2026 is an election year for Kansas, and it's a big one.

Coming up on KTWU, an IGI election Special with an inside look at four Republicans running for governor Jeff Colyer, Vicki Schmidt, Scott Schwab and Ty Masterson.

This program on KTWU is brought to you by the Carol Jory Foundation.

Hello, and welcome to a 2026 IGI election Special.

I'm your host, Bob Beatty.

It seems like every four years the national spotlight is on Kansas, and 2026 is no different.

We're going to be with you all the way as we talk to candidates, help them debate and dive into the important issues that face the state and the nation all the way up to Election Day on November 3rd.

For this program, I'm talking to four of the candidates for the Republican nomination for Kansas governor, former Governor Jeff Colyer.

Insurance Commissioner Vicki Schmidt, Secretary of State Scott Schwab, and state Senate President Ty Masterson as they hope to be the Republican in the governor's chair after Governor Laura Kelly's eight years in office.

So let's get to it and meet these four candidates.

As a father.

Education is personal to me.

I'll make sure our schools focus on teaching math, reading, and tech.

And if they fail your family, I'll ensure you have better options.

We are going to strengthen parental rights.

No doctor will ever mutilate a child to change their gender in Kansas.

President Trump is leading a great American comeback, and he needs a strong Kansas governor by his side.

I'm Governor Jeff Colyer, and I'm ready to fight.

I'm ready to lead, and I'm ready to make Kansas great again.

Well, I'm here with Governor Jeff Colyer here.

Thanks so much for joining us for this program.

It's always great to be with you, Bob.

Really enjoy it.

I appreciate it.

I was reading something from, that former Senator Ed Muskie from Maine said when he was running for president.

It didn't work out for him.

And he said this.

He said, look into my face, hear my voice, decide for yourselves if I'm somebody worth talking to or not.

So that's a quote of a lead up to tell us who is Jeff Colyer?

Yeah.

I'm a fifth generation Kansan.

I grew up in Hays.

My family was from there.

The sixth generation is with me in Overland Park.

Growing up in Kansas, you learn to kneel for the cross, stand for the flag.

And I decided that I wanted to serve people and really help people.

And so I decided to be a doctor and to also be in public policy.

And I ended up working for President Reagan.

President Bush was there.

White House fellow, got elected, to the Kansas House and Senate and was the longest serving lieutenant governor and then became governor.

I also work as a surgeon.

I'm a craniofacial surgeon.

I do reconstructive surgery.

You know, here in Kansas.

So I'm dealing with people on their very worst day.

And that really keeps you humble.

And really, you know, you get to see where people are from.

I've also done things like volunteer in war zones across the world.

I've been in over 20 different war zones, actually, I've been shot at, on that.

But it's about serving people.

It's about getting things done.

I love Kansas, as you can tell.

And you know, we have a great future ahead of us.

And so I'm really excited, about where a future lies.

Briefly maybe, or a couple of the, I say worse or the most dangerous, places you went when you were doing that work.

And other countries.

Just briefly.

We don't have a lot of time, but.

So I was, for example, I was I was the only I was the only surgeon.

Southern Rwanda during the genocide when a million people died, I had bodies outside my window and we would have we would lean Coke bottles against the door so you could hear when they were breaking in for you.

But I was in Ukraine, Syria, Afghanistan.

Wow.

About every bad place you don't want to go, we are glad to be here at home.

In 2018.

You run for governor, and, it's a very close primary.

It's actually, as I've told you before, according to my research, the closest prime to Republican primary in American history for a governor who's sitting in the office.

Yeah.

Was that painful at governor?

Avery told me when he lost, he was very blunt and said that that was just very, very painful.

Was that tough to take?

And then how did you know?

How did you move on from that?

Sure.

Of course, it's tough to take, on this, but it is my first rodeo.

I mean, I deal with tough things all the time with my patients.

And in other words, you know, and what I did is I went back, we finished out the job, and you know, we did an excellent job, at the end of it, and we can talk about that.

But afterwards, I ended up, you know, spending more time in my practice, doing a lot of advisory work around the world was, you know, working for, IMC in different war zones.

Spend more time with my family.

And I also had to deal with prostate cancer.

Tackled that.

We are cancer free, so we're excited.

About that.

We got a reprieve.

But, you know, and as we surgeons say, you know, the chance to cut is a chance to cure.

And it works in a lot of different ways.

But, you know, we came back.

And when you've been out and you're back in the real world, your faith gets stronger, your work ethic gets stronger.

You know, your family ties gets stronger.

It's been a good seven years.

John Carlin, former governor, told me he decided to run for governor in a Chinese restaurant in Topeka, which is now defunct.

When did you say.

Because in the video, your announcement video said you're getting back in the arena.

When did you decide?

You know what?

I think I'm, I'd like to run for governor and get in there.

When do you.

When did you actually decide to do that?

Yeah.

Oh, I, I guess, yeah.

And it's a long process.

It was a long process for me.

Watching what happened to our state during Covid, was incredibly painful.

We lost $1 billion in fraud.

For example.

People were, you know, thrown out of their jobs, kids kept out of school.

It's set them back, you know, for years.

And that, you know, that was infuriating.

You may have seen me.

You know, if you remember, I was on national television about 25 different times talking about what was going on.

