TOPEKA, Ks — After a strenuous campaign and hours of waiting on Election Night, the voters chose incumbent Kansas Governor Laura Kelly over Kansas Attorney General Derek Schmidt
The Associated Press and NBC News called the race Wednesday morning.
“I just saw that she retained the governorship, and I think that's fantastic because she’s been working hard in our state to retain employees, also to bring new business, and she has been working across the lines. And I think that makes a big difference,” said Oshara Hayes.
Governor Kelly released a statement on Wednesday outlining her goals for Kansas in her next term: high-speed internet, affordable health care and speeding up the elimination of the food tax.
“Axing the food tax was great for me,” said Sanskar Neupane, an international student at Washburn University. “I think she’s done a good job with COVID pandemic — how she handled the pandemic was really great and I wished for her to win.”
The governor's statement also outlined what she believes were her team's successes of the past four years.
KSHB 41 hit the streets of downtown Topeka to find out what the residents think.
“I believe she should change her position on much of the school legislation, on much of what takes place as far as abortion, gun control, etc,” said one resident, Paul Perry.
“People that don’t have high wages —we definitely need that," Perry said. "We need to focus on that. We need to focus on expanding Medicaid,” said Hayes.
Kevin Nelson hopes for tax relief.
“I think that our taxes could be lower obviously, but there’s some things that will be worked on with the legislature,” Nelson said.
Democratic and Republicans agree they hope Governor Kelly can continue to work in the spirit of bipartisanship.
“I think sometimes the emotions get in the way of the process,” said Nelson.
