Presidential campaigns of both Republican and Democratic candidates are heading to Kansas before the March 5 caucus.
- Ted Cruz will be in Overland Park on Wednesday, March 2. That event is set for 6:30 at Yardley Hall at Johnson County Community College.
- Bernie Sanders will be at Prohibition Hall in downtown Kansas City on Wednesday night. Sanders heads to Lawrence Thursday night, March 3, for a rally at the Douglas County Fairgrounds.
- Marco Rubio makes a stop Friday afternoon, March 4, in Wichita.
“We may see Donald Trump come to Kansas City before [March] 5. That’s been the rumor for some time, nothing confirmed yet on the record,” said Kansas City Star political reporter Dave Helling.
Political ads
Wednesday marked the first time a Hillary Clinton commercial aired in Kansas.
Sanders also has a commercial running, while a political action committee supporting Marco Rubio has purchased ad time as well.
Students at Crow’s Coffee were split over the ads making any impact on their votes.
“Seeing a candidate over, repeatedly in different places, can affect my vote just because I feel like I probably know more about them or have seen them around more,” said UMKC student Madelyn Stewart.
Hannah Fabean disagrees.
”I don’t want to say excessive because I know they are important, but sometimes I think myself and a lot of people my age in their 20s feel like they don’t always tell the truth. So that’s how I feel about a lot of political ads,” said Hannah Fabean.
Super Tuesday impact
Helling says it’s a possibility that a candidate could cancel their Kansas travel plans if Super Tuesday does not go well, but believes it’s unlikely.
“If you can win the Kansas caucuses on Saturday, then Sunday every newspaper in America [will say] ‘Donald Trump suffers a defeat,’” said Helling. “We’ll know a lot more Wednesday. I think the campaign will not be over but I do think the light at the end of the tunnel will be quite visible, quite clear and quite bright in both parties.”
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Brian Abel can be reached at brian.abel@kshb.com.