And, you know, the bad decisions that were made as we watch this and as we've come out of this.

I'm talking to my patients.

I talk to Kansans across the state, and they see it.

They see that it's become unaffordable, in our state where the highest tax state and we're the 43rd on the on the wage scale.

So your take home money is there and every kans and feels it.

And I know that.

And you know in talking to them looking at us we really can't be on a different path.

One that is much more positive, one where our budget isn't in deficit, where we're still a high tax state and we have a deficit where our economy is shrinking, where 1% of the state is leaving in the last seven years, most of them under 40.

And I have I have three daughters.

And, you know, they're in their 20s.

And fortunately they're like their mom.

They're brilliant, like their mom.

But looking at them and talking with them, you know, they want to see their future in Kansas.

But not all of the opportunities are here.

And I want Kansas to be the land of opportunity.

And that's why we're back in the arena.

You brought up a few issues, and so let's get into those.

You mentioned affordability.

That's a that's a tough one.

We saw the the Kansas legislature struggle.

Yeah.

With, with with the Republican majority, within the Republican Party, actually with the idea of property taxes.

But we also have inflation.

We've had inflation.

We have housing.

So in terms of affordability, if you are elected, you know, what do you tackle.

Maybe your top two priorities.

And then and then I guess sort of the million dollar question is how do you get that legislature to unite around what you want to do?

So I've worked so sorry for a long time, but no, I think it no, I think it's I think you're spot on because, you know, that's what we need to do when you have a competent conservative governor who's working with a Republican legislature, we can talk.

You know, we may not agree on everything, but I bet you, you know, with proper Republican leadership as a governor, you know, I've put together bipartisan coalitions, Republican coalitions.

I know how to do that.

And I've done it, you know, had to do it for the school finance.

But here's the thing that we need to do.

We need to increase wages for every working Kansan in the in the state.

We're 43rd in wages.

And the way that we do that is we end up with higher value jobs.

So instead of just, for example, instead of just, you know, exporting soybeans, we should be exporting finished cattle, things that are higher up on the food chain so that we have more of that production and that processing in the state.

And think about that in other different ways.

You know, Wichita aviation, we really should be able to draw another 5000 aviation jobs in Kansas, given what needs to happen in the in the future here with the military and in the commercial sector.

We want to be competitive, and building those more jobs in there raises all the boats.

But we also have to cut our expenses.

And property taxes are crazy.

Okay.

For me, looking at property taxes, I've seen them, you know, talking to a guy out in western Kansas, you know, where his house, the property taxes on his house are more than what his payment was 30 years ago.

And, you know, they're now retired and they're wondering, how are we going to make this?

Property taxes have exploded across the state.

They're largely local.

And you need a governor who will put together the coalition and take care of the overall property tax problem, which is it's not just the appraisal, it is also the mill levy.

And those two multiply and give us the total amount we need to cut that expense.

And I think working with the legislature, giving the people a constitutional amendment that they can vote on is absolutely central.

Okay.

Can I add one other thing?

Yeah.

Then I want to hit we have about three minutes, but I won't hit one other issue.

We go ahead.

Yeah.

You know, the other thing with it is we need to cut our expenses.

At the state level, the budget is up 60% or $600 million in the red when I left as government, we are an $800 million surplus.

One of the things that we did is we've increased the number of state employees by several thousand.

Our lives are not 60% better.

We need to cut our expenses and be smart about it.

Using technology and, you know, making people more forward facing and fewer employees were one of the highest per capita in the country, are right here in Kansas.

I have a couple of minutes, but I think it's important.

So property taxes and some other issues, they're important.

But as someone who's been around a while, they're perennial.

Yeah, we're always dealing with these.

We have some new issues.

I know we have a little short time.

Are you thinking about these new issues?

I have an article article here that says, quote, your personal data might set your grocery prices state's aim to crack down.

I mean, we've got a, we've got data breaches.

Are you thinking about these problems?

But not just in the sense of, oh, let's bring in data centers.

But, you know, what does this all mean in terms of piece, Kansans personal, you know, private information.

And I think I think you're spot on, with this.

I think this is an important issue.

Yes.

If an AI, for example, people ask me about data centers, if data centers can come in, locals need to make the decision.

They need to have enough electricity and not be driving people's prices up and needs to be able to conserve water.

Those basic parameters.

But overall, you know, I has some opportunities for us to make us more efficient, particularly in state government.

There it also has the risk of being dangerous, for people.

And I want to make sure that we protect kids, first off, because their data is getting accumulated and being very directed at them.

So we need to make sure that our kids are protected.

And this is going to be an ongoing thing.

Of course, you know, and, you know, I have daughters that have master's degrees in AI, you know, we know, you know, how difficult this is and where we need to work on this, both on the state level but also on the national level, which is where it really needs to happen, is we need to make sure they're safeguards.

As a governor, you talk to the white House, you talk to all of these different agencies, you know, every day.

And we need to make sure that you have a strong voice in Washington that will work with the federal government, whoever the president is, to get the job done.

All right.

Well, thank you so much for joining us.

Governor Colyer.

I really appreciate it.

Great.

It's always fun to be with you, Bob.

Thanks.

I'll look for you on the campaign trail.

You bet.

