If not for some ham-headed Republicans in Kansas who care more about winning an argument than they do winning elections, former attorney general Derek Schmidt wouldn’t be running in this year’s 2nd District Congressional race – he’d already be governor.
In the universe of ‘could have’s and should haves’ it’s hard to say which road would have made him the most effective for Kansans, but the one thing that is certain is that in a U.S. Congressional seat the competence, leadership, education and initiative Schmidt has shown in his career can benefit not just the Sunflower State – but the country at large.
To say he’d be a congressman who’s been around the block would be a defined understatement. Schmidt springs from five generations of Kansans; bore witness to the economic struggles of the southeast region of the state in the 1980s, earned a law degree and spent a decade in the Kansas legislature as a state senator learning government from the ground up. He was elected attorney general and solidified himself as a vital component of the conservative foundation that elevated Kansas beyond the pitfalls that have afflicted other states in economics and culture. As progressives grew and refined their culture of governmental overreach during the Obama years, Schmidt helped pioneer strategies with other state attorney generals to form defenses in law against the illegal extension of federal authority.
The importance of maintaining a solid conservative foundation in the U.S. House can’t be understated, both in facilitating what may be unprecedented opportunities for the nation with a Trump presidency, or conversely, thwarting the continued disintegration of the national core we’ve witnessed since 2020 in the event Kamala Harris becomes president. Either way, the country’s going to need a congress weighted toward competence, ability and sound judgement.
Schmidt’s the kind of candidate with the background and backbone Kansans say they want representing them in congress. The 2nd District should seize this opportunity and send him there.
Dane Hicks is a graduate of the University of Missouri School of Journalism and the United States Marine Corps Officer Candidate School at Quantico, VA. He is the author of novels "The Skinning Tree" and "A Whisper For Help." As publisher of the Anderson County Review in Garnett, KS., he is a recipient of the Kansas Press Association's Boyd Community Service Award as well as more than 60 awards for excellence in news, editorial and photography.
