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U.S. Sen. Roger Marshall officially lost his seat to the Rev. Adam Hamilton on Tuesday night as part of a resounding repudiation of Republicans across the United States. But Marshall actually lost that seat 20 months ago, when he clashed with everyday Kansans at a March 1 town hall meeting in Oakley. Facing tough…
Voters across the country administered a sharp reprimand to President Donald Trump and Republicans who hold majorities in Congress, with Democrats gaining comfortable majorities in the Senate and the House. Several U.S. Senate and House races remained uncalled by The Associated Press as Election Day ended on the East…
With most of the Kansas vote counted, the race for Kansas governor between Democrat Cindy Holscher and Republican Ty Masterson was too close to call.
TOPEKA — All four U.S. House members from Kansas held onto their seats Tuesday, including three Republicans who saw their margins of victory shrink considerably from two years ago. U.S. Reps. Tracey Mann, Derek Schmidt, Sharice Davids and Ron Estes will return to Washington, D.C. Davids, the lone Democrat in the…
OVERLAND PARK — The Rev. Adam Hamilton made history as the first Democrat elected to the U.S. Senate in Kansas in 94 years, defeating Republican incumbent U.S. Sen. Roger Marshall at the end of a fervid race defined by clashing political visions and strong turnout in some of the state’s most populous counties…
In the final poll of the Kansas gubernatorial campaign, voters decide whether to elect Democrat Cindy Holscher and Republican Ty Masterson.
TOPEKA — Kansas voters passed a constitutional amendment that changes wording on voting laws allowing only U.S. citizens to vote – even though the state Constitution already says that – but that opponents worry can lead to more significant changes in the future. With nearly all precincts reporting at midnight, the…
TOPEKA — Narrow margins dominated four statewide races Tuesday, but as the clock neared midnight, two candidates claimed victory, leaving two races unsettled. Victorious were Republican Dan Hawkins for insurance commissioner and Republican incumbent Steven Johnson for treasurer. Neither candidate claimed victory in…
America voted. After the Trump administration pressured election officials, after concerns that armed federal agents would deploy to the polls, after fears U.S. Department of Justice election monitors would intimidate voters — ballots were cast by the millions Tuesday, mostly without incident. Across the United…
TOPEKA — A woman sat down just inside the door Monday at the Shawnee County Election Office in an area reserved for those needing assistance. She was determined to vote even though she was in labor, so a poll worker with emergency medical training brought her a ballot and stood by in case she needed
TOPEKA — Susan Schlag went to vote with her husband and 18-year-old son Tuesday morning, only to find that their Linwood polling place had run out of paper ballots. Although Schlag and her husband were able to wait in line for the single electronic voting machine, her son had to leave for a class at
TOPEKA — A Kansas postal worker was indicted on Election Day for stealing thousands of pieces of mail, including hundreds of Republican political mailers. Investigators for the U.S. Postal Service found more than 4,400 pieces of mail in Kelly Cram’s Baxter Springs garage. Nearly 400 of them were political mailers from…
Kansas Democratic Gov. Laura Kelly, who leaves office in early January, suggests the next governor hire good people and remember the value of kindness.
Overnight, between Saturday and Sunday, the hands of America’s clocks swept backward an hour. Groggy Halloween partiers slept an extra 60 minutes. Young and old alike dozed into the morning, waking refreshed and ready for a new month. Sure, most of us hate the spring time change, when a vanished hour pinches schedules…
WASHINGTON — One day before his party is forecast to lose control of the U.S. House, and possibly the Senate, President Donald Trump gathered guests and press at the Lincoln Memorial Reflecting Pool to tout the “magnificent” renovation of the monument — a monthslong project plagued by algae, reclosure and false…
Republican Ty Masterson and Democrat Cindy Holscher, the Kansas gubernatorial candidates, urge voters to keep charging until polls close Tuesday.
