'Nowhere to be found': Kansas mom furious after being ghosted by GOP politicians

This past decade or so, I have considered myself an increasingly engaged voter in Kansas. I work in education and have lived in this area for more than 20 years. My kids attended the surrounding public schools, and my family works and volunteers in this community.

What happens in Kansas matters to me.

With so much uncertainty in government lately, I’ve been paying close attention to local and state politics. After watching the disastrous town hall meeting held by Sen. Roger Marshall in distant Oakley, I decided to request forums from my state-level elected officials, Rep. Carl Turner and Sen. Kellie Warren. After all, they are voting on a lot of important matters that affect my family and my neighbors. Voter rights, school funding and policy, judicial matters. The list goes on.

I was curious: Would they even be open to a town hall meeting? Would they handle it differently than Marshall? Would they help ease voters’ minds or add to the discontent and uncertainty?

I began by emailing requests for town hall meetings to Turner and Warren, whose crew frequently canvassed for votes in my neighborhood during elections. I offered to help facilitate a town hall if they would agree to make an appearance — something I have no idea how to do but figured I would learn — if they said yes.

It’s been a little more than four weeks as I write this column, and I have yet to hear back about scheduling a town hall or meeting with either of them.

I have continued to send email requests at the start of every week. I have called their offices. A representative in Warren’s Topeka office advised me that she was “really busy with everything going on” but assured me my letter would be printed out and placed upon her desk for review. I’ve heard nothing.

Turner replied to one email regarding his stance on Senate Bill 4, which eliminates the three-day grace period for mail-in ballots. While he didn’t offer a town hall, he did offer to meet with me. Progress. Or so I believed. When I replied that I would like to meet, Turner did not respond to my email.

If I can’t connect with them, how do I know they are listening to any of their constituents?

Our elected officials, who were busy knocking on doors in October, making appearances and kissing babies all over town, are nowhere to be found now. I could not easily find updates from them in newsletters or social media posts, either. Even so, newsletters wouldn’t be enough. The lack of even an automated reply to a constituent week after week is inexcusable.

Their inaccessibility to Kansans is worrisome. They are voting on issues that affect Kansans and the neighborhoods they live in. We deserve more.

The area where I live in southern Johnson County has allowed Turner and Warren to become invisible. They live in our neighborhoods; their children may have attended schools in the community, or we run into them at a grocery store or at church. Some of us may be friends with them. But don’t give them a pass to not listen. They are our neighbors and promised to govern for us.

Our elected officials, especially those embedded in our neighborhoods, should make it a priority to connect with our community and let their constituents know that they care about what we have to say outside of an election year.

Kansans should demand more from leaders. I guess the problem lies in finding them first.