The editorial board’s best bet for Kansas’ Senate seat could bridge our partisan divide

Kansans should elect Republican Sen. Jerry Moran, 68, to a third term in office.

We met recently with Moran and his Democratic opponent, Mark Holland, for hourlong interviews. The conversations with both were excellent, largely free of the canned responses candidates typically provide. We listened carefully as serious politicians provided serious answers.

We agree with Holland on several issues. He believes, as most Kansans do, that a woman has a fundamental right to choose an abortion. Moran does not.

The former Kansas City, Kansas, mayor supports the Affordable Care Act; Moran wanted to repeal it. The senator opposed a recent bill that should lower the cost of medicine for seniors; Holland endorses the program.

But the decision in a Senate race can’t be limited to checkmarks on an issues tally sheet. Kansans must consider temperament, experience and the political environment, as well as policy, when casting their ballots.

On that basis, we think Moran is the better option. He demonstrates at least occasional independence from the right-wing extremists in his party, which is essential to breaking the divisive partisan fever in Washington.

Moran’s best work has been bipartisan. He hammered out a compromise that led to the passage of the PACT Act, which provides needed relief for veterans suffering from exposure to toxic burn pits, among other things.

He’s worked to increase spending on mental health and school protection. He has voted for, and supports, additional U.S. aid to Ukraine, if needed. Some in his party (and some Democrats) want to reduce that help, or end it, despite Russian President Vladimir Putin’s atrocities.

On guns, Moran told us he would at least discuss measures limiting access to some military-style weapons, including being open to the idea of raising the minimum age to buy some especially lethal long guns to 21. “The Constitution allows restrictions,” he said, accurately.

As is sometimes the case with Moran, however, the story is complicated. He told us he would consider a red flag law (with due process guarantees) allowing authorities to take guns from people who are an immediate risk to themselves or others. The recent St. Louis school shooting proves red flag laws are more essential than ever.

Yet Moran voted against the 2022 bipartisan gun bill that, among other things, provided $750 million to help states implement red flag laws. Fifteen Republicans, including Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell, voted for the measure. Not Moran.

Asked why, the senator said, “I can’t remember, but there was something that was troublesome to me.”

Make no mistake: On most issues, Moran is a reliably conservative Republican. He voted against the confirmation of Ketanji Brown Jackson, the first Black woman nominated to the Supreme Court, but he supported Donald Trump nominee Brett Kavanaugh despite his troubling background and temperament.

Moran supported Trump’s $3.1 trillion COVID-19 relief packages, and $1.9 trillion tax cut, yet voted against President Joe Biden’s infrastructure bill and pandemic stimulus, claiming they were too expensive. Funny how that works.

But Moran has had the good sense to distance himself from Trumpism, even though he accepted Trump’s early unsolicited endorsement in this campaign. In January 2021, Moran voted to certify the 2020 presidential vote without hesitation.

“It was a lone affair on that vote,” Moran said. In a normal world, casting the only defensible vote on presidential certification would be unremarkable. In this world, it took some courage.

Holland, of course, detests the former president. “Donald Trump is a crook,” he told us, which may or may not be true, but is hardly the kind of rhetoric that will close the partisan divide.

And while Holland pitched himself as a moderate, when we asked him if he had any criticism of Biden, he drew a blank. We have a hard time seeing that message resonating with Kansans, who have not sent a Democrat to the U.S. Senate since 1932.

Moran promised more bipartisan work if reelected. “It doesn’t have to be this,” he said.

Reelecting the Kansas senator is a risk. It’s possible he claims moderation but will simply enable the hyperconservatives who surround him. It’s possible a third-term Moran will dodge tough issues, his too-familiar approach when the stakes are high.

But our democracy faces extraordinary danger. It’s a risk worth taking if Moran can inch our government away from the current irrational partisanship. If he can do that, there’s a chance other Republicans will follow.

We think he can, and we expect him to do so. Despite our admiration for the way Holland stood up to corruption during his term as mayor of Kansas City, Kansas, we endorse Sen. Jerry Moran.