American democracy faces one of its biggest stress tests of the modern era, as President Donald Trump’s sprawling campaign for power over elections encounters a firewall of judges, state election workers and voting rights leaders heading into Election Day. A cascade of courtroom losses over the weekend dealt a major…
LINDSBORG — Sarah Gonzales-McLinn, serving a life sentence for killing her abuser, cried when she talked about the advocates and legal aides who are trying to convince the governor to grant her clemency. For years, advocates have argued Gonzales-McLinn didn’t receive a fair trial because the jury didn’t know Hal Sasko…
TOPEKA — More Kansans cast their ballots in early voting than in the previous midterm election, and Democrats turned out in larger numbers than in the past, an organization that tracks state voter numbers reported Monday. Early in-person voting stopped at noon on Monday, although mail-in ballots will be counted as…
Dear William Allen White, It’s been some time since I last wrote you. The air is swirling across Kansas. Maddening gusts of uncertainty from east to west, and the entire nation is watching. I often call wind the prophet of change, and its message remains to be determined. You once said of our great state,
President Donald Trump urges GOP voters in a second trip to Kansas to vote for U.S. Sen. Roger Marshall in a campaign against Democrat Adam Hamilton.
WASHINGTON — When the polls close Tuesday night, the 2026 U.S. election will go down as one of history’s most expensive and extraordinarily ugly midterms — galvanizing record-breaking early voter turnout among a deeply divided electorate. Voters on Saturday crossed the high-water mark of 52.7 million early votes cast…
As concerns rise about the potential for federal influence over the results of next week’s midterm elections, many voting experts and advocates remain confident that the nation’s highly localized systems of administering and counting votes will persevere. Facing sinking approval ratings over high prices, the White…
In just 48 hours, Kansans will have a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity to shape history. The opportunity is unexpected — and unexpectedly urgent. I was thinking about that urgency the other day when I was part of a television panel discussion about politics at a public television station in Kansas. The set was quaint…
Medicaid recipients who are disabled or have a chronic illness will not have to prove they are unable to work to be exempted from new work requirements that take effect next year, a federal judge ruled Thursday. The decision by U.S. District Judge Richard Stearns in Boston grants a partial victory to the 25…
TOPEKA — Rep. Dan Goddard, who served in the Kansas House since 2023, died Thursday. He was 78. Goddard was a Parsons Republican who served in the Kansas Senate from 2017 to 2021 and was elected in 2022 to the House. In an interview with Kansas Reflector after announcing he would not run for reelection
TOPEKA — U.S. Sen. Roger Marshall may have violated federal campaign finance law when he paid a top aide with funds from a leadership PAC, which can’t be used to finance a candidate’s own campaign, according to a complaint filed Friday with the Federal Election Commission. End Citizens United, a campaign finance…
We know that President Donald Trump appreciates the finer points of a masculine physique. He’s told rally audiences repeatedly in recent weeks about the primo posteriors of Republicans running for office. He’s praised their good looks, straight from “central casting.” “I looked at his ass and then I looked at his…
KANSAS CITY, Mo. — A young boy with autism played with brightly colored sensory toys Thursday morning in the Kansas City Immigration Court, his wide grin standing out in a room full of grim expressions. The boy sat shoulder-to-shoulder with attorneys and other unaccompanied minors called unexpectedly into court by a…
Kansas Gov. Laura Kelly dives into Medicaid expansion failure, fear of AI and data centers, and importance of water and tax policy.
As the Trump administration waged a public legal fight with California over the ballots of suspected noncitizen voters in mid-October, behind the scenes a federal grand jury in Santa Ana issued a series of subpoenas to election officials in Los Angeles County at federal prosecutors’ urging. The subpoenas demanded a…
It was another financial institution’s commercial that motivated me to create something different. Two busy white, apparently nondisabled, suburban parents were standing on their carefully manicured lawn talking about how they needed to go to the bank to plan for the future of their adult son with Down syndrome. They…
WASHINGTON — President Donald Trump’s rallies in Kansas and Iowa this weekend are back on after initial cancellations, States Newsroom confirmed Friday. The Midwest rallies mark the final sprint to Election Day on Nov. 3 — now just four days away — where the GOP is itching to maintain its narrow majority in the U.S.
