Local Kansas Democrats rally to get out the vote

By SJ Otto

In the wake of two big time visits from President Donald Trump and Vice President Mike Pence in support of Kris Kobach and other Republican candidates across the state, Democrats rallied the troops, October 21, with a visit by Dan Glickman former Kansas Congressman from the 4th District and former U.S. Secretary of Agriculture.

"I was an elected official here for many years,” Glickman said, according to KAKE TV. “I just like to see people engaged."

Glickman has spent the weekend back in Kansas stumping for Democrats like James Thompson, candidate for the US Fourth District House of Representatives, Laura Kelly and Lynn Rogers, candidates for Governor and Lt. Governor, Lacy Cruse, running for Sedgwick County Commissioner, and Kansas Representative John Carmichael among others. They gathered Sunday afternoon at the Machinist Hall in Wichita, KS.

I was there, just in time to see local Democrats speak.[1] Thompson and Cruse are part of a movement to move the Democratic Party to the left. In the past the Democrats have relied on a strategy of raising lots of money, staying close to the center and avoiding controversial issues that might offend voters. That strategy has not always worked and many progressive Democrats are sick of it. Thompson, Cruse and some other Democrats were able to fill Century II, earlier this year, with supporters of both their campaign and the more progressive local Democrats.

“If you have pre-existing health conditions, you better vote,” said Thompson. He added that his opponentRon Estes wants to get rid of the protections that Obamacare (Affordable Care Act or ACA) has given people.

“They will allow insurance companies to discriminate against people with pre-existing conditions and deny people health care,” Thompson added.

He also pointed out that Trump and his Republican congress people want to cut back on Social Security.

“They call it entitlements and they are entitlements,” Thompson said. “You paid into them your whole life and they want to take that away from you.”

Other Democrats warned that if Kobach wins the election, he will damage the public schools even worse than Sam Brownback did when he was governor.

This afternoon the theme was to get out and vote. Most of the speakers said that there has never been a bigger difference between the Democrats and Republicans in the state’s history.  It was also announce d that about 40,000 Democrats and independents have signed up to vote in the last week. This could spell a big difference in the outcomes of these elections.