid laws compelling racial apartheid as a functioning democracy, she said.

The Supreme Court also spoke powerfully 70 years ago about the importance of education to development of citizenship and operation of a democracy, Ifill said.

“It’s one of the most powerful, unequivocal statements in Brown. And, for the life of me, I don’t know why we’re not saying that at this time,” she said. “The court went on to describe education as the most important function of state and local government. I don’t hear us saying that either.”

Ifill, who served as president and director of the NAACP legal defense fund from 2013 to 2022, said education didn’t guarantee a well-formed citizen. She said some of the most anti-democratic and harmful attacks on equality under the Constitution were shaped by graduates of the nation’s finest schools and colleges.

Failure to fully implement the idea of Brown as a vehicle of education, citizenship and democracy placed the nation in peril given the U.S. Supreme Court’s “manifestly dangerous” opposition to Brown, she said.

“Those who have long been arrayed against it are feeling their strength and feeling that they can ultimately overcome this vision,” Ifill said.

The NAACP provided legal counsel to plaintiffs in the consolidated school segregation lawsuit that prompted the U.S. Supreme Court decision in Brown. The landmark ruling was the Legal Defense Fund’s most celebrated victory in a long battle for civil rights.

In the Brown decision, all nine justices voted to overturn the “separate but equal” doctrine handed down in 1896 through the Supreme Court’s finding in Plessy v. Ferguson. In this earlier decision, justices held state-mandated segregation laws didn’t violate the equal protection clause of the Fourteenth Amendment.

Ifill said she was disturbed the Brown decision was being perverted by the U.S. Supreme Court to push back against race-influenced admissions. Such attacks, she said, repeated the canard that the Constitution was colorblind document.

“The project now is to hollow out Brown and to leave its husk so that it can be available for use of those forces that have always been arrayed against the promise of Brown,” Ifill said.

She spoke during a two-day conference sponsored by KU and the National Park Service on “Brown v Board at 70: Looking Back and Striving Forward.” On Saturday, participants were to have an opportunity to visit the Brown v. Board National Historical Park in Topeka.

Kansas Reflector is part of States Newsroom, a nonprofit news network supported by grants and a coalition of donors as a 501c(3) public charity. Kansas Reflector maintains editorial independence. Contact Editor Sherman Smith for questions: info@kansasreflector.com. Follow Kansas Reflector on Facebook and Twitter.