With the Presidential Election just weeks away, the race is a toss up with both candidates at a stalemate. However, there is more to this election cycle than just the presidential election. Yard signs exclaiming support for each side’s candidates have sprung up and so have the political ads for candidates in the running, but it can be hard to remember all the names and positions of each candidate running this year. The following is The Bulletin’s brief guide to some of Emporia’s candidates in the running.
U.S. House Kansas District 2
Nancy Boyda is the Democratic Party’s candidate. Boyda advocates for the restoration of Roe v. Wade and her economic goals include incentivizing the construction of affordable housing, training more workers in construction trades and investing in new technologies for affordable home construction.
On the topic of immigration, Boyda supports bipartisan immigration that should include an increase in border security, deportation of drug cartel members, stricter qualifications for asylum, reducing the criminal backlog in courts and finding a path to citizenship for those who have been in the United States for five or more years with no violent crimes.
The Republican Party’s candidate is Derek Schmidt, the former Kansas attorney general. Schmidt’s campaign page includes an advertisement in which Schmidt explains his support for former President Trump’s border policy. Schmidt also states that he ended sanctuary cities and sued President Joe Biden to “stop his border crisis.” Schmidt is endorsed by former President Trump, who, in July, posted on Truth Social saying “Derek Schmidt is a fantastic Attorney General of Kansas, a State I love and won by large margins in 2016 and 2020!” Trump went on to call Schmidt “America’s first patriot and a true friend to MAGA.”
Kansas State Senate District 17
The Kansas State Senate District 17 is seeing a race between the Democratic candidate Lillian Lingenfelter and Republican candidate Mike Argabright.
Lingenfelter seeks to lower the cost of living in Kansas with tax reforms and property tax relief. She wants to focus on creating jobs in STEM, agriculture, engineering, and clean energy and focus on policy to help small businesses. When it comes to healthcare, Lingenfelter wants to expand Medicaid as well as legislation to help support local healthcare facilities.
Argabright’s stance seeks to keep property taxes under control by ensuring that “everyone is contributing and that our spending priorities are balanced” as noted on his campaign website. He also wants to focus on keeping Kansas in the state by creating more jobs and opportunities for young Kansans.
Kansas State House District 60
Republican incumbent Mark Schreiber and Democratic candidate Pastor Mic McGuire are in the running for Kansas State House District 60, which accounts for the majority of the city of Emporia.
McGuire seeks to lower taxes for the middle class, expand Med-icaid, protect reproductive rights, increase funding for public education, legalize medical marijuana, create a livable wage and be an ally to all marginalized communities, including the LGBTQ+, Hispanic and Latino communities. He also wants to address climate change by moving into renewable energy.
Schreiber, who has held his seat since 2017, says he is “guided by the principles of hard work and fiscal responsibility.” If reelected, he says he will continue to address rising healthcare costs, stabilize education funding to prepare students to succeed, expand broadband internet access and create a competitive economy in the state that stabilizes businesses.
Kansas State Board of Education District 6
Democratic candidate Beryl New and Republican candidate Bruce Schultz are running for District 6 of the Kansas Board of Education.
According to her campaign website, New wants to make education more accessible. She seeks to develop a civic-minded community, invest more into improving public schools, increase graduation rates, and support learning environments.
Schultz wants to focus on academics, claiming in an interview with the Emporia Gazette that two out of three students are not performing at grade level and that is a problem. Schultz also wants to focus on safety in schools such as bullying or greater threats that require the school to work with local law enforcement. Schultz advocates for parent, family and community engagement as areas that resources can target for his goals.
