Previewing 2020: Beyond Trump

Elections have consequences, and Kansas will have several big ones in 2020

By

Opinion

January 31, 2020 - 5:01 PM

Burdett Loomis Register file photo

It’s tempting to label elections as “the most important” in decades, our lifetime, etc.  Sometimes, as Kansans discovered in 2010, 2016, and 2018, elections do have real consequences.  Moreover, nationally, the 2020 prospect of re-electing Donald Trump makes the election important, to say nothing of his impeachment (and expected acquittal). Kansas, absent some 8.0-level political earthquake, will vote solidly Republican for president.

Nevertheless, 2020 does shape up as a significant year on both policy and political fronts in Kansas, with a hotly contested U.S. senate seat and legislative battles over abortion and Medicaid expansion.

Indeed, these major issues are already on the table. Somewhat surprisingly, Republican Senate Majority Leader Jim Denning (Overland Park) and Democratic Governor Laura Kelly reached a solid deal to expand Medicaid.

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