GREAT BEND — A class action usury lawsuit filed Thursday accuses U.S. Sen. Roger Marshall and his former Great Bend medical practice of routinely charging patients illegal interest rates on unpaid medical debt. The lawsuit was filed in Barton County District Court in the final days of a bitter race between the…
TOPEKA — U.S. Department of Justice election monitors will be in Kansas on Tuesday but won’t interfere in the voting process, says a spokeswoman for the secretary of state. “The voter experience should be unchanged compared to previous elections,” said Whitney Tempel. “Any monitors or observers will be clearly marked…
A swirling media storm. That’s how I would describe the last few months in Kansas. The U.S. Senate race between Roger Marshall and Adam Hamilton has brought disinformation chaos to television advertising, journalism and social media. Now this: A report this week from a cybersecurity firm based in Tel Aviv alleges that…
A University of Kansas conference probes the future of Kansas' rural economy, including conventional approaches and the idea of embracing data centers.
The Trump administration’s sweeping efforts to combat noncitizen voting and assert authority over elections came under intense scrutiny in courtrooms across the country on Thursday, as Democrats and voting rights groups alleged federal election interference. A federal judge in Washington, D.C., ordered the U.S…
Costs are soaring for people who care for their older parents and other family members, according to a new study. Out-of-pocket expenses are nearly 60% higher than they were just five years ago for family caregivers, who now spend an average of $11,508 a year on caregiving, according to a report released this week by
WASHINGTON — President Donald Trump’s rally in Salina, Kansas, on Saturday is canceled, the Kansas Republican Party confirmed to States Newsroom. An appearance scheduled for Sunday in Dubuque, Iowa, was also canceled, the Republican National Committee said in a late Thursday press release. In-person rallies packed…
TOPEKA — Ad spending on the U.S. Senate race in Kansas has exceeded $84.5 million between the two major-party candidates, creating the most expensive election in state history. Spending has exceeded the state’s previous record of $49.1 million in 2020, when U.S. Sen. Roger Marshall first ran for senate, according to…
TOPEKA — In the race to become the state’s top elections officer, Kansas voters can pick from a Democrat who spent five months in the Legislature five years ago, a former Republican who is trying to establish an alternative party, and a Republican legislator whose campaign focuses on the fear of noncitizens voting…
I just got home from my mandatory poll worker preelection training. It was 90-plus minutes long, and this was just a refresher class for experienced poll workers, not the longer new poll worker class. I got an updated 51-page election board manual to review at home. My shift will be 14 hours long: Report before
Traducido por Claudia Amaro. TOPEKA — Cuando Children’s Mercy anunció que los pacientes no estarán cubiertos por el seguro bajo la Ley de Cuidado de Salud Asequible a partir del 1 de enero, los padres afectados se desahogaron en línea y algunos políticos culparon a la negativa a expandir Medicaid en Kansas. Children’s…
The U.S. Department of Homeland Security is unlawfully scrutinizing naturalized U.S. citizens and placing them at risk of disenfranchisement, civil rights groups alleged in a lawsuit Wednesday, less than a week before Election Day. The lawsuit, filed in California, came as Homeland Security asked for an emergency…
Democrat Cindy Holscher and Republican Ty Masterson are campaigning for governor in Kansas on platforms featuring ideas for property tax reform.
TOPEKA — When Children’s Mercy announced patients won’t be covered by Affordable Care Act insurance beginning Jan. 1, stressed parents vented online and some politicians blamed the refusal to expand Medicaid in Kansas. Children’s Mercy, which has locations in Kansas and Missouri, has just one insurance plan on the ACA…
Less than a week before Election Day, President Donald Trump’s unprecedented drive for power over elections has set the stage for a series of courtroom fights that could quickly lead to a high-stakes showdown at the U.S. Supreme Court over the limits of federal authority. Democrats and voting rights advocates have…
In the first three years after the U.S. Supreme Court struck down the constitutional right to an abortion in June 2022, more than 900 women faced criminal charges for conduct related to their pregnancies, according to a new report. Most state laws that prohibit or regulate abortion seek to penalize those who provide…
With midwestern naivete, I thought I could attend the rally in Park City on Oct. 19, hear President Donald Trump speak and determine for myself the validity of the “news.” Was Trump a doddering, senile shell? Was his MAGA base cheering barely controlled bloodhounds on the hunt for immigrants? Were the radical left…
High gas and diesel prices in Kansas funneling into debate in state's competitive U.S. Senate and gubernatorial contests on the Nov. 3 ballot.
