Gen Z congressional candidate believes ‘proud progressive’ views will appeal to Kansas voters

Cole Epley appears for a June 17, 2026, recording of the Kansas Reflector podcast. He is seeking the Democratic nomination for the 4th District congressional seat. (Photo by Anna Kaminski/Kansas Reflector)

TOPEKA — Cole Epley isn’t afraid to run for Congress as a “proud progressive.”

The 28-year-old believes he’s the best choice for the Democratic nomination in the Wichita-area 4th District because moderate candidates have already shown they can’t defeat incumbent Republican Rep. Ron Estes.

In an appearance on the Kansas Reflector podcast, Epley said a lot of candidates hold progressive values but are “scared to actually go the distance and just take on the mantle of owning the label, and I’m not afraid of doing that.”

The Gen Z candidate said other Democrats just want to maintain the status quo, and that there are “real artifacts of McCarthyism” still at play.

“It’s not progressive for me wanting you to go to the hospital, and the only thing you have to worry about is getting better,” Epley said. “I don’t want you to worry about whether the hospital’s in network. I don’t want you to have to worry about whether you have co-pays or anything else. I want you to just go to the hospital, if you have to, and get better. And I think once you kind of reframe progressive policy in that more human capacity, in that context, it makes it clicks for a lot more people.”

He will appear on the Aug. 4 primary ballot alongside Democrats Chris Carmichael, Ryan Gilbert and Katy Tyndell.

Epley said he was born in Wichita and grew up in Rose Hill. He earned a degree in music education from the University of Kansas and enlisted in the Army Reserve, where he is now a sergeant, so he could join the band. He plays French horn, trumpet and jazz guitar.

While in Lawrence, he was a member of the Democratic Socialists of America and joined Black Lives Matter demonstrations. But he said he became disillusioned with politics after “people who were supposed to be our political allies in our party” prevented U.S. Sen. Bernie Sanders of Vermont from becoming the Democratic nominee for president.

“I knew I wanted to work and advocate for kids,” he said.

He worked at a licensed group home for middle school-age boys — “It was chaos, but I loved it,” he said — and then as a transition case manager for EmberHope, a foster care contractor for the state. There, he helped children at high risk of being trafficked find homes and get a job as they aged out of the state system.

He said he found the work “emotionally exhausting” but fulfilling.

“There’s no safety nets for these children,” he said.

Cole Epley makes his argument for abolishing ICE during an interview for the Kansas Reflector podcast. The 28-year-old noted that he is older than the fedearl agency. (Photo by Anna Kaminski/Kansas Reflector)

He has been unemployed since January, which gives him more time to work on his campaign. He said he hasn’t yet filed with the FEC because he didn’t meet the $5,000 threshold in donations as of the most recent filing deadline.

But Epley doesn’t see the lack of money as a problem. He boasts of having the largest “volunteer army” of any campaign, and his strategy is simply to knock on a lot of doors. He talks to people about how he plans to beat the better-funded moderate candidates in the primary.

“We know that a moderate platform can’t flip this district,” Epley said. “We don’t know anything about a progressive platform, but we have been seeing across the country all of these other progressives, and young progressives, make massive swings and win districts they have no right winning — on paper, have no right winning. But then you actually look at what working-class unity is, you’re like, ‘Oh, I get it.’ ”

His progressive views include raising the minimum wage, providing universal health care, decriminalizing marijuana, and abolishing the U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement agency.

“I paid attention in high school, and I learned what the Gestapo is,” Epley said.

“We can’t be spending $40 billion a year to fund them to do horrible things to our marginalized and minority communities, to be putting people God knows where on this planet when their home country is the United States of America,” he added. “It’s just inhumane on every level. It’s a waste of tax dollars, if you want to just get very shallow with the entire system.”

He said the U.S. could spend a fraction of that money on social workers and immigration judges to turn undocumented people into Americans who can be full members of their communities. He said the focus should be on staffing the border, not policing it.

“I’m 28 years old,” he said. “I’m the youngest candidate in my race, and I’m older than ICE. That shows it wasn’t a thing until we got really xenophobic and really Islamophobic after 9/11.”

Epley said women should have the right to choose an abortion, and that the focus should be on making it easier to raise a child by improving social programs and shifting the tax burden from low-income workers to the upper 1% and mega-corporations.

“People aren’t just going around and wanting to, you know, hit the abortion button recreationally,” he said. “It’s a serious conversation, and it’s a serious consideration for every woman who’s ever had to do it. No one finds pleasure in that. And I think we have to let it be the woman’s choice, because so much of it is medical.”