PITTSBURG, Kan. — Since the draft of the U.S. Supreme Court decision overturning Roe v. Wade first leaked in early May, and even more so since the ruling became official in late June, Kansas has been in the national spotlight as the first state scheduled to vote on a ballot question about abortion rights.
That spotlight will likely begin to fade and political calculations will be changing following Tuesday’s primary election, in which voters rejected the proposed Value Them Both Amendment. If passed, the amendment would have given the Kansas Legislature greater authority to regulate or restrict access to abortion, in the wake of a 2019 Kansas Supreme Court ruling that abortion is a right protected by the state constitution.
Locally, with the exception of the city’s 6th precinct, 4th ward, a majority of voters in all Pittsburg precincts voted “no,” according to the Crawford County’s unofficial election results. “No” votes also prevailed in Girard, Frontenac, Arma, McCune and Mulberry. “Yes” votes, meanwhile, carried Franklin, Cherokee, Hepler, Walnut, and Arcadia.
The geographically larger, rural precincts of the county were split, with a majority in Baker, Brazilton, Capaldo, Cherokee-Sheridan, Chicopee, Crawford, Grant, Lincoln, Lincoln-Arcadia, Osage-McCune, Raymond, Sheridan-Cherokee, Sherman, Smelter, and Walnut Township voting “yes.” Majorities in the rural precincts of Beulah, Crowe, Lone Star, Opolis, Parkview, Sheridan, and Walnut-Hepler, on the other hand, voted “no.”
Attorney General Derek Schmidt, who won a majority of votes in Tuesday’s Republican primary — including nearly 80 percent in Crawford County — to take the party’s nomination for governor, stopped by the Morning Sun office early Tuesday afternoon before leaving for Independence to cast his own ballot. Schmidt, a Value Them Both supporter, said he was “the pro-life candidate in this race” and that he was “hopeful we’ll be able to preserve the existing regulations that are on the books” regarding abortion “as well as perhaps restore a couple that are in litigation right now, but we’ll have to take this one step at a time.”
With several hours left before the polls closed Tuesday, however, Schmidt also acknowledged the possibility that voters could reject the amendment.
“Kansas voters will show us the path ahead, and we’ll have to see the election results this evening and take our cues from that,” he said.
Asked whether he was specifically supporting any of the three Republican contenders to replace him as attorney general — a primary fight that former Kansas Secretary of State Kris Kobach ended up winning over competitors Kellie Warren and Tony Mattivi — Schmidt declined to make any last-minute endorsements.
“I’m focused on my own race for governor, and I’ll look forward to working with the Republican nominee, whoever he or she is, in each of the other statewide races,” he said.
As he pivots towards his general election race against Democratic Gov. Laura Kelly, Schmidt, who previously sat down for an interview with the Morning Sun while visiting Pittsburg in late June, said Tuesday that he anticipates campaigning in the area with even greater frequency in the coming months.
“Southeast Kansas is a very important part of the election, but even more critically it’s an important part of our state,” he said, “and as a Southeast Kansan myself, I look forward to being our voice and our advocate.”
