The following is a transcript of an interview with Kansas Governor Laura Kelly, chairwoman of the Democratic Governors Association, on “Face the Nation with Margaret Brennan” airing August 11, 2024.
MARGARET BRENNAN: We want to turn now to Democratic Governor Laura Kelly of Kansas. Good morning, Governor.
GOVERNOR LAURA KELLY: Good morning to you.
MARGARET BRENNAN: Governor, you’re in a rather unique position. You’re the two-term Democratic governor of a largely Republican state. Democrats have been losing ground in rural America for years. How can Democrats win back rural America?
GOVERNOR KELLY: Well, you just have to go out and listen and produce. You know, when you do that, you’ll see that, you know, even though we label everybody red or blue, the fact is that here in Kansas, we are Kansans. And so, you know, if you’re a Democrat, but you share the values of most Kansans, you just have to go out, talk to them, get them to know you, get them to know you, and then they’ll develop that trust and put in you the ability to lead the state.
MARGARET BRENNAN: Tim Walz is the first sitting governor to join a Democratic presidential ticket since Bill Clinton. He’s running a fairly Democratic state, but there seems to be a bet that he can appeal to the heartland, that he can appeal to rural America. Do you think that’s a stretch?
GOVERNOR KELLY: No, not at all. I mean, Tim Walz is the epitome of the Midwestern dad. You could put him at any state fair, on any Main Street, and certainly at any Friday night football game in rural Kansas, and he would fit right in. I think we also have to remember that even though Minnesota is a blue state, he represented a very red part of Minnesota in Congress for 12 years. So he understands rural Minnesota. He understands rural America, and I think that’s one of the reasons why he’s a great asset to Harris Walz’s team.
MARGARET BRENNAN: So your state was one of the first to put abortion on the ballot, to let voters decide, and voters overwhelmingly rejected restrictions. So Democrats often point to your state as evidence that this is an issue that galvanizes political parties, but I was interested in you saying in interviews that you try not to talk about abortion. Are Democrats making a mistake by putting it front and center?
GOVERNOR KELLY: No, I don’t think so. I think I didn’t bring this issue to the forefront because it wasn’t an issue that I could really handle. It was a voting issue. These issues are my own and they’re up for a vote and they’re up for the people. So I decided that it was best for me to let the people decide what they wanted to do with this, and to continue to focus on the other issues that I could really impact, you know, on our infrastructure, on our economic development, on our schools. But we can see that in other states, governors have come out very aggressively on women’s reproductive rights, Michigan, for example, comes to mind, and it’s worked. They’ve gotten things done in Michigan and other states because they’ve focused on this issue, and whether we want it to be an issue or not, it is, and I think it’s going to be an issue in the presidential race this year as well.
MARGARET BRENNAN: But I read that you said that one of the reasons you personally tried not to talk about it was not only a matter of procedure, but also because you said that Democrats were getting drawn into hot-button culture war issues, and you said you didn’t want to get drawn into conversations that you didn’t want to have. What do you mean by that?
GOVERNOR KELLY: I don’t want to get distracted by issues that take us away from the core issues that a governor is responsible for. And that’s exactly what I said before you did, you have to make sure that your schools are funded. You have to make sure that your roads are built. You have to make sure that you build your economy. You have to make sure that you fix your child welfare system. We have all kinds of other things that we have to focus on. And what I found, particularly during my campaigns, is that my opponents wanted to use cultural and socially divisive issues to distract from the real issues because they didn’t have the answers to them.
MARGARET BRENNAN: Well, Governor, it will be interesting to see if you can replicate your success, and we’ll be watching what happens, not just in Kansas, but in some of these other gubernatorial races across the country. We’ll get back to you in a moment.
