Do you feel represented? In just a few days, Kansas voters will have a chance to weigh in on that question in two significant races, the Kansas Governor’s race and the U.S. Senate race.
In the Kansas governor’s race, we should ask who might best represent us as Kansans. Both candidates have records from their time serving in the KS Legislature. Kansans would be well served to look at these records before casting their votes. Ty Masterson is your clear choice if you’re a supporter of private schools over public schools. If you’re a supporter of the Brownback-era tax cuts that jeopardized our state’s budget, Ty Masterson is again your clear choice. Candidate Masterson also used his position as KS Senate President in April 2026 to nullify the votes of Ellsworth County voters who overwhelmingly elected in Nov 2025 to make security and facility upgrades to our county jail. Sales tax votes like those need approval from the Legislature, who usually defer to the local county voters as knowing best on such questions. When our State Representative Waymaster and our State Senator Blew made votes on a separate topic on behalf of their constituents instead of voting to serve the Senate President Masterson, he canceled the jail security improvements that 60% of Ellsworth County voters had already voted to support. This was similar to his actions with 5 other counties (Butler, Labette, Leavenworth, Lincoln, Sheridan). If vindictiveness and intimidation like this is the behavior we expect from our state leadership, we have a clear choice.
In the U.S. Senate race, we have an incumbent Roger Marshall running for re-election who hasn’t made unstaged or unscripted town hall visits to hear from his constituents since March 2025. He recently made a scripted appearance in Topeka, and you could attend if you paid $95. If you could afford to pay to see our elected US Senator, perhaps you feel represented. After the Iran war was started, we heard months of unequivocal support of that war from our junior Senator even when fuel, fertilizer, and food prices escalated for his actual constituents in Kansas due to the war, and the ongoing tariff policies. Senator Marshall has a net worth of over $2.3 million, has a second home with a value in the 7 figures, and says that our high prices are the cost of security. Maybe you have a second home, and high prices aren’t impacting your household, so maybe you feel represented. With more time and space I could also speak of the Senator’s support for importing more Latin American beef, or his support of cutting funding for programs that help lower income Kansans while cutting taxes for the wealthiest Americans.
Do you feel represented? When we go to vote on Nov. 3, we’ll have to answer that question.
Eric Coonrod
Ellsworth
