A Blue Wave in Kansas? Don't Be So Surprised.
Last edited Sat Nov 10, 2018, 01:35 PM - Edit history (1)
'If the Electoral College is the barometer, this state is deep red. But it’s the only one that has elected three female Democratic governors.
WICHITA, Kan. — At an open-air debate at the Kansas State Fair in September, a raucous crowd roared, cheered and booed with such vigor that the candidates often were forced to pause before they could speak.
The Republican candidate for governor, Kris Kobach, and the independent, Greg Orman, had strong support in the packed bleachers. But the loudest cheers, to my ears, were for the Democrat, State Senator Laura Kelly. She fed off the approval, delivering zingers and carrying her small stature with swagger.
The loudest boos were for Mr. Kobach, the secretary of state, who earlier in the year had been found in contempt of federal court for failing to notify unlawfully suppressed voting registrants of their eligibility. “You’re a criminal!” one man shouted several times. Mr. Kobach paused for a beat and shook his head with a laugh. . .
One might wonder how Ms. Kelly, a moderate Democrat similar to Hillary Clinton in politics, age and strategy, decisively won a governor’s race in “Trump country” against a candidate whose signature anti-immigrant tactics precisely align with President Trump’s xenophobic closing argument to midterm voters. Mr. Trump and Vice President Mike Pence both traveled to Kansas to campaign for Mr. Kobach, as did Donald Trump Jr.
So, liberal Laura Kelly — how? One reason is that there never was a “Trump country” at all. Rather, like many “red” states, Kansas is a gerrymandered, dark-monied place where election outcomes may have more to do with who votes and how those votes are counted than with the character of the place. In such states, Fox News and conservative talk radio have artfully prodded white fears to great effect, but about 40 percent of voters routinely reject the Republican Party. In Kansas, Mr. Trump won the general election, but Bernie Sanders won far more votes than Mr. Trump during the state’s caucuses. Party tribalism has increased here, in recent years, but a legacy of independent, unpredictable politics runs deeper.
In fact, dozens of former and current Kansas Republican lawmakers endorsed Ms. Kelly, supporting what the governor-elect in her victory speech on Tuesday night called not a “blue wave” but a “wave of common sense.”
To be sure, if the Electoral College is our barometer, Kansas is deep red. It hasn’t gone for a Democratic presidential candidate since 1964. My home congressional district, a mix of rural counties and the city of Wichita, has been represented by a Republican for 23 years.
Nonetheless, as of election night, exactly one state has elected three female Democratic governors: Kansas — and all in the last 28 years. . .
Kansas’s big Democratic wins, it turned out, were by women with less bold platforms who emphasized working across the aisle. It seems that if Midwestern states are bound for a return to their democratic-socialist roots — prairie populism, it was once called — they will first require a return to center in female form. . .
never mean or flustered. It is kind yet often plainly unimpressed.'>>>
https://www.nytimes.com/2018/11/10/opinion/kansas-laura-kelly-democrats-governor.html?
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