10/13/2026
One of the things I love about being the owner of a business is that I get to do whatever I want. Pay a living wage? Make meal preps for my team? Focus on improving the lives of working-class families?
Yes.
Donate to charities? Start a free store? Promote people who promote the well-being of our neighbors?
Also yes.
Which brings me to this endorsement. Brenda Bandy for Kansas is a force of nature, and I aspire to be like her. She doesn't just sit on boards and call her contribution "good enough." She builds with her bare hands.
Brenda co-founded the Kansas Breastfeeding Coalition Inc.. She successfully organized 30+ coalitions-- each one with at least three members, from at least 2 orgs, and meeting regularly for at least 6 months. They offer breast feeding classes, childcare classes, they teach businesses how to install pumping stations, and lobby at the state level for measures that increase families' access to resources that make them healthy and productive.
Now when I say "lobbyist," I don't mean the cushy fat cats who get paid big boy dollars to advance the interests of the Epstein class or specific industries, or specific megadonors (looking at you, Koch family, Musk, and Altman). Those are the lobbyists that politicians make a beeline for. Nope, I'm talking about the grassroots, strictly volunteer force who have to herd lawmakers into a conversation with persistence and charisma, who advance the needs and interests of the people for $0. That's who Brenda is.
If you are happy with the same thing you've been getting-- pain at the pump, an affordability crisis, a housing crisis, garbage healthcare, the closure of rural hospitals, and setting all social safety nets on fire-- by all means, keep this seat in Republican control. I'm not saying that because Kohlmeier is a bad person or a bad candidate. I'm saying that because the Republican supermajority leaders have ruled Kansas with an iron fist so unbearable that extroverted, positive, and deeply humanitarian Representative Angel Roeser chose not to run for re-election.
In a bold, Thomas Massie-style blaze of glory, Representative Roeser called out House Speaker Dan Hawkins for punishing those who voted for policy instead of partisanship.
While Speaker Hawkins denied her allegations, I have found no less than 13 Republican representatives who faced the same hurdles for the same reason. They were blasted with attack ads from inside the House, primaried, removed from committees, ostracized by leadership—all for siding with their constituents.
So yeah, if you want deeper polarization with reps trying to gaslight you into thinking the economy is fine actually, that farmers aren’t suffering, and our gas and grocery bills are quite manageable; who will be a mouthpiece for the majority, the chamber, and megadonors, you definitely should not vote for Brenda.
But if you want meaningful change that improves the lives of Kansans and speaks truth—sweetly but steadfast—to power, you definitely should.