Statewide survey shows Kansans want progressive policy. But don’t ask them to vote for Democrats.

Ken and Peggy Greco, ages 72 and 69, traveled from Augusta, Georgia to attend the No Kings day event in Washington, D.C., on Saturday, Oct. 18, 2025. (Photo by Ashley Murray/States Newsroom)

People of Kansas, we need to have a heart-to-heart conversation.

I don’t know what you want. This year’s Kansas Speaks opinion survey from the Docking Institute of Public Affairs at Fort Hays State University suggests that you have a lot of straightforward, admirable views on public policy. You want to expand Medicaid, legalize cannabis and keep abortion legal. You like Democratic Gov. Laura Kelly more than Republican President Donald Trump. You worry about the national economy and don’t like the U.S. Congress.

On the other hand, you voted for Trump over Democrat Kamala Harris by a 16-point margin in November. You voted in a Republican supermajority whose leaders have devoted themselves to limiting health insurance for the poor, arresting and prosecuting people who smoke weed, and ultimately banning abortion.

You could think that Kansans have an easy alternative: Vote for Democrats. But that doesn’t account for the party’s horrendously tarnished brand and longstanding challenge of gaining traction in generationally Republican Kansas.

Political scientist Michael Smith told Kansas Reflector editor Sherman Smith that people have an “abysmal opinion” of the Democratic Party. A handful of exceptions (like Kelly) transcend the label and prove his point.

Moderate Republicans might seem like the answer. Yet their power in Topeka has been systematically targeted by rock-ribbed conservatives, beginning with then-Gov. Sam Brownback’s purge in 2012. Moderates managed a brief comeback in 2016, but they have faced repeated setbacks since. The mechanics of primary elections — in which only die-hard partisans vote — has made it difficult for sensible members of the GOP to prevail.

So we end up with this situation. Kansans keep voting for people they disagree with.

I mean, you can cast your ballot for whoever you want. I’m not in the business of making campaign ads or juicing voter turnout. I write my thoughts down and send them out into the wider world. But if you keep voting for people who have explicitly stated they want to do the things that you don’t approve of, what do you think will happen? Do you expect Kansas Republican leaders to experience an epiphany and decide to expand Medicaid, free the weed and renounce regulations on women’s bodies?

Fat chance.

So what do you want, Kansans? How many times do you need to be betrayed by the people you elect? Or are you just fine with everything? The survey suggests that a healthy chunk (45%) think Kansas is moving in the right direction. Or maybe we just don’t like change.

“Once you’ve been a Republican, you’re more likely to stay a Republican and continue to vote for Republicans,” said Alexandra Middlewood, chair of the political science department at Wichita State University, speaking about the survey. “Same with Democrats.”

I’ve written columns like this before. I’ve even written columns like this before about the Kansas Speaks survey. But I keep writing them because I think we can never hear enough that Kansans do not agree with Republican leaders’ policies. Not in Kansas, and not in the United States. There remains today, just as there was decades ago, a broad swath of moderates who want the government to provide a strong social safety net, stay out of residents’ personal business and run government efficiently.

Oddly few Kansas politicians have tried to fill this gap. Democrats have fitfully attempted the task, but they’re absurdly outmatched financially and clustered in urban areas.

Moderate Republicans appear to have gone into hiding, with the high-profile exceptions of gubernatorial candidate and Insurance Commissioner Vicki Schmidt and Emporia Rep. Mark Schreiber. I’ve covered efforts to boost commonsense candidate’s visibility, but the power of entrenched interests has proved wrenchingly difficult to overcome.

This contradiction has played out at the national level during the first 10 months of Trump’s second term. A majority of American voters did not vote for the current president. Opinion polling shows that an even larger majority don’t like his performance in office. A smart and disciplined opposition could theoretically make major inroads.

Instead, we have the national Democratic Party.

As humorist Will Rogers put it: “I don’t belong to an organized political party; I am a Democrat.”

The party has all but collapsed into a heaving pile of interconnected squabbles, leftists and liberals and centrists whaling on one another with the fervor of sugar-addled toddlers. Everyone agrees the party is seen as elitist, out-of-touch and ineffective, but no one agrees on the solution.

One group suggests a more moderate approach. Another suggests a more progressive one. Meanwhile, guardrails protecting our representative democracy have been efficiently stripped by a new class of nihilistic MAGA drones. Democrats have decided to take a stand with the current government shutdown, but given unified GOP control in Washington, D.C., they can’t hope to accomplish many tangible results.

Yes, it’s bad. But we also know that people want better.

Kansans and voters generally don’t understand politics in the same way as enthusiasts. They see current events through the prism of their own lives and their families’ economic health. Their policy preferences can align in unexpected ways — an ardent abortion-rights advocate can support gun rights and same-sex marriage while opposing immigration. People believe what they believe and choose candidates that make sense to them at the time.

Spend a few minutes with this web feature from the Survey Center on American Life. It allows you to guess how various people voted in the 2024 election based on their beliefs and personal information. You will be repeatedly surprised.

People of Kansas, I don’t understand you. Not entirely. But I know you want a state that does right by its people. Let’s see if politicians step up to make those desires reality.

Clay Wirestone is Kansas Reflector opinion editor. Through its opinion section, Kansas Reflector works to amplify the voices of people who are affected by public policies or excluded from public debate. Find information, including how to submit your own commentary, here.