HUTCHINSON, Kan. (AP) — The Republican nominee for governor of Kansas on Saturday attempted to make Democratic incumbent support for abortion rights a political obligation, even with a strong nationwide vote last month for maintaining access to abortion.
GOP nominee Derek Schmidt, a three-year Kansas state attorney general, said during a debate at the Kansas State Fair that he respects the Aug. 2 vote in which voters firmly rejected a proposed amendment to the state constitution to replace the GOP-controlled legislature. to strongly restrict or prohibit abortion. But he argued that Democratic Administration Laura Kelly favors abortion with no restrictions “until the time of birth” and public funding for elective abortions.
The statewide vote “doesn’t mean the discussion is over,” Schmidt told a crowd of about 800 people.
“What was not on the ballot was Governor Kelly’s position,” he said.
Kelly said she is confident she stands with a Kansas majority in her opposition to the proposed constitutional amendment. While she has strongly supported abortion rights throughout her career in politics, she has avoided suggesting that she push for the repeal of existing restrictions. That wouldn’t be likely anyway, with Republicans holding the legislature.
When asked about Schmidt’s characterization of her stance on abortion, she said, “He’s making that up. You know, I never said that.”
Kelly is the only Democratic governor to be eligible for reelection this year from a state carried by former President Donald Trump in 2020, making her a tempting GOP target. Many Republicans still expect frustrations over high inflation and the red state’s opposition to Democratic President Joe Biden to boost Schmidt’s chances of winning in November.
Schmidt’s television ads attempt to tie Kelly to Biden, blaming them both for inflation and portraying the two Democrats as spending liberals, and he remained so throughout the State Fair debate in front of his raucous crowd, receiving chants from Kelly supporters of “Schmidt’s Unfit!” and “Bull-Schmidt!” Honest debate is a tradition for the governor and U.S. Senate races, and the organizers encourage partisans to sing, shout, and wave plates while other fairgoers attend exhibits, ride rides in Midway, and sample dishes such as “moink,” meatballs wrapped in bacon on a stick.
Pat McFerron, an Oklahoma City Republican pollster who worked for Republican U.S. Senator Jerry Moran in Kansas, said people most concerned about economic issues tend to be swing voters.
“Two months ago they all voted Republican when gas prices were high,” he said.
But Kelly brushed aside criticism, praising the state’s improved finances and its efforts to lure businesses to Kansas, noting several times that Japanese electronics giant Panasonic Corp. in July it announced it planned to build a multi-billion dollar factory to produce batteries for electric-powered vehicles that will employ as many as 4,000 people. Kansas will provide $829 million in taxpayer-funded incentives over 10 years.
As for the ties to Biden, Kelly said after the debate, “I’ve really stayed away from politics in Washington.”
Schmidt has promoted conservative goals as attorney general, often bringing Kansas in GOP lawsuits against Democratic presidents, though he also has an affable public personality. After the 2020 presidential election, he joined a botched Texas lawsuit to reverse the results in four battlefield states won by Biden.
He noted several times that he was willing to challenge the Biden administration on a wide variety of issues, including environmental regulation. He called himself a Republican in the form of the late US Senate Majority Leader and GOP icon Bob Dole.
“We will stand up and fight back,” Schmidt said in his closing statement.
Neither candidate has paid much attention to abortion despite the nationwide vote in August, though some Democrats have argued it would help Kelly. Schmidt opposes most abortions and says he would support exceptions to preserve a woman’s life, in cases of rape and incest and when a fetus has such a debilitating medical condition that it would not survive after birth.
But the problem arose when the candidates were asked whether they would support the retention of six of the seven Kansas Supreme Court justices, who will vote in November on whether or not to stay on the bench. The proposed anti-abortion amendment was in response to the court ruling in 2019 declaring access to abortion a “fundamental” right under the state constitution.
Two of the six judges on the ballot had the 6-1 majority in that 2019 ruling, and three more are Kelly appointees who have replaced others. The final judge on the ballot is Caleb Stegall, the dissenter in the case, an appointee of conservative GOP governor Sam Brownback.
Kelly said she would vote to keep the judges, while Schmidt said he would vote to “keep some and not some”.
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