Can ‘Love, Kansas’ campaign stop Sunflower State brain drain? Good luck with that | Opinion

There’s no place like home.

That’s the underlying message behind “ Love, Kansas ” a new ad campaign from the Kansas Department of Commerce that aims to entice expatriate Kansans — the smart young adults who left their hometowns to live and work in cities and on the coasts — to come back to their home state.

“It’s simple: We need more humans in Kansas to keep up with the phenomenal economic growth our state is experiencing ,” Lt. Gov. and Secretary of Commerce David Toland said in last week’s announcement of the campaign. The best way to jump-start that workforce, he said, is to target those former Kansans and “invite them to build a life in a place they know and have connections to.”

It’s a nice idea. Really.

But also: Good luck with that.

Why? Because Kansas is definitely experiencing a brain drain. The reasons for the exodus aren’t necessarily the kind of things that can be fixed by an ad campaign or engagement with social media influencers.

It’s not just dollars and job opportunities, though that stuff matters. Maybe it’s culture too. And perhaps a little bit of politics.

Let’s start with the brain drain.

Back in 2022, The Washington Post did a data analysis of all 50 states and the District of Columbia, trying to figure which were best at keeping and attracting college grads and which were the worst. Kansas wasn’t quite the worst, but it was close : It came in at fifth from the bottom of the list. The analysis suggested we lost a whopping 47% of our grads — nearly half — to other states.

Something else interesting about that Post ranking: Just 10 states actually attracted more college grads than they lost. And of those 10, just two (Georgia and Texas) can truly be thought of as red states. The rest — including Colorado, New York and Washington — are blue through and through.

Colleges graduates and ‘The Big Sort’

That shouldn’t come as a surprise. Political scientists have theorized for years that we’re living through something called “The Big Sort, ” where Americans are moving to places where they can be surrounded by people who share their politics and interests. Democrats tend to go where they can live among Democrats and Republicans move to be among Republicans.

And these days, the biggest determinant of a voter’s party affiliation is education. If you’re a college grad, you’re probably a Democrat. If you’re not, you’re probably a Republican.

Kansas, you might have noticed, is a red state.

We’re more moderate than our reputation, of course, with a Democratic governor and voter-defended personal reproductive rights. But we’re a place where the GOP-controlled Legislature keeps passing bills targeting transgender people, abortion providers and (wink wink) “diversity” in higher education.

If you’re a college grad in Kansas — and if, like most other college grads, you lean a bit toward Democrats — is this really going to be the place you want to stay? Or would you rather go live in places with people who share your values a little more?

It probably makes the choice tougher, I’ll just say that.

Now, I don’t want to make the case that the Sunflower State’s Republican politics are the only, or even the primary reason that college grads leave us. The Washington Post analysis also showed that the biggest chunk of Kansas graduates are merely moving next door to even-redder Missouri, which suggests that stuff like “jobs and opportunity” is still the biggest factor in making big decisions.

And maybe I shouldn’t sound so cynical. I’m a native Kansan who once went off to Philadelphia to live and work and raise a family — and who returned to my home state eight years ago this summer. The cost of living is lower here. It’s closer to our aging parents. We have old friends and community nearby.

For my family, there really is no place like home.

So I’ll be rooting for “Love, Kansas” to succeed. The job will be easier if Kansas is a more welcoming, more worthy place to return.

Joel Mathis is a regular Kansas City Star and Wichita Eagle Opinion correspondent. Formerly a writer and editor at Kansas newspapers, he served nine years as a syndicated columnist.