Kansas’ 2nd District GOP candidate forum features marriage proposal, devotional silence

Michael Ogle, a Topeka Republican seeking the 2nd District nomination for U.S. House, issued a marriage proposal at conclusion of his closing remarks during a televised WIBW candidate forum. (Kansas Reflector screen from WIBW-TV/used with permission)

TOPEKA — Kansas congressional candidate Chad Young said the federal government was plagued by feeble members of Congress who sold out to big business after settling in Washington, D.C.

During a televised WIBW forum with all five Republican candidates in the 2nd District primary, Young said he would never shed to special-interest lobbyists and big-money influencers the bold stripes of a conservative Republican and limited-government constitutionalist. He chose to devote a portion of his time for closing remarks to a demonstration of his God-first, politics-second philosophy.

“You know me and you know what I stand for, so I’m going to give the next 30 seconds to my God. And, I’m going to bow my head to it,” Young said.

And, he did. The silence lasted 25 extraordinary seconds until ended by co-moderator David Oliver.

Fellow Republican candidate Michael Ogle of Topeka, not to be upstaged by Young’s contemplative demonstration of faith, skipped through several closing points about advocating for veterans, growing hemp and admiring George Washington so he could pose an on-air question.

He looked directly into a camera’s lens and pulled a ring from his suit pocket.

“A good woman is all you really need,” Ogle said. “A bad woman will put a man on his knees, and I found a good woman. So, Nikoe Pulley, if you’re out there, will you marry me?”

“Proposals of all kinds,” said co-moderator Melissa Brunner.

On Wednesday, Ogle said Pulley replied in the affirmative.

Voters of the 2nd District have their own choice to make by the Aug. 6 primary in terms of selecting Republican and Democratic nominees for the general election. The eastern Kansas races help decide who might replace U.S. Rep. Jake LaTurner, a Republican who chose not to seek reelection in November.

The GOP candidate forum also featured former Kansas Attorney General Derek Schmidt, former LaTurner staff member Jeff Kahrs and feedlot operator Shawn Tiffany. WIBW plans to broadcast a forum next week with Democrats Nancy Boyda and Matt Kleinmann, both running in the 2nd District primary.

Political rhetoric

The WIBW hosts quizzed the Republican candidates on inflation, immigration, bureaucracy, mental health and Social Security. They asked about the value of government experience in terms of serving in Congress and about proposals to eliminate the U.S. Department of Education.

The candidates were queried about elevation of campaign rhetoric in light of the Saturday assassination attempt on former President Donald Trump at a Pennsylvania campaign event.

Schmidt, who served in the Kansas Senate before elected to three terms as attorney general, said he thanked the Lord the assailant didn’t more seriously injure the Republican Party’s nominee for president.

“There have been terrible acts of violence throughout American history,” Schmidt said. “Most done by people who are deranged, who are imbalanced, who are improperly motivated, whatever it may be. To blame anybody but the shooter, or whoever may be behind all of this, distracts us from what’s really going on here. We have to focus on the interests of you, the viewers and the people of the 2nd congressional district. We have to put those needs front and center, but we can’t shy away from that simply because some individual in Pennsylvania did a terrible, horrendous, unthinkable act.”

Tiffany said God “kept his hand” on Trump so he could win election in the presidential campaign. He said the attack on Trump “steeled our nation” and brought unity to the Republican Party. Tiffany said Congress would benefit from the influence of additional “outsiders” such as himself.

“It’s time to send outsiders to Washington, D.C., who are bold enough to say what the people in the district are thinking, and say it out loud. That way the left knows exactly what we’re thinking,” Tiffany said.

Kahrs, who worked in the administrations of Gov. Sam Brownback and Trump, likewise proclaimed God intervened to save Trump’s life. Kahrs said President Joe Biden acknowledged “his rhetoric needed to be toned down” in wake of violent attack on Trump. Kahrs didn’t characterize Trump’s rhetorical style.

Guns, immigration

Ogle, who deployed overseas with the Kansas Army National Guard, said violence in America didn’t warrant alteration of the Second Amendment. He did advocate for a crackdown on armed militias in the United States. Young argued the government should hire military veterans to serve as security guards in U.S. schools.

Schmidt said he opposed sweeping gun control legislation because justice had to be directed at individual offenders rather than weapons used in crimes.

“I don’t believe that firearms, which are a tool, are the problem,” he said. “I believe the misconduct of individuals in our society, whether they are deranged or ill-motivated, those are the problem.”

Tiffany said he was raised in Council Grove amid a culture that embraced gun rights. He asserted that when he was young the prevalence of firearms didn’t prompt school shootings and assassination attempts. He said violence in America was partially linked to the nation’s failure to address mental illness.

“We have radicalized a segment of the population to where they don’t even respect human life anymore,” Tiffany said.

On illegal immigration, Young said the federal government had to create an iron-clad barrier at the border. He said the millions of undocumented residents in the United States had to be sent home, but each should be given a Bible before deported. He said nobody in this country was safe amid the flow of undocumented intruders.

“It’s not going to end by allowing China to come across the border, allowing our enemies across the world to come across the border to hunt us. We are looking at a massive terrorist attack across the board,” Young said. “We ask ourselves this question: Why aren’t our borders closed? Because big corporations do not want them closed.”

Kahrs recommended the U.S. military be deployed to the border with Mexico until a security barrier could be constructed. He called for deportation of undocumented migrants that “Biden let in,” but didn’t say what ought to be done with migrants who entered the country under other presidents.

Ogle, who didn’t object to military deployments along the southern border, opposed federal actions to separate immigrant parents from their children.

Efficiency, and the race

Young and Kahrs said they were certain more than one federal agency had to be eliminated in an effort to bring wasteful spending under control.

Kahrs, who lauded trickle-down economics of tax cuts endorsed by Trump, said his sights were on getting rid of the U.S. departments of commerce and education. Young and Tiffany endorsed the education department cut, but Young said he would expand the list to include demise of the Federal Bureau of Investigation and the Central Intelligence Agency.

“It’s time to homeschool,” Young said. “It’s time to teach our children what we want.”

Schmidt said Congress should consider reorganizing, consolidating or eliminating the Department of Education. He said key functions of the federal agency had to be retained, including a division to enforce civil rights law.

During the candidate forum, Kahrs claimed the GOP primary in the 2nd District was a two-person race between himself and Schmidt.

“I’m running because our country is in serious trouble,” Kahrs said. “Our culture is collapsing. It seems like families, children, our common values and our culture are under attack from the extreme left.”

Schmidt, who had a wide lead in a May poll, said he stood up to President Barack Obama’s water regulation overreach, Biden’s student loan giveaway and added the state to lawsuits against pharmaceutical companies “peddling addiction to kids and our neighbors.” He said he personally argued and won three cases before the U.S. Supreme Court.

“It’s going to take more than talk to get American running again,” Schmidt said. “I have a proven record of standing tall for our conservative values.”

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