All right, next, we'll be talking to Insurance Commissioner Vicky Schmidt.

Vicky.

So, are you running for governor?

I don't forget, okay.

All right, Vicky, tell me, are you going to run for governor?

And off they ran, laughing and shouting through the jungle.

Miss Vicky, are you running for governor?

Vicky, I've got to ask.

Are you going to run for governor?

So, Vicky, are you running for governor?

Vicky, are you running for governor?

I'm Vicky Schmidt, I love our state.

Everything i t is given to me and every way it is challenged me.

Well, I'm here with Insurance Commissioner Vicky Schmidt, and I've got to ask in a different, setting.

Are you running for governor?

Yes, I am, professor.

Yes.

Good.

I just wanted to do that because, those scenes are so fun.

So that is obviously a very interesting, announcement video.

I liked it.

And how did that idea come about?

I mean, I'm guessing people were asking you this.

Were they asking you this in sort of some odd places?

Everywhere I went.

And, one time we went to the, grocery store, and we were there about 2.5 hours, because people kept stopping me and my husband said I was now banned from going to the grocery store.

So.

Well, I remember many years ago now being in Dillons and seeing, Kathleen Sebelius when she was governor in the grocery store.

And I thought, wow, she's a very brave person.

Because of course you're going to get stopped.

I actually still get stopped in the grocery store right before elections.

Who's going to win?

They say I'm like, I don't know.

I don't know what's going to win.

Well, thanks for joining us here.

And you on that theme of you running for governor when you know, you're getting these people asking you, when did you decide, you know, obviously you would have talked to your husband and other people, but when did you when did you decide and what made you decide to think, okay, I'm going to do it.

I'm going to take the plunge.

Well, you know, I think we started I started talking to people, early on in the year and, but I, you know, there's a lot to think about and taking out on a job of running for governor.

And then, you know, if, if you're elected, what happens after that?

So, there was a lot of talk with my family and friends and, and then when we decided in July, we made that, made that video and made the announcement and, away we went.

But, you know, I'm running for governor because I don't think Kansas is a particularly well-run state.

I think we can do a lot better.

And when government is inefficient, you have higher taxes, you have a lower quality of service, and you have a longer wait time on the phone.

I mean, how many people have called the state office and did they pick up the phone?

Did they call you back?

You know, we spent tens of millions of dollars on, new computer system for the Department of Labor, and we still can't print unemployment form on time.

And now, from what some of the local news is, I'm wondering if we're paying fraudulent claims.

So, you know, I run a state agency, came in, we saw the problems, and we fixed them.

We reduce the cost of doing business by $69 million, and we returned over $206 million back to Kansas taxpayers.

So I'm running for governor to make Kansas more efficient, more accessible, and certainly less costly for Kansans.

Now, we'll have some we'll have some viewers who don't know you.

I know that's hard to do if you've been in politics a while, but, it's actually quite shocking when you see you've been polling about current governors.

There's still a percentage.

Who's there?

So what?

Where are you from?

Where did you grow up?

And tell us a bit about, you know, your earlier years before you got into politics?

Oh of course.

Well, my name is Vicky Schmidt, and I'm running for governor.

I grew up in Wichita, Kansas.

I my dad was a telephone repairman.

My mom, had a beauty shop in our house, and, I wanted to be a pharmacist, worked as a pharmacist, and, when I was growing up, after about age 15 and knew I wanted to be a pharmacist.

So, I married my high school sweetheart.

He is, it's 50 plus years now.

We have two sons and two daughter in laws and four gorgeous, grandchildren.

And I'm a breast cancer survivor.

That those are definitely some some highlights.

And you're currently insurance commissioner, but I'm interested in the pharmacy piece before we move on, because that's not something at least I've seen, pharmacists become and governors, maybe, you know, of some who have, why did you want to be a pharmacist and what prompted that?

You know, I wanted to be a pharmacist because when I was in high school.

You're pretty.

I'm pretty.

You're pretty impressionable.

And, I saw how kind and caring the pharmacists that I worked with were, toward people coming into the, store.

I knew I wanted to do something in health care.

I was good at math, and science, and so I knew I wanted to go into health care.

And, for me, it was a natural transition.

And then, you know, to go to KU and to get my degree.

And then I worked for 40 plus years, around in this community as a pharmacist.

And, I think it, you know, it gave me job flexibility when I was and we were raising kids and, I just I still love being a pharmacist.

It's interesting.

So there's a, quite a few people in the Republican primary running for governor.

Goodness.

I sort of cut 7 or 8, something like that.

There's a dubious ninth, I think.

I'm not so sure about that one, but what sets you apart, you know, from the the different people that are also running because obviously it's a primary.

So Republicans, they can't go by party ID like in a general.

Some people just help with the party.

What sets you apart from your fellow Republicans running?

Well, I think we've already talked about it.

The fact that I'm a pharmacist, there is no other pharmacist for running in this race.

And, you know, I, have been trained to listen to people.

That's a big part of our education, is listening to people.

And I think I've had some of the most meaningful conversations on people's porch steps.

When I've been campaigning in the 100 degree summer heat and, trying to decide, what their concerns actually are, I think that listening to people is is so very important.

And, that that has never left me.

People have trusted me to fill their medications.

