POSTED BY MARTIN KICH

The following excerpts are from an article by Larissa Lawrie written for Salon:

On November 7, Kansas voters elected Brandon Johnson to serve on the Wichita City Council for District 1 and elected Angela Becker to serve on the USD 373 Board of Education.

 As political outsiders, their elections were watched closely. They both won by large margins, and represent a decisive shift in Kansas local politics. . . .

 Becker moved to Newton about a year ago and wanted to find a way to be involved with her new community. She says that she felt some pushback because she is only 30 years old and does not have children yet. . . .

 Johnson also felt a similar amount of pushback about his history in community activism.

“I’m a community activist by trade. The media never let me get away from that and in some cases, it could be detrimental.” But in this case a lot of people liked that title,” said Johnson. “The change I want to make is getting people more involved with government and the decisions being made. Boards that impact our community now that don’t have representation of young people or people of color will hopefully get more representation and participation.”

 Becker shares similar sentiments. She was inspired to run after watching the 2016 presidential and state elections. “I realized more and more that we needed a diverse representation in local politics because that’s the only way to have a diverse representation in state and national politics,” said Becker. . . .

 Johnson and Becker are both part of a shift in Kansas towards that diverse representation on the local level.

Lawrie’s complete article is available at: https://www.salon.com/2018/01/07/dont-write-off-flyover-states-as-forever-red/.