Endorsement: The GOP race between Chase Blasi and J.C. Moore in KS Senate District 26 | Opinion

The Republican primary for the District 26 seat in the Kansas Senate features an unusual competition: An incumbent who isn’t really an incumbent, and an opponent with an equal amount of legislative experience.

The not-incumbent is Sen. Chase Blasi, appointed last year by the Republican Party to serve out the unfinished term of Gene Suellentrop in District 27.

Blasi jumped districts in this election to run for the seat left open by the retirement of Dan Kerschen, Republican of Garden Plain.

His opponent, J.C. Moore, comes to the race with experience of his own: He served a term in the Kansas House in 2019 and 2020.

We endorse Moore.

Both men favor lower taxes. Both say the state’s elections are secure. And both have vowed to work across the aisle with Democrats, where appropriate, on challenging issues facing the state.

But Moore’s views — while not entirely typical of the Republican supermajority in the Statehouse — better fit the desires and needs of Kansans more broadly.

Medicaid expansion is one of the more contentious policy issues facing Topeka. Nearly 70% of Kansans favor expansion, and Gov. Laura Kelly has made it one of her top priorities.

But GOP legislative leaders in both have blocked the effort.

Blasi is against expansion.

“Anytime we take Kansans from private insurance to government healthcare the result is worse care, less options, and poorer reimbursement for services to our hospitals,” he said in response to the Eagle’s candidate survey. Adding to the national debt by buying into the federal program, he said, would be “irresponsible.”

Moore favors expansion, noting that 150,000 Kansans would benefit. “We would have healthier children and workers and reduce the risk of spreading communicable diseases,” he said. “Your health depends on the health of everyone you come in contact with.”

The divide is apparent on other issues as well. Nearly two-thirds of Kansans say they would support legislators who vote to legalize marijuana in some form.

Blasi is against legalization.

“As long as our healthcare community and law enforcement warn of the deadly consequences in other states such as Oklahoma and Colorado, Kansas should avoid legalization,” he said.

Moore favors legalizing medical marijuana and decriminalizing recreational weed.

Medical marijuana “has been shown to reduce seizures in children and to relieve pain effectively,” Moore said. “It is much less expensive and less addicting than opioids.”

On abortion, Kansans have made their desires plain, rejecting the “Value Them Both” constitutional amendment in 2022 that would have cleared the way for legislators to restrict reproductive rights.

Earlier this year, Blasi introduced a bill to would allow cities and counties to regulate abortions within their jurisdictions, “as long as the regulation is at least as stringent as or more stringent than imposed by state law. In such cases, the more stringent local regulation shall control.”

“Life from the unborn to natural death should be respected and protected,” Blasi said.

His bill died in committee.

Moore, as a legislator, voted to put the amendment on the 2022 ballot.

Now, though, he says, “the Legislature should respect the decision of the voters.”

We’ll take him at his word.

Both men have experience in the Kansas Legislature. Neither has a lot.

Republican voters in District 26 — which includes Goddard, Cheney, Colwich, Andale, Garden Plain, Haysville, Viola and Clearwater — have a bright-line choice along policy lines between Blasi and Moore.

We believe Moore is the better choice.

This story was originally published August 1, 2024 at 4:53 PM.