As a pharmacist.

People have trusted me to stand up for them as insurance commissioner.

And, I pledge to earn their trust as governor.

There was a you make a statement in your announcement video, maybe that's linked to your what you just answered, but you said, you would be a governor you can rely on.

What do you mean by that?

That's an interesting statement.

Oh, well, I think, you need a governor that can offer real solutions and make them happen.

And, I and I think, I would be a reliable government governor.

I think I'd be consistent.

I'd be ethical.

And so that's.

Yeah, it's interesting all the different tasks that, a governor has to take on that aren't even partisan.

That.

And when we see, polling that shows why Kansans like their governors, it's these sort of intangibles.

That's why I found that, sort of an interesting statement, which is probably really important.

Let's get to some, some issues before we're before we're done.

You talked about a number of them, in your campaign.

You talked about economic development, education, transportation, property taxes.

Which ones?

Maybe arguably your number one, issue or number two.

And why so?

Well, first of all, I want to go back on what you just said about, you know, once you're governor, you represent all Kansans.

And I think that's a very important point here.

Listen to everybody.

I think I can't go anywhere, even today, without people talking about their property taxes.

And that's a that's a huge issue for Kansans, you know, that that issue, you're going to have to start all over with that issue, I think, and you have to start with the locals and all the way up through state government, you know, it it starts with your local appraisal.

And when I was, on the phone with, when I was contesting my appraisal process, I felt like I had already lost because of the relationship between the county and the appraisal, the appraiser and the relationship that they already had.

And I did lose, but, I, I think that, it starts back there.

I think sometimes we feel as taxpayers, the appraisal backs into what the county budget is, and what the what what they need to fund.

And, and then, you know, the state also has a role in this, and, and the state has the mill levy and, I think we could decrease the mill levy.

What we've done in the past hasn't worked, but we really need to talk about that whole system, I think.

But it it should be, right up there.

And I know that's what Kansans want us to do.

And the legislature with a Republican majority the last two years really couldn't get anything done.

There was squabbling within the two houses.

Is that something?

If you're a governor, you think you could get the legislature to come around to run some ideas addressing property taxes, why you spent the last eight legislative sessions working with, with the legislature on things that we needed to accomplish at the insurance department.

I mean, we wouldn't have been able to reduce the cost of doing business by $96 million or return $206 million to Kansans without their help.

So, you know, yes, I think you you have to you have to work with them and, and, you know, I mean, but we have to be honest with ourselves that there's no easy button to press on this issue.

Yeah.

And it's also, of course, really a local issue in many ways, which makes it a bit harder.

So as you're those other issues I mentioned, economic development, transportation.

We only have a short amount of time.

What are you hearing other than property taxes, which you are hearing as you're campaigning of those other issues?

What are you hearing a lot about?

Well, I think we need to rein in AI and big tech.

We need to be able to preserve our land.

Our water supply and certainly our way of life.

I think you have to work with the, I think working with the business community, with, the education community from K-12 through, you know, colleges, universities, technical colleges, community colleges, independent colleges.

You have to work with all of them to, to create a workforce for the for the students.

Now, but I don't think you can talk about education without talking about the negative effects of social media.

And I would I would be proposing a ban on social media for, students under the age of 16 without parental consent.

I think, it's it's devastating to their mental health.

We need to we need to have a health care discussion in general in Kansas.

But, mental health is something we need to make sure that we're protecting our young people, from from social media.

That's really interesting.

You say that because, as you probably know, there's now countries, Australia, and I know a couple others, literally the entire countries are banning social media for, you know, certain age groups.

And of course, it's the early process of this.

But, I was going to ask you about AI and you, you already talked about it.

And I think those are the emerging new issues we have about.

Yeah, 45 seconds.

You know, people that haven't met you yet in about 30 40s what's the most important thing you think?

When they, they see this like, oh, okay.

That's Vicky.

Well, I hope they know that I, I would listen to every Kansan.

I want to earn their trust.

And I will be working every day to earn their trust as governor.

I'd love to have their support in the primary election.

It is a crowded primary, and, I just say vote for Vicky on August 4th.

All right.

Well, thank you so much for joining us.

We'll definitely see you out on the campaign trail.

And coming up next.

Next is Secretary of State Scott Schwab.

We need a plan to cut property taxes.

So Kansas families stop feeling the pinch.

I believe Donald Trump is right.

We need to stop China from buying farmland next to our military bases.

It's a matter of security, and we need to return to the values and the principles that have always field us, and gave me the strength to lean, to pick up.

I have a proven conservative record in a servant's heart.

It's important for Kansas to take the right path.

So for my family and yours, I'm Scott Schwab and I'm running for governor.

Well, I'm here with Scott Schwab.

We just saw you there, the Kansas secretary of State running for governor.

And if I'm correct, I think you were the first to announce.

Yes.

So why did you want to announce before everybody else, which is now a fairly crowded field?

And had you decided early and just said, you know, let's let's get going on this.

It's a journey.

So yeah, I always teaser is only 22,354 candidates running for governor in the crowded field.

It is crowded, in.

So it started with me talking with Derek Schmidt.

Like, what do you think?

What did you do?

He was encouraging.

Now he's he accidentally got elected to Congress, so he needs to take more neutral role, which I completely respect.

