Courtesy of the Emporia Gazette
Editor’s Note: The Bulletin does not endorse candidates running for office.
Mic McGuire is running for election in Kansas House District 60 as a member of the democratic party – he’s also an alumnus of Emporia State.
A former pastor for the Methodist church and a former Opera performer, McGuire was born in Atchison, Kan. but moved to Emporia in first grade. He later attended ESU where he majored in music and also met his wife, Pam.
“I can say that (the experience at ESU) was great for me,” McGuire said. “I was a music major. They did full opera performances every year and I actually went into Opera singing after I left Emporia State and continued my education, so it was really good for me because I had a well-grounded education in so many diverse areas and fields.”
McGuire is a former pastor of the United Methodist Conference and retired three and a half years ago. While he served all over the state, his first appointment as an Elder was here in Emporia.
“I enjoyed my ministry, which is another aspect of what really prepared me for being a representative because church work, especially for pastors, is all about service,” he said. “It’s about serving the people, it’s not about serving yourself, it’s about serving the people, and my ministry was just a blessing to be able to do that.”
McGuire’s ministry also led him to start Emporia’s privately-funded Abundant Harvest food pantry.
“Another Pastor and I got together and we said ‘how can we serve the community?’ and we know there are hungry people, so we started serving meals out of Grace United Methodist Church. It grew and we didn’t want it to stay in Grace because we wanted the community to know you didn’t have to be a member to be fed.”
In an effort to expand, they got involved with the Men’s Rescue Mission which was buying a building on Whittier St., the same building where the Abundant Harvest sits today to feed Emporia’s hungry. Today, the pantry is able to do food giveaways and even mobile drop-offs with the help of donations and partnerships.
The 2024 election is not McGuire’s first time running for office. He ran for the same seat in 2022. He says his run this year is much less stressful than in years past, particularly because he has been able to be his “authentic self” when going door to door to meet voters.
“Two years ago it was totally stressful; this year it has been radically different, and I’ll tell you one of the reasons why is because I have realized I didn’t use my authentic self. I was trying to be a politician,” said McGuire. “(Constituents) don’t want a politician, they want someone who knows them.
When asked why he was continuing his run for election this year, McGuire mentioned freedom and justice. He later told a story from 2007, when he and a friend converted a Type 1 Volkswagen Beetle to run on electric power to protest the war in the Middle East and America’s dependence on oil.
“We always have to be striving for (freedom and justice), and it’s sad enough when we have to fight wars somewhere else for their liberty and their justice. I’m glad we are not fighting a war here and we are only voting because I truly believe there is a battle between people that boils down to liberty and justice, and without those two things America is no different than any other nation if we don’t have the freedom to vote, if a woman doesn’t have freedom over her own body, I don’t think that’s right,” he said.