ELLY GRIMM
• Leader & Times
Those looking for the opportunity to hear from political candidates for multiple offices will have that chance soon thanks to the Kansas Democratic Party.
The Kansas Democratic Party will be hosting Democracy Fest event in multiple Kansas communities, with the kickoff taking place in Liberal Saturday, June 20 at 1 p.m. at the Rock Island Depot.
Chair Jeanna Repass said Democracy Fest should be a great opportunity for everyone.
“Democracy Fest is meant to be a festival of an homage to the old whistle stop tours folks used to do when people would go into communities and host rallies and hear from the candidates and let them get up and give their stump speech and make their case directly to people,” Repass said. “That’s what we will be doing across Kansas, and it’s going to be very exciting. Kansas is a very beautiful state, and what I'm excited about is bringing those folks together and make sure we're bringing all the excitement of the Kansas Democratic Party to them. This is our second annual Democracy Fest tour – last year we were in Colby and Hays and Dodge City, and in keeping with the theme of making sure we don't skip over Southwest Kansas this year, we're starting in Liberal and then we’ll be off to Salina, and then we're going down to southeastern Kansas. We're excited about doing to be going to places that don't always get the full Democratic state party apparatus, so we're bringing the show to them, so to speak.”
While planning this year’s festivities, Repass said Liberal was an easy choice for a kickoff location.
“Liberal is Oz-some, and they’ve got good elected leaders in on the city commission and other offices,” Repass said. “More importantly, it is a population base that has reached out to us and said, ‘We'd really appreciate if candidates would come here and talk to the people,’ and it was easy for us to say ‘Absolutely!’ Kansas will be a part of deciding the future of the United States, and we are bringing all of the statewide candidates for governor, secretary of state, attorney general, state treasurer, and insurance commissioner, but we're also bringing federal candidates. Anybody in Liberal who’s interested, whether you’re a Democrat or undecided or unaffiliated, or if you're a moderate Republican who doesn't see yourself being reflected in the values of your leaders, come and hear from these folks. We need everyone to know you matter, your votes matter, and these are the people who is wanting to represent you.”
While Democracy Fest is meant to mostly be educational, Repass said there will also be a bit of fun.
“It will be a feature of the candidates, so we will have them giving their stump speech, and again, we're treating this like a good old whistle stop tour, where we're going to have hot dogs and popcorn and other refreshments, because we do want everyone to be comfortable while they’re out there that day. The candidates will all also have tables with information about themselves, so there will be those chances for that one-on-one interaction. It's not just going to be we run a candidate on stage and then off they go, they will be there to hang around and talk to people so people can really get to know who these folks are. We really want this to be a good time for everyone who comes out.”
Repass added attendees should take advantage of having all the candidates in one spot at the same time.
“I am looking forward to showing the strength of the Democratic Party, the depth of the talent and experience and expertise of this candidate base,” Repass said. “We have the strongest slate of candidates that we have had in more than 30 years. We have filled every single statewide office seat with a candidate. All of our federal seats are filled, and almost all of them have a primary outside of the 2nd congressional district. We have primaries in all of our congressional district for our U.S. House of Representatives seats. We have a slate of 10 candidates running for U.S. Senate to replace Roger Marshall. We have primaries for the governor's seat. We have a primary even for secretary of state, and it just shows there's so much talent and so many people who want to step up and help lead Kansas in the right direction. We're on the right track, thanks to Gov. Laura Kelly, and we want to keep it that way, but on the federal level. A lot of people do not like where we are as a country, especially with the affordability issue, the price of gas, the impacts on fertilizer on our food, so we've got a whole bunch of federal candidates who have said ‘I want to step up and be a part of making this change on behalf of Kansans and the rest of the American people.’”
November’s election cycle will be interesting to watch, Repass said.
“I'm excited about the challenge, because in Kansas, we have never followed a Democratic governor with a Democratic governor, and it's been pretty much an even split over the last few decades. The trend has been we go from Democrat to Republican, and we tend to run eight-year cycles, but what's never been done is that we've had a Democrat, and then we follow them with the Democrats, so we're racing towards history here to do something unprecedented in Kansas, and I'm very excited about that,” Repass said. “Between the candidates we have running, all of them would do a great job succeeding Gov. Kelly. I'm very excited for people to get to know the U.S. Senate candidates, because I feel like all of them will do a better job representing actual Kansas values and living in Kansas.”
Overall, Repass said, she is looking for a successful Democracy Fest tour.
“Come treat this like a good old-fashioned whistle-stop tour free food, hospitality, and fun. This is not just a sit-around boring political event, and just hear people yawn on,” Repass said. “This is about candidates giving their stump speech, interacting with the folks who come and attend, and really having a good old-fashioned time in Southwest Kansas, so we're very excited about this.”