But what it came down to, I was busy with my family, and my oldest son was like, dad, Derek's going to lose and you're going to run.

And I didn't believe that, and I agreed.

I really thought Derek would win.

As a conservative Republican and worked with him as he's like a political older brother to me.

Him being my attorney first through several lawsuits.

But talking with my wife, she said, what you've done for Secretary of state, if you did it for governor, you would change the state.

And so I tell folks, the reason why I'm running is because I want to do governor.

I don't want to be governor.

And that's why we've actually put out policy points of what we want to accomplish.

So people know what you get when you vote.

And what I did for secretary of state, the culture, the demeanor, the professionalism.

I want to bring it to the second floor of the Capitol and you know, where there's going to be some viewers.

We may be shocked at this point, but it's true of all candidates who don't know, you are going to have a sense of who you are.

We know that you have a stump speech, but you know who is what's underneath the layer.

You know who is Scott Schwab?

What would you want people to know about you?

I guess I would say personally that are watching seeing this for the first.

Yeah.

And so I'm actually surprised when people do know who I am, because as secretary, we've really tried to change the narrative in that office to say we want to be actively boring, we don't want to be in the news unless we're educating, because we want, you know, we're offensive linemen in football, don't want their names called over the PA system because normally they did something wrong.

We want to be our names out if we're educating, not because we did something wrong.

So but what I want folks to know is I'm a kid who grew up in Great Bend from very humble circumstances.

My dad was a union auto worker that moved to rural Kansas from Detroit and worked for Fuller Brush and, the loss of rural manufacturing seriously affected her family, which is why it's a passion and why it's part of my stump speech.

And I'm a father of four boys, three that are still here with me.

A lot of folks know my story, and so I won't delve into that.

But I don't I don't need this job.

To me, some mission field, it's like I've spent all this time investing in Kansas, serving.

And what I've gleaned from leaders from Bob Dole all the way down to Dan Hawkins, who's the speaker of the House now, is things that can be implemented to save people money and make the state way more efficient than it is right now.

Now you're younger than me, but you're you're still not, you're still not had a kid.

You mentioned other governors.

And so there's a number of governors that we've seen in Kansas.

Yes.

Mike Hayden, Bill graves, Kathleen Sebelius, Mark Parkinson for quite a while, Sam Brownback, Jeff Colyer, and you're missing a Democrat, Joan Finney, Joan Finney for one term.

I have a feeling you're probably a Kansas politics nerd, a little bit like myself.

Is there when you when you get that list of governors and, you know, each one had their own personal style?

Is there one where you said, you know, I like the way he or she's operating or what?

What would be your personal style if you won the, Do you remember the last governor from Johnson County, Bob Bennett?

Oh, no.

Oh, wait wait, wait.

Well, Jeff Colyer well, yeah, he was, mean Bob.

And I forgot that there was the one that was from Johnson County.

He was the former attorney general and now is that because I'm on camera?

His name is John Anderson.

John and John Anderson.

John Anderson is a fascinating story.

He was my constituent when I first became a state legislator.

And he tells me the story that he was the one who prosecuted the brothers from In Cold Blood.

That's correct.

Yes.

And so then he went way back then he became governor because of that.

And the mothers came and asked him, after he prosecuted him last two men, to ever be hanged for a crime in the country.

The mothers asked him to pardon them and or commute their sentence, and he said no.

And they cried on his shoulders, and he gave them his car.

And he says, this number rings that phone on that desk.

And if you need anything for me, you call me.

He stood up to the law and held it, but had compassion.

He wasn't cold hearted.

He he had empathy.

And I've always connected with that story because that's what tough leadership is, is you have to make tough decisions knowing that there's going to be a victim of it, and you have to have empathy of the victims.

And that's that's the guy I draw from.

See, I every day there's surprises.

I did not expect you to talk about John Anderson here.

So that's really he was a man of integrity.

I was able to talk to him before he passed away.

And he had a he had a great line, which is just fascinating to think about.

He said, Bob, just, you know, I did a lot of things, but not always.

He said, all change is not progress, which is I always think about that.

Sometimes it's good changing, sometimes it's bad.

Let's get on to some issues.

You know, they're obviously going to be very important to people.

Property taxes.

You know, that's what everyone's talking about was this problem.

They should be I believe again, correct me if I'm wrong, that you are the maybe only or the first for sure, the candidate to come up with the plan.

Here's what we want to do.

Tell us.

You know, we only got five, six minutes left.

We're going to get some other things.

But tell us the key points.

Well, the key points are a couple of things are one, there's no consistency across the state a footprint in Johnson County, a footprint in and over similar footprint, similar economy appraised completely different because they do it the way they want to.

Department of revenue has standards.

But I always say it's like pirates of the Caribbean.

They're just guidelines really.

Nobody's following them.

Nobody's obeying.

They're doing what's for the best interests of the pocketbook of the county, not what's.

So they get rewarded for making mistakes.

So, for example, if you sell your property for less than the appraisal, where's the tax return?

They get rewarded for making mistakes.

And so that the problem with property taxes is it's an unfair appraisal process.

It's an unfair appeals process.

We need to fund the appeals process so much more.

So so they can get process faster.

