BSA POV
Everyone knows about the race between a certain Twitter-crazed man and pantsuited woman for the White House, but what do the teens and pre-teens of Bishop Seabury think about the Kansas elections for governor?
“I’m so unplugged from politics, it’s kind of ridiculous,” says junior Alex Porter, regarding the Kansan gubernatorial elections. “As long as it’s not Kobach, I’ll be alright.”
Most following the elections seem to have made their mind up one way or another. Considering that our generation tends to be more liberal, the level of disapproval among Democratic teens against Republican candidate Kris Kobach is no surprise. Kobach is well known for his more extreme Republican ideas, specifically regarding immigration, which has sparked a myriad of contentions among left-leaning Seaburians.
“If I could vote, I would not vote for Kris Kobach,” says junior Emma Silvestri. “I think he’s racist and misogynistic and very not my kind of person. He’s a Trump supporter, which automatically is, like, eh.”
Seventh grader Hayden Slough, a Communist, shares this disapproval. “Kris Kobach is pretty evil,” he says. “He’s not going to do good things. [His policies] are all just crazy.”
However, despite the prevalence of left-leaning ideology, there are still those who have good things to say about the Republican candidate.
“[Kris Kobach] seems fine,” says freshman Joey Gadzia. “I’m not super familiar with his policy, but from what I’ve heard, it seems fine.”
The irony of this election is that it resembles the national election of 2016 in a few ways. One of these ways is the similarities between Kobach and Trump. Kobach was also endorsed by Trump for governor, and worked on the committee created by Trump called the Presidential Advisory Commission on Election Integrity.
“They both hate immigrants,” says junior Joshua Meschke. “He’s just as conservative as Trump.” However, when asked about the similarities between the Kansan Democratic candidate Laura Kelly and national candidate Hillary Clinton, Meschke simply says, “I don’t know.”
This may be due to Kelly lacking as much media coverage as her opponent, due to Kobach’s prominent, yet controversial, national presence working for Trump and his well-known hardline views. However, Kelly was endorsed by former governor Bill Graves. This was shocking considering he belongs to the GOP, and she is the only Democrat he has ever endorsed. In the polls, she is behind Kobach by one point but still carries the support of many Seabury kids.
“I really like Laura Kelly. She’s a woman, she’s strong and she’s a good opposition to Kobach,” says sixth grader Hugh Griggs. “I think that [she] has really good policy. I think that school funding has been decimated. Also, Sam Brownback said [Kobach] would be a shot of adrenaline to the economy with tax cuts, but oh no, I think Laura Kelly will...provide more public services.”
“I appreciate that she focuses on mental health, which is really important,” says junior Mina Dailey. “Especially in youth, because that’s something that is a lot of times ignored.”
“I can’t see myself voting for anyone on this ballot unless Edward Abbey reincarnated and was on the ballot,” says sophomore Brayden Shumaker. Despite the liberal pattern at Seabury, there are those who still disapprove of Kelly, or like in this case, both candidates. “Greg Orman’s alright too.”
Greg Orman is the Independent candidate running for governor. Like Kelly, he lacks the quantity of media coverage as Kobach, but to a much further extent, to a point where most do not know he is running. This ailment has afflicted many Independent candidates, as they tend to get lost in the shadow of the media’s big, looming coverage of the two biggest parties.
However, a nonchalant perspective seems to be that of many people our age regarding the midterm elections. This is surprising, considering the national elections sparked a fire of strong opinions in our generation.
“I don’t have much of an opinion,” says sixth grader Delaney Bayliss. “However, I’m still interested on who is chosen.”
Despite the fact that the majority of kids our age lack an opinion, students here clearly recognize the importance of the gubernatorial elections.
“This race is important in Kansas, and the United States, and even the world,” says Griggs. “It provides an example that demagogues like Kris Kobach cannot succeed in states like Kansas, because we need public education and good gun control, because that keeps a community on track.”
