The night Trump called Kansans liberal and Travis Kelce’s girlfriend endorsed Harris | Opinion
Debate Night in America was a big night for Kansas — Donald Trump called us liberal and our most famous resident’s even more-famous girlfriend jumped in and endorsed Kamala Harris.
It was a not-bad night for a small state that is so deeply red that we’re generally less than an afterthought when it comes to national politics.
Trump called out Kansas about 18 minutes into the debate while he was patting himself on the back for appointing Supreme Court justices who overturned the landmark Roe v. Wade ruling.
In the alternate reality that is Trump World, it’s somehow a positive thing that instead of being long-settled national law, the right to abortion is now a 50-state patchwork quilt of rules ranging from practically no abortions to almost anything goes.
It’s touched off a chaotic scramble of ballot measures across the country to stop state lawmakers from legislating abortion out of existence.
Since 2022 when Roe was overturned, five states have voted pro-choice on ballot measures, and 10 more measures will be on state ballots this year.
That includes our neighboring states of Nebraska and Missouri, where the state Supreme Court has just ruled a ballot initiative can go forward that would overturn one of the most-restrictive abortion bans in the nation.
But it was Kansas that got the ball rolling in 2022, when our voters shut down an effort by the Legislature to expand its power to ban abortions.
That’s what got us a mention from Trump in the debate: “Kansas, the vote was somewhat liberal — much more liberal than people would have thought.”
Maybe he needs to spend more time here. You can’t get 6 out of 10 Kansans to support a political position without a whole lot of Republicans being on board. Being against the Value Them Both amendment wasn’t extreme — it was demonstrably mainstream.
It was our heavily gerrymandered legislators for life in the House and Senate who were (and still are) out of touch with the will of the people.
But enough about abortions. Let’s get to the fun part.
Moments after the debate ended, while the news channels were covering the boring and predictable post-debate spin room with their usual breathless excitement, Taylor Swift finally came out with her long-awaited endorsement of Harris for president.
Swift is an honorary Kansan because the billionaire pop megastar is romantically linked to multimillionaire football star Travis Kelce, tight end of the Kansas City Chiefs, a resident of Leawood and the backbone of my fantasy football team.
Swift dropped her endorsement with characteristic style:
“Recently I was made aware that AI of ‘me’ falsely endorsing Donald Trump’s presidential run was posted to his site. It really conjured up my fears around AI, and the dangers of spreading misinformation. It brought me to the conclusion that I need to be very transparent about my actual plans for this election as a voter. The simplest way to combat misinformation is with the truth.
“I will be casting my vote for Kamala Harris and Tim Walz in the 2024 Presidential Election. I’m voting for @kamalaharris because she fights for the rights and causes I believe need a warrior to champion them. I think she is a steady-handed, gifted leader and I believe we can accomplish so much more in this country if we are led by calm and not chaos.”
In the picture accompanying the endorsement, she held one of her three cats, Benjamin Button, and she signed it off with “Taylor Swift, Childless Cat Lady” — a dig at Trump’s running mate, J.D. Vance.
Ouch.
I’m not sure what impact Swift’s endorsement will have on the actual election. Her vast army of fans, or Swifties, were probably mostly on board with the Harris-Walz ticket already.
What really caught my eye was what came after.
Elon Musk, the richest man in the world, who is not content with that and aspires to be the world’s No. 1 internet troll, posted this on X, the social media platform formerly known as Twitter that he bought in 2022, renamed and ruined:
“Fine Taylor … you win … I will give you a child and guard your cats with my life.”
Um, Elon, I think maybe Travis Kelce might like a word with you on that.
I volunteer as moderator for that debate.