And and if you're going to raise your property taxes, let the people vote on it.

If it passes, they wanted a tax increase.

If they don't, then you have legitimate reasons to make cuts.

And when people complain so, well, you didn't want to raise your taxes, we have to do you can't have both.

And so it's equity in the system.

And right now there is no there's no fairness in the system at all.

And and you mentioned people voting on it.

I know there was some plans in the legislature, but why is the legislature, which is a Republican majority supermajority actually, why are they struggling?

Have they struggled so much to get basically any kind of plan passed?

And do you think you could get something passed?

I did, because I have when I was vice chair, Rick Carlson was chair.

We got meaningful, tax reform, property tax reform done.

And it had to do with, the way they've, not evaluate, but the way they, they say whether it's real property or not.

Legally, we got it done because of two things.

We got consensus and we had a Republican governor.

And if you want tax cuts, that makes sense.

It's going to take consensus.

And Republican governor sometimes get tax cuts.

There's not consensus.

Sometimes you get tax cuts and there's not a Republican governor.

It takes both because those are the things that create the brew that people will drink in the morning and say, hey, I got some relief today.

Now we know that if we're in Kansas politics nerds, we know there's certain issues that every election pop up taxes, education, sometimes abortion.

I get the sense right now that there's these new issues.

I think they revolve around AI I think they revolve around data centers, I think revolve around tech.

Personally, I think the, the nonstop ads I see on TV telling me, you're going to love AI has gotten people a little nervous.

They don't like people, don't like something shoved down their throat.

What about these new issues?

And and is that something you've started to think about that.

Hey, you know, there's all these things we know happened in Kansas, but what's coming around the corner.

So I would say the culture people don't like things being shoved down their throats in the pandemic because policies were shut down their throat was mask and vaccines.

So that's that's the starting point.

International, opponents, I'll call them opponents aren't necessarily enemies because some are, some aren't.

Started using the internet to try to engage in the debate to form public opinion.

I think when it comes to data centers, it's local control, local control, local control, and citizens don't just surprise people say, look what's out there, right?

I don't think a monolith from Topeka is not a good policy.

It needs to be from the county and from the city.

But what people need to weigh is don't believe everything you read on the internet.

You know, if you can live in an office building and a data center is not that much more unhealthy.

And then two, do you want the next generation of the internet, which is coming, whether you like it or not, to be run by China because they are going to have data centers?

This is and a tech war.

It's not a Cold war.

It's a tech war.

And and the US has to lead and Kansas has to decide what's our role.

And I think that's best.

It's best decided on a local level.

So I'll be open.

We have two minutes.

And I don't know if I want to take the whole two minutes with you.

I'm going to circle back.

You mentioned rural Kansas, your background, which sounds like you know quite a bit about that.

What about rural Kansas?

And is there something that, you know, doesn't cost $1 billion?

Maybe, but something that can be done if you're a governor?

Yeah.

A couple of things we need to put stop were AG, were the agricultural epicenter of the North American continent.

And the world needs to know if there's a question on AG.

We have the answer to rural downtowns.

Kansas needs to help get loans on these buildings because its buildings are going into the earth, and they're beautiful, and people want to buy them.

They want to turn them into entrepreneur opportunities, but you can't get a loan on them.

The state needs to step in and help, and we have a plan for that.

And is it okay if I plug my website?

It's scottschwab.com The details are there from our jeans tour.

But yes, it's incredibly important we start leveraging our rural communities and showcasing is that, is that again maybe 45 seconds?

Is that something that you think sets you apart from some of the other candidates in this gubernatorial race?

Your background?

I would say everything does, but yes, that does absolutely help.

Coming up, I'm the only bald one.

I mean, there's so many things I wasn't going to say it, but, again, you think you can win this Republican primary?

And why?

So in 30s.

We'll finish with that.

I'm the only one with traditional conservative values that's been elected statewide, never lost, that's why.

All right.

Well, thank you so much.

Thank you for joining us.

It was great to talk to you.

And next up is Senate President Ty Masterson.

Tangling with Laura Kelly these last few years taught me I can only do so much from the position I'm in.

Big change comes from the big seat.

It's time to take the fight to the status quo.

President Trump is breaking the ice dam of the federal bureaucracy.

We need to take advantage of this amazing opportunity to green Kansas's economy, roaring back and prevent things that are holding us back.

If you think Kansas is worth fighting for and you know leadership makes the difference.

Join me.

I'm Ty Masterson.

Let's get to work.

Well, I'm here with Ty Masterson.

Thank you so much.

Thank you for joining us here.

And let's start off with that video.

We have had the pleasure of watching all the announcement videos, and that one definitely has a different vibe, which I found it interesting though.

Tell us about the process you had when you're when you're making that.

Yeah.

And what was it most interesting about that is that was literally a typical Sunday afternoon at my house.

I literally had my, you know, we didn't have some fancy film crew come in.

I have a nephew that does some videography, and he was living with us at the time.

And so every Sunday, family day in my house and so all my kids and my grandkids come over and we just have, you know, time to kind of reset.

And so he was literally just filming all that B-roll, and there was just him filming us at our house.

And then, of course, then I had to, the script that I wanted to communicate and say, but that was really pretty organic.

So you had to get the the rock guitar.

