Deep-red Kansas votes for change as patience wears thin with Trump: ‘The economy is really taking a beating’

“The people that live here aren’t actually farmers,” he said. “And they’re more likely to swing over to the other party because the economy is really taking a beating.”

David Aguirre, a 25-year-old who was born and raised in Junction City, and works at a Mexican restaurant, El Patron Dos, said that when the rest of the county is suffering, so does his work.

“It has, like, a domino effect for families,” he said. “If they’re not doing their best, they’re not gonna come out to eat, and then that affects staff, and cooks, and so on.”

While grocery shopping on Wednesday afternoon, Janet Grimm, who considers herself an independent, lamented her rising bills. Everything she picked out from the aisles was tagged with a red and yellow “sale” sticker, a conscious choice she needs to make now.

Checking out with just a handful of items – eggs, chicken, some deli meat, two cucumbers and powdered sugar for the banana bread she was planning on making later that day – her total rang up to over $60.

Grimm voted for Hamilton, and felt hopefully that he would be able to improve the economy for people like her. “I really have faith that they’re going to do good,” she said.

Hamilton – whose campaign slogan was “leading from the middle” – followed an increasingly reliable playbook in Kansas, Smith suggested, in which candidates position themselves as moderate and distant from the national Democratic party. In his victory speech on Tuesday, Hamilton emphasized to a packed room of supporters that he would seek greater collaboration between parties during his tenure, to “solve problems like it used to be”.

“I’m going to tell you a little secret. I want to become Jerry Moran’s best friend,” said Hamilton, referring to the state’s second senator – a Republican.

“For the rest of the United States, in deeply red Kansas, the heart of America, I want us to model what it looks like when thoughtful people actually work together to solve problems, instead of slinging mud at each other.”

Channeling his years as the pastor of a megachurch, Hamilton recounted the story of the Good Samaritan – in which a Samaritan stopped to help a man who was beaten on his way to the Holy Land – as a way to illustrate the importance of Democrats and Republicans helping out one another.

“If Jesus were telling this parable to a room filled with Democrats, he’d say, ‘And there was a Republican who came along and stopped and helped the man,’” said Hamilton. “If he was talking to a room filled with Republicans, he’d say, ‘And there was a Democrat who came along and stopped.’”

Every county in Kansas shifted to vote more Democrat in this year’s Senate race. Still, many areas of the state remain staunchly Republican, and no moderate candidate is likely to change that, said Smith.

“It’s still a pretty conservative state,” he said. “Let’s not get too hasty here.”

At a grocery store on the outskirts of Junction City, located in Geary county, Dan Duever, 75, said he believed Trump was the reason that Republicans “got hurt so bad” in the midterms, “because of the economy and the war in Iran”.

Duever, a semi-retired farmer, said that fuel costs on his farm have tripled – from about $15,000 to closer to $45,000 – because of the record high prices of diesel. He has stopped driving one of his trucks that relies on diesel. His fertilizer prices have roughly doubled.

Still, he did not break with his party this year when he voted in the state’s Senate race. “I’m a damn Republican,” he said.

Kaynak: The Guardian · Özgün metin İngilizcedir.

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