Kansas Democrats’ ‘fight back’ tour stop in Hays shows they need to fight harder

Rep. Stephanie Sawyer Clayton, D-Overland Park, delivers a speech during an April 10, 2025, session on the House floor. (Sherman Smith/Kansas Reflector)

Kansas House Democrats made a recent stop in Hays on their statewide “fight back” tour. The event drew an impressive crowd of more than 100 people who overflowed into the various alcoves and hallways of the Glassman Bird Law Firm to listen to our representatives.

The mission for the evening, according to the webpage dedicated to the “fight back” tour, was as follows: “This tour isn’t just about conversation, it’s about mobilization. Together, we will strategize, organize, and take action to protect our democracy and advance a vision rooted in equity, opportunity, and justice for all Kansans.”

I was encouraged by the turnout, but I felt that the representatives who were present were unprepared to address the “protect our democracy” component of their mission statement.

The event began with questions about schools, property tax and appraisal processes but invariably turned toward national politics when a young woman voiced concerns about the deployment of the National Guard in Washington, D.C., and her fear of martial law being declared nationwide.

Rep. Stephanie Sawyer Clayton, D-Overland Park, reassured the questioner that martial law was unlikely to be declared in a red state like Kansas.

“I’m not pleased with what’s going on at the federal level, but I do not think that we will see martial law in Kansas. Lord have mercy, I hope I’m right on that, but instinctually I don’t think we will,” Clayton said.

I was annoyed. Our democratic representatives had been travelling around the state on a self-titled “fight back” tour for which they had printed banners and posters and even made a webpage. But when asked about the threat of right-wing authoritarianism in our country their response was simply to hope that it doesn’t happen in Kansas? Is crossing your fingers really the best way to “protect democracy”?

I raised my hand to tell Sawyer Clayton that her response to the question was not at all comforting. In turn she asked me what I thought she should do about martial law while adding that she was “open to suggestions.”

A good faith interpretation of her response would see it as fulfilling one of the objectives of the “fight back” tour — to organize and strategize as a community. But it felt to me like a teacher arriving to class and asking the students, “So, what would you like to do today?”

If House Democrats are truly interested in organizing toward the lofty goal of protecting democracy, they must come to these types of meetings with more than an openness to suggestions. They must have a plan!

My frustration only deepened at the end of the evening. Just as I was leaving, Rep. Mike Amyx, D-Lawrence, shook my hand and thanked me for coming and offering my input. I told him how surprised I was that they had not been corresponding or strategizing with Democrats in other states about how to counter the increasingly authoritarian maneuvers of the right.

He gave me a platitude about my generation being “agents of change” and encouraged me to make my voice heard through calls and emails. I don’t recall exactly what I said in response, but it was something along the lines of, “I’m literally in front of you right now.”

It is frustrating that Democrats in Kansas and across the United States continue to warn of “democracy in peril” in their tweets, speeches, and event promotions, while still delivering canned statements and maintaining a business-as-usual politics that fails to match the gravity of their rhetoric and of our political situation.

Kansas Democrats recently sent a letter to Republican U.S. Sen. Roger Marshall asking for congressional oversight on the Department of Homeland Security. But only 17 of 37 Kansas House Democrats and five of the nine Kansas Senate Democrats signed the letter. This falls far short of the unity that is required to meet the challenges ahead. Sending the letter is a good start, but it’s the kind of thing that Kansas Democrats should be doing weekly if not daily.

Kansas Democrats need to begin thinking seriously about worst case scenarios. What would they do if the National Guard were deployed in Kansas? Would they file a lawsuit? Break quorum? Protest — and how? What if Trump were to blackmail Kansas universities as he has done to Harvard and Columbia? What if one of their constituents were arrested for writing an op-ed that criticizes Israel?

These are not abstract hypotheticals. Trump has recently ordered the mobilization of more National Guard troops from 19 states and is signaling his intention to send troops into Chicago in the same manner that he has done in D.C.

The representatives on the “fight back” tour are decent, intelligent people who truly have Kansans’ best interests at heart. That was clear to me. My point in writing this is not to disparage their character but to point out that they have a serious blind spot when it comes to being prepared for authoritarianism.

They, along with Democrats across the country, might be caught in what the political philosopher David Runciman calls the “confidence trap.” Each time a democracy overcomes a crisis it gains confidence that it will do the same in the future. Eventually, a crisis may arrive where citizens and politicians will fail to do the things that got them through the crises of the past because they believe implicitly that they will pull through.

Our democracy may have weathered the storm of Trump 1.0, but its second iteration is already far more extreme and unrestrained. If we want to make it through, Kansas Democrats need to stop being complacent and get activated. This means developing contingency plans, speaking to lawyers and working to develop a united front among all Kansas Democrats.

On a personal level, they should be reading literature from our Founding Fathers or resistance fighters like Nelson Mandela who put their lives on the line for freedom and democracy. Because in addition to collective action, they should be asking themselves how far they are personally prepared to go if our democracy is what’s at stake.