Kathleen Sebelius: Sen. Marshall, ‘real Kansans’ expect government to keep promises | Opinion

Kansas Sen. Roger Marshall held a town hall meeting last weekend in Logan County. He seemed to be caught by surprise with the size of the crowd, given the remote location, and the reaction of the audience to various actions taken by the new Trump administration. The meeting was scheduled for an hour — but Marshall departed early and then issued a statement through his chief of staff criticizing his constituents and declaring that “real Kansans” overwhelmingly support President Donald Trump and Elon Musk’s DOGE initiative.

After 50 years of residency in Kansas and four successful statewide elections, I think I qualify as a “real Kansan” even though I am a Democrat and live in the eastern part of the state. I could not disagree more strongly about what “real Kansans” support.

Most real Kansans don’t support folks who renege on deals. But that’s what the Trump administration had done, backing out of a deal to match investments farmers all over the state have made in land management and water conservation. Those farmers are now being told that they are out of luck — even though they’ve made the investments in good faith.

And their crops are spoiling in rail cars and grain bins rather than being sent overseas to feed starving populations as promised.

Real Kansans don’t want untrained and unsupervised outsiders rummaging through their personal Social Security and tax data — they take privacy very seriously. Real Kansans don’t support cutting off clinical trials and threatening lifesaving research at the University of Kansas Cancer Center because of slashing cuts at the National Institutes of Health.

Real Kansans don’t want their approximately 40,000 friends and neighbors — including thousands of veterans — who work for the federal government to have to worry that their jobs will disappear tomorrow at the whim of an erratic billionaire, one who got rich with $38 billion in government support and loans. Nor do they support cuts to the Department of Veterans Affairs’ vital services.

Real Kansans want us to honor treaty agreements with Native Americans and not fire 25% of the faculty and staff at Haskell Indian Nations University in the middle of an academic year.

But as Republicans, Democrats and independents, we real Kansans live in every corner of the state. We support working to eliminate waste and fraud, and making the efficient delivery of critical services a priority. But that is not what is underway with the DOGE wrecking crew, whose reckless actions are threatening critical services and supports relied upon by Kansas residents.

Real Kansans — whether they’re residents of Oakley or are willing to drive hundreds of miles to voice their concerns to their elected senator — have the right to expect that he won’t run away from them. Sen. Marshall should spend more time in more Kansas communities listening to what is happening to his constituents and taking some Kansas common sense back to the U.S. Senate.

This story was originally published March 9, 2025 at 5:02 AM.