Kansas Army vet running for U.S. Senate slams ‘rigged system,’ ‘political insiders’

Noah Taylor, Democratic candidate for U.S. Senate, appears on the Kansas Reflector podcast on July 17, 2026. (Photo by Morgan Chilson/Kansas Reflector)

TOPEKA — A U.S. Army veteran and outspoken critic of Republican incumbent U.S. Sen. Roger Marshall has focused his campaign for the U.S. Senate by approaching issues from a veteran’s perspective as he competes with 10 other Democratic candidates in the Aug. 4 primary.

Noah Taylor said he is running a campaign grounded in grassroots support, and he pledged to take no corporate PAC money. In social media videos and ads, Taylor has taken swings at “big corporations and the Epstein class,”  a “rigged system” and “political insiders” as he speaks on the war in Iran, high gas prices and floundering rural health systems.

Taylor said on the Kansas Reflector podcast he decided to run for public office because he “was tired of having people at the federal level that don’t understand our lives, our values and our experiences.”

“I’ve traveled all across this state multiple times, and what I’ve come to realize is people aren’t looking for someone to come riding in on a white horse and save the day,” he said. “We’ve been sold that lie time and time again. They’re looking for someone to stand up, stand tall and fight like hell with them, and that’s what I bring to the table.”

Taylor has signed onto “Unrig Washington,” a 2026 midterm agenda from End Citizens United, the liberal PAC focused on changing campaign finance policies. The agenda has gained broad support from Democrats across the country. It requires its candidates to publicly support banning congressional stock trading, refuse corporate PAC money and root out dark money.

He said his campaign isn’t accepting corporate PAC money or special interest dollars.

“We’ve focused on grassroots organizing and building that campaign with individual contributions because we want power to belong to the people,” Taylor said.

A super PAC, the 1861 Initiative, with an address in Wichita has spent almost $1 million on Taylor’s campaign, paying for digital and TV advertising, paid search results and text message outreach, according to federal election filings. The Civil War began in 1861.

Helena Buchmann, a senior adviser to Taylor’s campaign, said in response to a question from Kansas Reflector about how the super PAC’s spending aligns with Taylor’s pledge against corporate PAC support: “Noah is running to end corruption and get money out of politics. That’s why he’s the only candidate in this race that End Citizens United — the premier organization leading the fight against corporate money in politics — put on their ‘Unrig Washington’ candidate list.”

Taylor grew up in El Dorado, the son of a pipe fitter and a nurse and the product of public schools. After one year of community college, he entered the military, where he fought with the U.S. Army in Afghanistan. He spent more than three years as an infantryman and around three more years as a counterintelligence analyst. He now lives in Kechi outside of Wichita with his wife and two kids, working for a small business operator.

In social media posts, Taylor frequently weighs in on foreign policy. He has condemned Marshall’s inaction on stricter sanctions for Russia, critiqued military spending and faulted the Trump administration for its justifications for the war in Iran.

“If we’re going to be sending American lives, we’ve got to be fighting something that’s worth fighting for,” he said on the Kansas Reflector podcast.

If elected to the U.S. Senate, Taylor said, he wants to improve fellow veterans’ transition from the military into civilian life.

“Right now, we kind of just kick them to the curb and say thank you,” he said, “and it’s such a tough transition.”

He said aid for service members leaving the military means ensuring they know about benefits available to them, or encouraging a “buddy system” like he had in the Army, through which newly discharged service members can access a community and assistance with the basics of life.

Taylor supports legalizing recreational and medicinal marijuana, partially because he has seen it benefit veterans dealing with the lasting effects of their military careers, he said. He also said he supports abortion access, preserving voting rights and eradicating President Donald Trump’s tariffs.

He said he opposes defunding public education, the Trump administration’s immigration enforcement approach and the constitutional amendment on Kansans’ primary ballots that asks if voters want to shift the way Kansas Supreme Court justices are selected to a popular vote.

His military background translates into many of his campaign talking points, as he underscores a need to fight.

“Fifty years from now, our grandkids are going to ask us what we did in this moment, and the only acceptable answer is fight with every fiber of our being for not only our future but for our Constitution,” he said.

He said he wants to fight for affordable healthcare and housing. If progress is made, he said, it won’t be “because it was handed to us.”

“We had to fight for it,” he said, “and that’s uncomfortable to talk about, but we’ve got to fight.”