The Barton County Democrats hosted a debate Saturday featuring two candidates seeking to upset Republican incumbent Tracey Mann in the November election for the Congressional First District seat. Colin McRoberts won the coin toss and introduced himself, followed by Lauren Reinhold introducing herself. They will face off in the August primary.

The questions for the debate were presented by Mike Gilmore, a former employee of the Great Bend Tribune who on Saturday was described as a Pawnee County journalist. Topics ranged from AI and data centers, to gerrymandering, to the separation of powers and the war in Iran.

The full exchange can be viewed by going to the Barton County Democratic Party page on Facebook.

Here are their opening remarks, edited for length:

Colin McRoberts

It’s important for me to point out the one thing that no Kansas politician is ever supposed to admit, which is that I wasn’t born in Kansas. I was born in Texas on the other end of Ogallala Aquifer so I grew up with the same water issues we’re still facing today. I worked around the country as a trial lawyer, mostly defending family businesses, suing hedge funds and banks for fraud.

I eventually met my wife up in Chicago. I learned something important, which is that some things are more important than money, and I quit my job at the law firm to follow her around the country for her scientific career, which eventually took us to Kansas — because she’s a superstar in her field, and we could go pretty much anywhere in the country. We drove down Massachusetts Street in Lawrence and realized this is where we want to raise our family. So we moved to Lawrence, we had our kid — he’s coming up on 9 years old now — and we are Kansans at heart.

I never intended to be a candidate until over a year ago. I was in Oakley, Kansas, watching Roger Marshall turn his back on his constituents. If you watch the footage of that day — it was probably footage I took. I happened to be standing there, recording on my cellphone, and I put it on my Facebook page. It got picked up by journalist friends and went out through them, I think, and made its way to CNN and the New York Times. On the five-hour drive back to Lawrence, I got some calls from journalists around the country asking, ‘How is this possible? How could anybody be this incompetent as a national politician?’ But what I kept telling them over and over again was this: That’s what a safe seat does. Roger Marshall doesn’t have any need to respect his constituents because he expects the votes no matter what. I thought for a couple of weeks about running against Roger Marshall, but eventually took a hard look at the budget for running a Senate campaign and realized that’s just not realistic.

“But we have the same problem at the House level. Tracey Mann has the same weakness — the same safe seat and the same disease. I realized early on that we needed to run this race in a way that we were doing the job whether we win the seat or not: We need to run the campaign in a way that leaves behind a mechanism and a machine to make it easier for the next candidate, whether it’s me next year or somebody else — and the next candidate after that, and the next candidate after that. Because the goal here, the strategic objective, is not just winning one race. The objective is to make the First District competitive again, and we do that with a multi-year strategy and a campaign run according to that strategy.

This is a winnable race. Donald Trump has been working hard every single day to show the American people why we need candidates who care about ethics, who care about corruption, why we should care about free trade policies, why we should care about wars in foreign countries — because they land at home on the kitchen table. These are issues that matter to us at home. And now, as I’m traveling the district, I talk to farmers who tell me they’re still Trump people — that’s not going to change in the next year — but they’re not Tracey Mann people. Because honestly, who would be? We have an opportunity to achieve something historic in the First District. And as long as we run a careful, strategic campaign — a campaign that wins whether or not I go to Congress, because the point again is to make the district competitive — that’s the strategy of running, and it’s why we’re running it in the way that we are.

Lauren Reinhold

I’m Lauren Reinhold. I’m a single mom, a lawyer of 29 years, and then until last year, a proud public servant at the Social Security Administration. My entire life and career has been dedicated to serving others’ interests — from raising two children to fighting for immigrants, disabled Americans, and other poor and underserved populations through my practice of law. At the Social Security Administration, I worked hard to make sure that disability benefits were adjudicated properly, and later to make sure that trained and competent people were handling your Social Security benefits

Last year, when my job was caught in the DOGE cuts, I had to make a decision about what to do next. I realized that what I wanted to do was continue to serve. I realized that my experience and career had given me the knowledge and insight to represent us in the U.S. House of Representatives in Congress. The First Congressional District deserves a public servant representing us in Washington, and Tracey Mann is not that public servant — not by a long shot. Instead, Tracey Mann has shown us that he is nothing more than a partisan stooge and a rubber stamp to an executive branch that is out of control.

I believe Kansans care. I believe Kansans care more about excellent schools in our communities than we do about building an opulent ballroom in the White House, or making sure that reflecting pool is blue. So when I’m your representative, I will demand that the federal government do its part to fund our schools — so that community schools stay open, educators keep their jobs, and all of our children have an excellent education. I believe Kansans care more about quality, accessible health care than they care about government coming between a doctor and a patient. So when I’m your representative, I will be a steadfast supporter of policies and bills that ensure expanded Medicaid coverage, the return of ACA tax credits, and adding a public option, so that all Kansans — and all Americans — can be insured. These steps are necessary to ensure that we can all afford to see a doctor, thereby increasing the revenue that hospitals and clinics receive to help keep them open and functioning.

I believe that Kansans care more about well-constructed and well-maintained roads and bridges than we care about spending a fortune bombing Iran. So when I’m your representative, I will propose a Rural New Deal — expanding, modernizing, and maintaining rural infrastructure for a new American century. A Rural New Deal would build new roads and bridges to connect communities, grow our passenger rail network, maintain water and utility systems, shore up community structures, and establish stable and reliable bonds so our communities can thrive.

I believe that Kansas is ready for a change. I believe Kansas wants a change, and I believe I can be that change. I believe that Kansans throughout the towns of the Big First — from Liberal to Lawrence, to Leavenworth to Linwood to Lucas — those are all in our district, folks — have more in common than we don’t. By focusing on our common interests, we can find solutions that are workable for everyone.

A question from the moderator:

Democrats have noticed shifting demographics and some ground loss among bedrock constituents. How do you plan to win back Democratic voters?

Lauren Reinhold – The main way I plan to win back Democratic voters is like I said in my opening — focus on those common issues, and not focus on the issues that more specifically urban communities would be interested in. Focus on what the people need, what all of us need in rural America: better infrastructure, reliable schools, reliable roads. And stay away from the issues that are divisive, because that’s what Republicans want. They want us to fight over divisive issues. That’s why they spent half their time in the Kansas legislature this year enacting a bathroom bill — just so they could see us fight with each other. We absolutely have to unite.

Colin McRoberts’ – The Democratic Party has approval ratings that are almost as much in the toilet as Donald Trump’s, and one of the reasons is that people hear Democrats talking about catastrophes, disasters, risks, and dangers to harm — but they don’t see Democrats accomplishing anything. We have to attract those marginal voters. We’ve got to build a coalition of independents and even swing Republicans.

But what independents and swing Republicans want to see is not someone trying to come to the middle on the same terms and same policies as Republicans. They already have a Republican on the ballot who doesn’t talk about controversial issues. His name is Tracey Mann and he never talks about anything. So if voters want to put themselves in a “better Republican who’s not too bad” mindset, a generic candidate isn’t going to cut it. What we do instead is identify specific things we can do that will actually make a difference in people’s lives on a short-term basis. For example, with farmers, we run on free trade, on revitalizing the economy, and on anti-corruption. We run on accountability for corruption and incompetence in government. We define ourselves that way — to rehabilitate the image and energy of the Democratic Party and build that coalition of independents and Republicans.