Kansas deserves honest representation. Ron Estes isn’t delivering it | Opinion

While recent reports show the drastic increase in health insurance premiums Kansans face, while farmers fight to keep their land and sell their crops, and while our neighbors across the state wonder how they will afford groceries next month, Republican U.S. Rep. Ron Estes is not just hiding. He’s actively spreading misinformation to hinder progress.

It’s time to say it plainly: Estes is no longer upholding his oath of office.

Late last month, Estes sent an official email filled with familiar false claims about government funding. He accused Democratic lawmakers of “keeping the government shut down to fund $200 billion for illegal immigrants’ health care.” That is a lie — and he knows it. The Associated Press and multiple independent fact-checking organizations confirm that undocumented immigrants are not eligible for Medicaid or Affordable Care Act subsidies. There is no $200 billion program. There never was. While he may disagree with Democrats on subsidies for the ACA, his misrepresentation of the facts reveals his real purpose: to sow discord.

Estes underscored that goal by mocking humanitarian programs for children in war zones and twisting them into political attacks. It’s reckless and wrong. These are deliberate misrepresentations meant to inflame rather than inform.

While he fans the flames of division, Kansans are suffering in the cold.

He refuses to hold public town halls. He doesn’t answer questions from farmers, veterans and working families who built this district. He doesn’t work across the aisle, or even acknowledge the basic struggles that define life in Kansas today.

Kansans deserve leadership, not talking points. We deserve accountability, not fear that drives our representatives to hide behind donors and party insiders. We deserve answers, not propaganda.

A representative’s first obligation is to the people who sent them to Washington. Estes has failed that obligation. He has chosen deceit over duty, party over people and self-preservation over service.

When federal programs lapse, families will go hungry. Insurance premiums are set to skyrocket, and rural hospitals are hanging by a thread. Through it all, he offers no solutions, no outreach and no leadership. Kansas deserves better.

Kansans deserve honesty even when it’s hard, and courage even when the path ahead is uncertain. They deserve a representative who can look them in the eye and tell them the truth, not one who hides behind closed doors, donors’ wallets and preapproved propaganda.

Ron Estes has stopped representing Kansas. He serves himself, his party and special interests. And we, the people, are done waiting for him to remember who he works for.

Kansas’ District 4 has a congressman. What we need is a representative who remembers the people he serves.

Noah Taylor is co-founder of the 501(c)(4) nonprofit Leading Kansas. He lives in Kechi, Kansas.