WASHINGTON — Tens of millions of Americans have already made their way to the ballot box as early voting is underway in a midterm election that will determine control of the House and the Senate, possibly flipping one or both from Republicans to Democrats. As of Tuesday afternoon, more than 34 million people have…
TOPEKA — Before Vice President JD Vance was finished speaking Monday in Topeka, Republicans announced President Donald Trump would make his second visit to the state in as many weeks. The White House has made itself visible in Kansas, drawing thousands to Olathe, the Wichita area and Topeka, and Trump is expected to…
Traducido por Claudia Amaro. TOPEKA — La gobernadora Laura Kelly sigue siendo la política más querida de Kansas, mientras el apoyo público se desmorona para el senador estadounidense Roger Marshall, el presidente Donald Trump, los partidos Republicano y Demócrata y la política en general. El Instituto de Asuntos…
The U.S. Department of Justice plans to send election monitors to every state ahead of Election Day, expanding a long-standing practice that’s spurred concern this year among Democrats and voting rights advocates because of President Donald Trump’s push to influence elections. The Justice Department for decades has…
TOPEKA — A lawsuit filed by local government officials challenging the state of Kansas over its deal with the Kansas City Chiefs to build a stadium was settled Friday. The Unified Government of Wyandotte County/Kansas City sued the state over concerns it was losing local control, specifically asking to stop…
TOPEKA — The Sternberg Museum of Natural History will remain open after fear of its closure pushed donors to gift $1.2 million toward its operating expenses, the president of Fort Hays State University told a legislative committee Monday. Despite the museum’s reprieve, legislators challenged the way Tisa Mason, who…
For the past five years, lawmakers in Washington, D.C., have been trying to lower prices, but every piece of data shows that families are being pushed to the limit by the cost of living. President Donald Trump’s administration has paid particular attention to lowering the price of beef, which has shot up more than 20%
President Donald Trump and Vice President JD Vance combine for third trip to Kansas in bid to salvage reelection campaign of U.S. Sen. Roger Marshall.
As days grow shorter and darkness arrives earlier across much of the country, a new study suggests that brighter streetlights may help reduce nighttime violence — at least temporarily. Researchers found that outdoor nighttime violent crime fell by about 46% in targeted areas of Newark, New Jersey, during the first six…
TOPEKA — Gov. Laura Kelly remains the most-liked politician in Kansas, as public support crumbles for U.S. Sen. Roger Marshall, President Donald Trump, the Republican and Democratic parties, and politics at large. The Docking Institute of Public Affairs at Fort Hays State University released its annual Kansas Speaks…
LAWRENCE — Linguists at the University of Kansas revealed that the way Kansans speak is much more diverse than some people think, and perceptions of a Kansas accent differ, depending on whether listeners are Kansans or non-Kansans Yes, Kansans do have an accent. “There is no such thing as an accentless way of…
Tight races in Kansas for U.S. Senate, governor and attorney general mean get-out-the-vote work to drive turnout is the focus of the midterm's final days.