Well, that's that's me.

That's I mean, you were involved with that.

Yeah, I was well, I you're okay.

I'm the I kind of like the rock music.

Yeah.

That's, that's that's how I grew up.

I got I'm, I'm a guy of action, so it's just it fits me.

Yeah.

So, there's.

Believe it or not, there's a number of voters that actually don't know the candidates very well.

It's it's still a bit early.

And that's the biggest challenge.

Yeah, it's name recognition, but there's a line from a movie that, I've always enjoyed is Casablanca, where Rick says to Ilsa at the time, who are you really?

What were you before?

What did you do and what did you think?

So, I mean, I like that because, like, we know you have a stump speech and everything.

Yeah.

You came to one of my classes and you talked about yourself.

What do you want people to know about you?

Like, sort of the person.

Oh, that means it's a good question is.

You're right.

I mean, it's hard to know.

You know, pretty in state level politics.

Get out to the people and have that message I think would probably would inform them the most is what I learned from my father's.

You be the same person behind the closed doors.

You are out in public.

And so if you said you said I had a brand, it would be authenticity.

I want to have a an honest conversation about the issues.

A lot of difficult issues to talk about in politics.

Now, my I'm not your typical path to this type of, of a race.

I was, yeah.

We didn't grow up with any money.

I was, I went off to college, ran out of money, and just went back.

I met my wife and we had six amazing children.

And so that became the core of my life, of just making sure.

And that's leads to why I'm doing this to the, you know, all six of our children now.

And now adults are choosing to raise their families in Kansas.

So I have a I have a vested interest in making sure this is a great state for my kids.

And so that's and I've been I've been up and I've been down.

I the 2008 crash in our economy was devastating, to us, financially.

But I tell you what, did you know?

That's a God use it to teach me some powerful lessons.

And it really what I thought was going to take me down forged me into who I am today.

So I know what it's like to go through to the hard times to and be up and down.

So that's, probably the most informed.

I'm a family man at the core.

That's why that was me in the video to what drives me every every day is is my children and making sure that my children, our children.

Right.

All all the kids of Kansas.

And where'd you grow up or did you go to high school?

So, so I was frozen.

Oh, Kansas geography.

I grew up in rural Butler County.

So Butler County is just east of Sedgwick, where Wichita is.

We grew up on the back side of an old dairy farm out in the country.

I was one of four boys, so we.

I didn't have any sisters and running joke in my families.

I didn't know anything about women till well after I was married.

So it was that was how I grew up.

But graduated high school from Augusta, Kansas.

And I got my start from there.

Yeah, I have a I have one brother and I have a scar here, so we maybe we just, you know, when you grow up in that environment, physically out in the country, didn't have cell phones.

We didn't have TV till I was probably an early teenager.

And so we were out outside playing, you know, we joked that, you know, you wrote it, you thought it, you did whatever it is, whatever it was and it was, but it was it was great, I really do.

I have a brother just about 18 months older.

What about same younger and then one younger than that.

So we were all pretty close together.

It was a good time.

Yeah, I bet it was interesting.

I bet in that, announcement video, you said, quote, that you wanted to take the fight to the status quo, and it it did get me thinking that Republicans in Kansas have three of the four congressional seats, two Senate seats for the six statewide offices and a supermajority in the legislature.

So to you, what is the status quo?

Because someone might say, well, you are, your party is.

But you said you want to take the fifth.

Yeah.

And that's that.

Will that goes to show you that's how important the executive branches are.

Because even though we have this, of course, supermajority, there's a functional supermajority.

There's an unfortunately supermajority where you can have it in the numbers, but it doesn't translate to actually action.

And that's really been the state of things in Kansas for decades, where you might have seen a super majority of Republicans on paper, but it didn't necessarily function that way.

It has more recently in the last couple years.

But no matter what the legislature passes, right.

It depends.

How does the executive branch implement it and enforce it?

The judicial branch interpret it?

There are layers to that.

There are things that we experience in Kansas that are not creatures of the legislature, but creatures of the executive and the court.

And so that's what I mean.

But take it back.

For 16 of the last 24 years, Kansas have been governed by liberal Democrats.

So you can just obviously you could disagree with me if you don't agree.

But it seems like in the last few years the legislature has for lack of a better term, I may be taken away some power from the governor or at least put in some more checks.

But just for example, Senate approval of of of people, nominees or regulations before that.

Governor, if you're a governor, are you going to get in there, say, dang, I wish the legislature hadn't done that because I'm not as powerful as maybe the governor 12 years ago.

That's a really good question.

But the short answer is no, I'm not going to be there.

I believe in the separation of the branches and constitutional authority.

One thing that we finally did from the legislative perspective was take over the budget again here that we've been in that since the 1950s.

There had been a governor proposed budget, and we'd kind of work off that.

But you don't get it until 2 or 3 weeks into the session.

So then you're in this mad scramble to figure out what to do with it.

And it's the legislature's constitutional responsibility to do the budget.

And so and I had somebody ask similar question.

Well, don't you want to have control that when your governor then the answer is I definitely want to say but no, not control because that's the legislative responsibility.

So I think that needs to be, the equal branches have equal power.

Now, I'm not going to put words in your mouth, but you are the one of the major candidates, maybe all of them.

