KANSAS – Republican candidate Stacy Rogers is running for Kansas governor on a promise to make people feel heard again. She says she jumped into the race after hearing how frustrated Kansans were.
“They did not feel like they were being listened to, or worked for, or heard in any way… that was really the main reason that I got into this: was to give people their voice back.”
A Wichita-born, Newton-raised, multi‑generational Kansan, Rogers points out that she’s lived in Reno, Harvey, or Sedgwick County her whole life, and that her kids have chosen to stay in the state as well—something she’s “very, very thankful for.”
After visiting all 105 counties, she says she’s hearing the same big worries across Kansas: property taxes, education, and the wave of data center and energy projects.
On data centers, Rogers argues the state isn’t protecting local resources, especially water.
“These companies that are coming in are predatory; they’re not telling the truth. They do end up using more water than what they say they’re going to… our cities and counties… are being hoodwinked.”
She supports local moratoriums so communities can update their codes and demands third‑party environmental studies on specific sites before projects move forward.
When it comes to property taxes, she calls the current setup “unsustainable” as population growth slows.
“We’re in a funnel system where more and more of the burden is placed on fewer and fewer people every year, and it’s quite frankly unsustainable at this point.”
Rogers says homeowners shouldn’t feel like they have to “trash their property” just to keep taxes down and questions whether people truly own their homes if they’ve paid them off but still owe as much or more than a mortgage payment every year in taxes.
On education, she says, “Every taxpayer should be livid over the state of our public education system and the outcomes that we’re receiving for the dollars that we’re paying.”
She argues Kansans are basically “double taxed” because community colleges are having to catch students up on things they should have learned in high school. She wants to shift away from standardized tests that kids “just fill in the bubbles” for and instead focus on basic skills, adulthood prep, and progress-and-proficiency-based funding—especially for students with learning challenges and those who transfer between schools.
Rogers also targets wasteful spending at the state level, especially “use it or lose it” budgeting.
“People don’t feel like they have to go buy 12 ladders at the end of the budget year because they’ve got money left over and they don’t want to lose it. We should not be incentivizing wasteful spending.”
Finally, she stresses that her campaign is built around direct contact.
“I do answer every message personally… I spend about 15 hours a day between traveling and answering messages, but I think it’s very important to hear directly from Kansans and for them to hear directly back from me.”
She wants voters to feel “confident in their vote on August 4” and says she’s easy to reach via her website and social media.
Listen to Stacy Rogers Full Interview on the Ad Astra Radio Podcast Page.
