Roger Marshall and Jerry Moran, you know Trump is hurting Kansas. Stop him | Opinion

For Kansans, the effects of Donald Trump’s second presidential term are not distant policy discussions. They are felt directly at home. Farmers in Dodge City, Garden City and throughout the High Plains are facing immense challenges. With his administration’s shutdown of the United States Agency for International Development reducing global grain demand, prices for wheat and sorghum have plummeted, threatening the survival of small farms already strained by inflation and debt. Many are now at risk of closure.

Rural hospitals, from Hays to Parsons, are already financially fragile and struggling to survive. The loss of Kansas Medicaid dollars has the potential to devastate them and may result in their closure. Manatt Health’s analysis of Trump’s One Big Beautiful Bill showed that Kansas will lose $3.77 billion in Medicaid funding over the next 10 years, and 13,000 Kansas will lose Medicaid coverage. With fewer resources, hospitals will have to cut staff, reduce emergency services and scale back capacity to handle COVID-19 surges.

For Kansans, these are not theoretical debates. These are decisions affecting real lives and livelihoods.

Public health has taken another hit in Kansas. Trump appointed vaccine skeptic Robert F. Kennedy Jr. to lead the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. The new 2025 COVID-19 restrictions only allow older adults and high-risk individuals to receive the vaccine. This limited distribution leaves many Kansans exposed, and forecasts predict tens of thousands more hospitalizations and hundreds of additional deaths statewide unless vaccine access improves. The threat to Kansans comes not just from the virus, but from Trump administration policies restricting protection.

Kansas agriculture and meatpacking are also endangered by aggressive immigration enforcement. Detaining or deporting undocumented workers means fields are left unharvested and processing plants slow or halt. Local farmers and meatpacking facilities depend on migrant labor to keep operations running. These policies would disrupt the state’s economy, causing food shortages, driving up prices and threatening the livelihoods of workers and farm families. The core of Kansas’s agricultural and food supply system is at risk.

Yet, Sens. Roger Marshall and Jerry Moran have chosen loyalty to Trump over the needs of Kansas. By supporting his policies, cutting aid, undermining immigrant communities and weakening democratic norms, they have failed to lead. Marshall even described this as “America’s great golden era.” This is not leadership, but complicity.

So, when do we say enough is enough? The answer is now.

This is not a moment for resignation, but for bold action. Vote with purpose to reject cruelty and neglect. Insist on accountability from Sens. Moran and Marshall. Call their offices and remind them that abandoning Kansas values and their constituents is not leadership, but a betrayal.

Our democracy depends on us. If we do not draw the line now, there may soon be nothing left to defend.

Mary Coffman is a board member of Boots on the Ground Midwest, which is applying for 501(c)(4) nonprofit status.