Bollier’s loss shows Democrats need new ways to talk to Kansas voters. Here’s a powerful one
A Democratic candidate for U.S. Senate this year received unprecedented financial support from within Kansas and across America. State Sen. Barbara Bollier, an uncharismatic 62-year-old physician, amassed quadruple the contributions of her Republican opponent, lackluster U.S. House member and physician Roger Marshall.
It wasn’t sufficient. Bollier failed to use her windfall to shake up the political landscape. Her message was merely this: She would listen to Kansans and work well with members of the GOP she’d belonged to until 2018. She received a typical ruby-red-state 156,000-vote, 11% margin trouncing by Marshall, even though polls promised a nail-biter.
If the story ends there, it would be Democratic political malpractice of the highest order. How could Kansas Democrats be so richly successful at fundraising — a key political metric — and fail so utterly? It is now incumbent on every Democrat in Kansas — suburban Overland Park knowledge workers, Dodge City meatpackers, Wichita aircraft unionists, Riley County farmers — to think hard about Bollier’s drubbing and adjust strategies.
Fresh voices such as Sarah Smarsh and Thomas Frank point the way. Smarsh, a fifth generation farm girl, has lived and written about intergenerational poverty in the state. She even thought about running for the Senate here. Frank, a graduate of Shawnee Mission East, wrote the must-read, “What’s the Matter with Kansas,” documenting how conservatives have for decades undermined local progressive traditions, inflamed unresolvable social issues and caused voters to neglect their best interests.
Rather than try to convert implacable political foes by arguing divisive cliches, Democrats should focus on the world we inhabit in new ways. Knowledge, values and empowered politics will flow from that.
How about this: Kansas Democrats should speak loud and often about the fact that wind power now rivals wheat in importance in Kansas, long the heartland of America’s breadbasket.
Wheat still is a big deal. The state crop is worth $1.4 billion a year and is responsible for 3,200 jobs. Kansas wind turbines, though, generate $2 billion of electricity annually from $12 billion of gleaming renewable technology investments. Five wind power manufacturing facilities employ more than 5,000 Kansans. As big as the state’s wind resource is, it could grow 78-fold.
What questions should Kansas political aspirants ask? What new technologies and policies could increase the flow of electricity from the state to clean energy-hungry megalopolises such as Chicago, Dallas, Denver and beyond? What energy-intensive industries may want to locate here with thousands of jobs?
A politician prepared to address those questions should rush to take the answers to the 30 counties in Kansas — from Grant in the southwest, to Thomas in the northwest, to Elk in the southeast — that today have wind generation, and also to the five counties that have new projects under development. Bollier carried just five of the state’s 105 counties in November. Imagine if the next Democrat to run for the U.S. Senate in Kansas could capture and build upon the wind counties. It would be a political game changer once a majority of Kansans realize their state could be central to national efforts to reverse climate change.
Kansas voting reflexes date back to the Dust Bowl era, when the state last elected a Democrat to the U.S. Senate. Busting those reflexes would have huge national implications.
Progressives have proven they are willing to throw massive amounts of money at a systemic flaw in our political system. That flaw enables a minority of the U.S. population to control the Senate and, on occasion, the presidency via the Electoral College. Disappointing 2020 Senate losses in Maine, South Carolina, Kentucky, Iowa, Texas as well as Kansas show that while money may be necessary for politics, it is not sufficient.
Populist Kansas journalist William Allen White put it this way: “We say that money talks, but it speaks a broken, poverty-stricken language. Hearts talk better, clearer, and with wider intelligence.”
Democrats need to step clear of the endless divisive arguments that plague our politics, our communities, our friendships and speak with heart about fresh themes. In Kansas, we start with the story of wind turbines sprouting like sunflowers in our hinterland.
In addition, local Democrats should immediately invest resources — including leftover funds from 2020 — developing new narratives about health care, jobs, education and poverty, and then seek out new leaders to champion new solutions border to border.
That way, the next time a vast fortune is bestowed on a Kansas Democratic candidate for U.S. Senate, she or he will have important things to say that just might paint the state blue.
Martin Rosenberg, a former Kansas City Star reporter, is a writer and podcaster who has organized national conferences on energy and the environment.
This story was originally published December 13, 2020 at 5:00 AM with the headline "Bollier’s loss shows Democrats need new ways to talk to Kansas voters. Here’s a powerful one."