ELLY GRIMM
• Leader & Times
November could see a shakeup in the U.S. Senate, and Noah Taylor is one of the candidates looking to possibly make that happen.
As Taylor tells it, Kansas has always been his home, with hard work being a natural part of his life.
“I grew up El Dorado, and my dad worked as a pipefitter and my mom's a nurse. I joined the military after a year at college because frankly, I had no idea what I was doing,” Taylor said. “I became an infantryman, and I was deployed to Afghanistan, attached to Special Forces. We had a job called village stability operations where we'd go into Taliban-controlled areas, push them back, and then the big army would do their job. After that, I became a counterintelligence analyst for the military. Since I moved back, I've had a slew of jobs and right now, I'm helping run a bunch of small businesses that help other local companies grow and create jobs and perform at scale.”
Taylor said a lack of response from representatives at a federal level was a factor in his decision to run for political office.
“I'm the co-founder of an organization called Leading Kansas, and I spent the past year traveling across the state listening to Kansans and their problems and concerns,” Taylor said. “I would send all that information to our elected officials, and none of them wanted to do anything about it. They wouldn't respond to us. I'm running because I firmly believe our members of Congress have deserted regular Kansans. We're in a system where a few at the top profit, but it's our sons and daughters who are being used as bargaining chips in this war we're marching towards. Then I look at how we're being squeezed by high grocery bills, high health care costs, tariffs, and now, we're going into a war we have no evidence for. I'm running because I think it's time we land a few black guys on a system that works great for those at the top, but not so much for the rest of us. After hearing so many concerns across the state, I had been approached by members of the party and other folks around me, encouraging me to run. Then, I was approached on the day Renee Good was shot, and I thought about how if that happened here in Kansas, our leaders would do nothing. So ultimately, I decided to go for it and put my name in. I started building an infrastructure and reaching out to people and talked with people so I could understand what it takes to building an infrastructure that could run for Senate and not only take on Roger Marshall. I launched on March 17, and we've been we've been rolling hard ever since.”
And so far, Taylor said, the campaign trail has been a positive experience.
“So far, things are going incredibly well. I talk a lot about this isn't right versus left, this is us against a system that has continuously pushed us down, a corrupt system that works for those at the top,” Taylor said. “The people of Kansas are not looking for some politician to come riding in on a white horse and save the day. They're looking for somebody who's going to stand up, stand tall and dig in and fight for them, because we're all sick and tired of consistently identifying problems and having nothing being done because we're too busy fighting amongst ourselves.”
Taylor said he has multiple goals he would like to achieve should he ultimately be elected.
“I want to tackle the affordability crisis that we're in, and that ranges everywhere from working on our health care system and bringing in transparent pricing, lowering the cost of health care across the board, specifically for our rural folks who are losing healthcare access,” Taylor said. “I want to fight for affordable housing, and then I want to fight against the corruption we are seeing as we see people making $500 million trades 15 minutes before a Truth Social post goes out. We know there is wild, rampant corruption and people abusing our system for their gain, and I want to take that down. Lastly, I want to fight against these forever wars. I want to make sure it's not kids from Kansas being sent over just because this system beat their war drums, but can't provide us a shred of evidence, clear objectives or an end goal in sight. Something I’ve said to my team multiple times is one of the issues with Washington DC is we have a lot of show ponies but not a lot of work horses, and I'm a workhorse. From the second I wake up until the second I lay my head down, I will do everything humanly possible to fight for the people of Kansas.”
Taylor also offered encouragement for constituents to contact him with questions and concerns, whether that be through his social media pages or his Web site, noahforkansas.com.
“I believe in transparency, and wherever I go, I hand out business cards that have my personal cell phone number and my personal email, because I believe people need to be able to reach me,” Taylor said. “My phone does ring quite often with people asking questions, and they deserve answers. Anyone who wants to can go onto my Web site, and there's a contact form there, so people can reach out through that. People can also go to my social media pages and ask questions. I read every single email that comes in, I read all my messages on Facebook and comments, and especially when I'm out in public, I answer every question that's asked. I am more than happy to talk to anyone at any time who wants to have a conversation.”
Overall, Taylor said, he is ready to represent Kansas.
“The 24-hour news cycle, social media, all of that keeps us pitted against each other, and people like Roger Marshall run out the back door and they get rich while we're too busy bickering amongst ourselves while our sons and daughters are being sent to war,” Taylor said. “If you believe Kansas deserves a better tomorrow, you have a seat at my table whether you’re left, right or center, because it's not me versus you, it is us working class Americans against a system that has continuously pushed us down.”