Americans’ growing frustration over high prices has defined many political campaigns ahead of November’s midterm elections. Rising costs of healthcare, gas and groceries during President Donald Trump’s second term have put Republicans on defense, not only in Washington, but in statehouse and gubernatorial races across…
Greetings, fellow Kansan! You may feel disturbed and uncertain upon learning that our state has now entered that curious category known as swing. No worries, though. I can help! As a journalist, I spent 14 years in two states that were classified as swing. I first worked in St. Petersburg and Tampa, Florida, as the
WASHINGTON — Fewer than 5% of U.S. House races are seen by a top political analysis as truly competitive heading into November’s midterm elections, giving relatively few voters the ability to determine which party controls the chamber for the next two years. The other 414 of 435 House districts are viewed by the…
State and local government employees report high levels of job satisfaction across the country, but face significant rates of burnout and on-the-job harassment. That’s according to a new national survey of nearly 5,000 public servants across all 50 states released today by The People Lab at Harvard University’s…
This is my favorite time of year. It’s not a date but a feeling. It comes after the first frost but before the first snow, when the wind whispers through the falling leaves and the moon hangs like a lantern over the Kansas prairie. This is the season of my birth, and I still carry
This year’s statewide ballot measures are written, on average, at a graduate-school reading level, according to a new report. The readability of 2026’s ballot questions — which ask voters to weigh in on issues as varied as abortion, property taxes, voter ID and firearms — varies by state, political data tracking…
Lecompton Republican Kris Kobach and Lawrence Democrat Chris Mann, candidates for Kansas attorney general, attack each other with questions in TV debate.
A record number of women are running for state legislative seats this November, more than two-thirds of whom are Democrats. Across the 46 states with legislative seats on the ballot, a total of 3,824 women are running — up from 2022’s previous record of 3,621 women candidates, according to the Center for American…
Politics is about the distribution of power and money. So it comes as little surprise that many politicians campaign on the material benefits that citizens can expect if those candidates win. President Donald Trump has been no different in this respect. He has promised voters, among other things, a “DOGE dividend”…
TOPEKA — A former state employee sued Kansas Senate President Ty Masterson and two other Republican legislators for demanding she be fired over a comment she posted to Facebook when Charlie Kirk was killed in September 2025. Katie Allen, who was a research analyst at the Kansas State Department of Education, was fired…
SPRINGDALE, Pa. — Residents in a small southwestern Pennsylvania town are facing the prospect of a 47-acre data center facility on their doorstep. “Right here behind this fence is where they want to put up the data center, and as you can see, there’s houses right across the street, roughly 100 feet,” said lifelong…
TOPEKA — U.S. Labor Secretary Keith Sonderling lauded U.S. job growth and Kansas’ manufacturing industry during a series of visits Friday, assuaging criticisms against the Trump administration for burdensome tariffs. He appeared Friday afternoon alongside U.S. Sen. Roger Marshall and U.S. Rep. Derek Schmidt at Haas…
LAWRENCE — For Haskell Indian Nations University students, a renewed partnership with the Environmental Protection Agency is expected to open the door to internships, research opportunities and future careers serving tribal communities. The university is expanding its relationship with the EPA after the two…
The percentage of working-age adults without health insurance has increased in the past two years, largely because many people can no longer afford Obamacare coverage after Congress allowed federal subsidies to expire at the end of last year. The uninsured rate for adults ages 19-64 rose to 11.2% this year, up from…
KANSAS CITY, Mo. — The two major party candidates for U.S. Senate diverged in a debate Wednesday night on whether tariffs were helping or hurting a Salina manufacturing business they both visited. A spokesperson for the business, however, denied U.S. Sen. Roger Marshall’s claim that tariffs were contributing to its…
Here’s my confession: After years of rooting for the wrong side, I am making a change this election season. For the past decade, in one vital contest after another, I’ve made the wrong choice. Over and over, I have supported a corrupt and evasive cabal. Today, in this column, I come clean with my personal
U.S. Court of Appeals' decision a due-process setback for President Trump strategy of deporting immigrants, including an Iranian who moved to Kansas.
WASHINGTON — The price health insurance companies charge for employer-sponsored plans increased again this year, as did the deductible many people must pay before those plans begin covering most healthcare costs, according to a survey released Thursday by the nonpartisan health organization KFF. The cost of individual…
The current Trump administration claims its mass deportation efforts have expelled nearly a million people through July of this year, but those include both voluntary returns and people turned around at the border, according to a new analysis by the former chief statistician for the Department of Homeland Security…
Lecompton Republican Kris Kobach and Lawrence Democrat Chris Mann, candidates for Kansas attorney general, attack each other with questions in TV debate.
