TOPEKA (KSNT) – The three Democratic gubernatorial candidates laid out their platforms for voters on Sunday, March 8, at the Kansas Democratic Gubernatorial Forum.
The forum was packed with voters, featuring topics ranging from healthcare to public education.
To kick off the forum, candidates discussed how they will address the rising cost of living happening across the country.
“This legislative session I introduced my working family’s agenda… this is going to be tax cuts for families, not the one percent,” said candidate Ethan Corson.
“We need to have school lunches paid for by the state,” said candidate Marty Tuley.
“We’ve got to lower housing costs. We have an affordability crisis when it comes to housing,” said candidate Cindy Holscher.
One of the most prevalent topics of the night was healthcare. President Trump’s “Big Beautiful Bill”, which passed last summer, reduced the amount of Medicaid funding state’s receive.
All three candidates were in agreement, “Politicians are making dangerous cuts to our programs, Medicaid and Social Security. That’s hurting us… No parent should have to choose between buying groceries or buying their child’s medicine,” said Holscher.
However, solutions on improving public schooling were varied, ranging from increasing funding to state funded school lunches.
“Kansas right now has the second-highest percentage of teachers leaving the profession every single year. So we need to pay them better, and we need to make sure they have a secure retirement,” said Corson.
“We are going to need to make sure we address the food programs we serve our kids… nobody here wants to eat a school lunch, I promise you. We’ve all been there,” said Tuley.
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The democratic forum was one of the first opportunities for voters to hear from candidates directly as they make their case for governor ahead of the August primary.
There will be more debates from Democrats and Republicans as the primary gets closer.
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