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President Trump is campaigning tomorrow in a place where a reliably Republican Senate seat is suddenly up for grabs - Kansas. Senator Roger Marshall is locked in a surprisingly close race against Democrat Adam Hamilton. Frank Morris of member station KCUR reports that farmers who generally vote Republican could decide the outcome.
FRANK MORRIS, BYLINE: Stephen Kalb would rather be harvesting his fields of corn and soybeans near Wellsville, Kansas, but instead, he's fixing a busted combine, and the worn-out part won't come off.
STEPHEN KALB: I'm going to grab the longer pry bar first, and then we'll get the cheater pipe.
MORRIS: (Laughter).
(SOUNDBITE OF METAL CLANG)
KALB: At least it's not dark yet.
MORRIS: Kalb's handy, and he works long hours, but there's a lot about farming he can't fix. President Donald Trump's tariffs raised prices on farm equipment and some farm chemicals. His attack on Iran spiked fertilizer and diesel prices. So Kalb's expenses have mushroomed. Meantime, Trump's trade wars have shrunk export markets for Kalb's crops, squeezing his income.
KALB: It's definitely concerning. I believe in a global economy. But now it seems like stuff can change overnight.
MORRIS: Kalb says the government has broken down.
KALB: Maybe the checks and balances aren't there. If there's supposed to be three branches of government, we're worried about who's aligned with one right now.
MORRIS: Kansas Senator Roger Marshall is clearly aligned with President Trump. Normally, that'd be a big plus in Kansas, where farmers have long relied on Republicans to look after their interests. But Alexandra Middlewood, a political science professor at Wichita State University, says this year's different.
ALEXANDRA MIDDLEWOOD: I think farmers and ranchers in Kansas right now may be the group that is struggling the most with how to cast their ballot this election year.
MORRIS: Marshall faces Democrat Adam Hamilton, the pastor of a United Methodist megachurch who, until earlier this year, was a Republican himself. Normally, this wouldn't be much of a contest. Trump easily won Kansas in all the presidential elections he's run in. But farmer Merrill Nielsen, a lifelong Republican raised by lifelong Republicans on land his great-grandfather homesteaded near tiny Denmark, Kansas, says times have changed.
MERRILL NIELSEN: We just have a different situation than we used to have, and we have different parties than we used to have. So it's a whole new deal.
MORRIS: Nielsen misses pragmatic, moderate Republicans, people open to compromise and cooperation to get things done.
NIELSEN: I think Marshall is a result of the current politics of thinking that you got a message to send rather than a function to do.
MORRIS: There's some personal stuff too. As a doctor in small-town Kansas, Marshall sued hundreds of patients over medical debts, sending dozens to jail. His only home in the state now is a remote, one-bedroom cabin worth less than the price of a new camper van.
MIDDLEWOOD: I mean, people take a lot of pride in being Kansans.
MORRIS: That's Alexandra Middlewood again.
MIDDLEWOOD: And to have a representative that doesn't live in the state most of the time, or maybe at all, right - I don't know - it certainly goes against that state pride.
MORRIS: Marshall's also got problems with Kansas ranchers. He kept his mouth shut when Trump started trade wars that hurt U.S. beef exports and waived tariffs on some imported beef that depressed cattle prices and infuriated ranchers. The Kansas Livestock Association has pulled its endorsement. So many farmers do appreciate most of Marshall's track record, but Stephen Kalb says he's too beholden to Trump.
KALB: But, you know, I don't know that I was ever supposed to send anybody to Washington, D.C., to support a president. I thought they were supposed to support me.
MORRIS: As it stands, the race for Senate in Kansas is a toss-up. And in a state where huge homemade Trump signs dot farm fields, Trump may now be hurting the Republican candidate with farmers. For NPR News, I'm Frank Morris in Kansas City. Transcript provided by NPR, Copyright NPR.
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