As the November midterm elections draw near, much of the nation seemingly has channeled Mad Magazine’s smiling, redheaded, gap-toothed mascot Alfred E. Neuman and his catchphrase: “What, me worry?” But the nation has plenty to worry about. Here’s what the current administration has done in the months leading up to…
PARK CITY — President Donald Trump’s campaign rally Monday in Kansas provided a platform for his misleading and hyperbolic claims, including the disputed assertion that protesters were being paid to interrupt him. He also used an antisemitic slur to defend U.S. Sen. Roger Marshall. Some of the Kansas Republicans who…
TOPEKA — A national campaign finance watchdog group requested the U.S. Senate Ethics Committee investigate U.S. Sen. Roger Marshall of Kansas for using taxpayer funds to travel to political events and staff who work for both his office and campaign. End Citizens United, a PAC that supports campaign finance guardrails…
Former Kansas Rep. Larry Hibbard, a Greenwood County farmer and rancher who served in the House from 2013 to 2019, died Sunday. He was 81. A moderate Republican from Toronto, he helped overturn Republican Gov. Sam Brownback’s state income tax experiment and backed Democratic Gov. Laura Kelly’s plan for Medicaid…
The former CEO of a Dallas-based financial services company with a unique Kansas banking charter avoided sentencing for fraud by switching attorneys.
Voters in six states are considering ballot measures in the midterm elections that would make it clear that only U.S. citizens may vote — and block local governments from expanding that right to others. Proposed constitutional amendments or law changes in Alaska, Arizona, Arkansas, Kansas, South Dakota and West…
TOPEKA — The company behind a pilot nuclear project near Parsons is under fire after a report said it is underestimating costs, overestimating the project’s energy efficiency and promoting an unrealistic timeline. The report by Iceberg Research, which assesses publicly available financial information to look for…
Kansas was honored with the presence of the president of the United States on Monday night. Donald Trump traveled to Park City, just outside Wichita, to voice his support for Republican incumbent Sen. Roger Marshall in his unexpectedly tight race against Democrat Adam Hamilton. I’ve written about that contest at…
President Donald Trump sticking with Kansas GOP gubernatorial candidate Ty Masterson, while offering criticism of Democratic nominee Cindy Holscher.
Birth centers are an option for those with low-risk pregnancies and are correlated with more positive health outcomes, but 10 states do not have any birth centers at all, and more could be built with certain state policy solutions and different models of care, a new report suggests. Birth centers can be an attractive…
Farmers will be eligible to receive one-time payments from the U.S. Department of Agriculture to provide relief for high fuel and input costs. USDA and President Donald Trump announced Monday night at a rally in Kansas that farmers would have $8 billion made available in the Harvest Fuel Relief program. Farm groups…
Republican Derek Schmidt and Democrat Don Coover, 2nd District candidates for U.S. House, clash on meaning of President Donald Trump's win in 2024.
When Patrice Jetter and Garry Wickham became engaged, the first decisions were of small, giddy consequence: where to hold the ceremony, whom to invite, what to wear. But soon enough, a far weightier question eclipsed them all: whether they could afford to marry at all. They learned that, as people with disabilities…
Traducido por Claudia Amaro. PARK CITY — El presidente Donald Trump defendió el lunes el historial del senador estadounidense Roger Marshall y culpó a los jueces y a la ley estatal de la práctica del senador de demandar a pacientes con deudas médicas —lo que llevó a que algunos de ellos fueran arrestados— cuando era
Traducido por Claudia Amaro. El control del partido está en juego en 15 cámaras legislativas estatales de todo el país, ya que los republicanos están cada vez más a la defensiva en este ciclo electoral de mitad de mandato, según reveló un nuevo análisis. El boletín apartidista Sabato’s Crystal Ball del Centro de…
I recently was listening to that song from the past where the singer proclaims: “Love is a battlefield.” The song got me thinking about how we fight our own personal battles and then there are much larger battles — in our cities, in our state and in our nation. Then there are battles in our
President Donald Trump makes misleading claims at Kansas rally in terms of medical debt collection, election victory margins in Kansas, and $5,000 bonus checks.