You're the one coming right from the legislature.

But maybe that's your answer.

But what is unique about you in this Republican primary?

Is that it?

Or is there something else you'd say?

This is why I want you to take a look at me versus these other people.

Yes.

Who?

You know what sets me apart from from a broad field?

And I would and I would, I would say two things.

And that the first thing I would say to sets me apart is I relate to everyday Kansan because I am everyday Kansan.

I'm the guy that has worked two jobs most of my life to put food on the table for my family, so I understand what that is.

I'm the only one that's not independently very wealthy and have that ability to.

So I relate.

Write yourself a check and I. You'll notice when they did the campaign finance, I was the only candidate that didn't loan my campaign a bunch of money.

You know, million dollars plus.

Right.

And and I, I raised the most from Kansas.

Would be nice to say to Bob from Bob check.

But yeah.

Yeah, right.

It'd be easy if it's just sitting there.

On your own.

But I think the other thing does tie into my, my, my experience is a kind of a battle tested leader in the legislature.

Is that that's the difference, because I have.

I'm not a gamble.

I'm not a roll of the dice.

You know, I have a record in a relationship, to deliver.

So I'm.

I'm the battle tested, proven leader, conservative leader in the legislature that's delivered even in the headwinds of opposition.

And so I'm just not a gamble.

I'm.

I've got a record and I'm proud of it.

Let's get to last few minutes, get to a couple issues.

You know, I'll let you you decide if we only got 3 or 4 minutes.

You know what what issue is?

You think that is going to be key for this primary campaign?

But also if you win and go into the general and then become governor, what what issue you want to say, okay, this I really want people to focus on this and do and I can tell you, right?

I mean, there's not even right now, there's there's a second, but not much of a close second.

Everywhere I've gone, property tax crisis has been been the theme.

And that's everywhere in the state.

I, you know, whether you go northwest and you talk about water issues out there, there's still property tax.

Number one, southwest.

You talk about four lane highways.

It's still property tax.

And it's acute.

I'm acutely aware I'm neighbor across the street from me had told me 90 years old.

He's paying double in his property taxes alone.

What he had been paying for his mortgage.

His interest is insurance and taxes combined when he paid his house off.

Right.

And you still got insurance on top of that.

So here he's more than a double sized mortgage basically on his home.

And that is not sustainable.

So that and that is true.

We are literally taxing people out of their homes with property tax.

And there's we're burning that candle on both ends and it takes me back to my children.

Homeownership is the underpinning of the middle class in America, where most people will gain their net worth.

And the first time home buyer age, just average age is hit 40.

And we are robbing that from our young people.

I'm having to actively help my children do that.

If I had to buy a home and B and B, I could, but all our kids need to be able to afford homeownership.

And there's and it's not just property tax.

That's a huge piece of that.

Right.

And it because that our kids need opportunity and they need an opportunity to have a good job.

And if you property tax in the business so much that they've got to move out, they don't have jobs or opportunity.

And what what I'm what concerns me is that in Kansas, our biggest export has become our children are.

And I have work to to push that back.

We can't we can't afford to do that.

And to do that we need to have opportunity.

They need to be able to form a home, afford a home.

So I have that is by far the number one issue for me.

And it's complicated, right.

Because all the local spending and and all that, I mean, it's incredibly complicated, but that doesn't mean you ignore it.

And just stumble forward.

We need to we need to answer that issue.

We only have like a minute or something.

But I've been asking everybody this.

We have we know property taxes and there's some others and water.

And of course issues like that.

But I think there's some new issues.

Data centers, the cell phone ban tech.

If you've been thinking about these, I don't think they're straightforward.

Like, yeah, let's take we embrace it all.

And I think some people are actually a bit worried they're being forced into things like I, we have a minute so you can finish with your thoughts on these new.

It's also not something that has some complexity to it.

Right.

The problem is no matter what Kansas does or doesn't do, AI is coming in the world.

Right.

And so and then we've got a China element there that is trying to win that race.

There's a national security piece to that.

And so we have to but there's legitimate concerns about guardrails.

We need to make sure things like a big data center or all that and privacy, all you you can't put any anything on the backs of the people.

Right.

If that's going to consume X amount of energy, it needs to provide itself with that X amount of energy.

And it needs to to to meet the guardrails.

So can be in the right locations.

Right.

There's a local element to that allowed to be in the right locations.

But you know this I think the Trump administration is spot on that that is a key in world security.

And so we need to make sure the guardrails are there and protect our citizens.

But you're not stopping it, right?

I mean, yeah, just like try and stop the internet.

You it's not going to happen.

So we need to be very vigilant about it.

But there is a real issue there.

And we need to we need to be moving forward.

All right.

Well thanks so much.

It was great talking to you I appreciate it.

Thank Bob.

Appreciate it.

Yeah.

You've been watching an ignite 2026 election special.

An inside look at the Kansas gubernatorial candidates.

Keep your eye out for our continued programing on this important election year for Kansas.

If you have any comments for us, please send us an email at issues@ktwu.org.

If you would like to view this program again or any previous episodes of IGI, visit us online at watch.ktuw.org For IGI, I'm Bob Beatty.

Thanks for watching.

This program on KTWU is brought to you by the Carol Jory Foundation.