Interest in one of Kansas' US Senate seats is growing as Democrats line up to challenge incumbent senator Roger Marshall. One of those Democrats is Anne Parelkar, an immigration attorney who actually confronted Marshall in March at an infamous town hall she traveled from her home in Overland Park to Oakley near the Colorado border to ask about federal workers. Not six months later, Anne filed paperwork to run against Marshall, and she's here with me today. Welcome Anne. Thank you. Before we get into your background, can you tell listeners about that town hall, what drove you to travel across the street, across the state, and how did it inform your decision to run for office?
So at that moment,
a lot of people were really upset about what was happening, what was being done by our government. We wanted answers from our administration. There were a lot of town halls going on or going on all across the country, and we were seeing a lot of you know women, that one woman, and I think it was Idaho, that was dragged out of the town hall and and several other town halls that
people were really angry.
And so I was in a group on Facebook, and they found out about the town hall,
and it was pretty clear that it was not meant to be
well known. It wasn't, it wasn't to invite everyone to come.
But a lot of us wanted to
have our questions answered. We
felt that he's our senator too, and he should speak to us as well. I had been calling him and leaving messages
and expressing how I felt nearly daily. At that point I was and I don't remember exactly what the issues were then, because there's been so many things that I have concerns about arise over the past several months. So I can't tell you
what the specific thing was that day, or whatever day, but,
but not only was I upset, I started seeing a lot of people from my area that wanted to talk to him, and they couldn't make the drive out. And so I just one day, I said, You know what? I'm going to go to go to this town hall. And I might not have done it, except so many people were like, Yes, go.
And so I asked people. I said, Okay, what? What do you want me to ask about if I can ask a question? And so I took some questions, and I have my own questions. And and then I had a friend that she went with us, and I actually met a lady who has become a really good friend that day and an adviser, and she's on my campaign team, and she's,
I can't say enough great things about her. She's an amazing woman. She has she protested in the 70s, and she's out doing it again. And
so that was amazing. But so we drove down because I wanted to talk to him. I might not have gone, but for those people who wanted representation there, and I wasn't going to represent anyone, I was just going. And I said, Okay, I'll take your
questions. So when we got there, it was meant to be held in like a break room, which was pretty small, and I actually had several people reach out to me concerned about their safety going so they just because of who they are. I won't, I won't give details on who they are, but they have unique attributes that they
were worried would make them stand out somehow. And
so I knew several people that were going already that would be, you know, a friendly face.
But when we got there, it was already full of people who were upset about what was going on. And I think it was the doge cuts were the big thing.
And when Mr. Marshall got there, it was clear that we were not going to
be able to use the original room because it was so packed. So we moved to a bigger area, and I didn't know until the end of it that they were clear out the door. I mean, it was, it was JAM PACKED of people,
and it was clear he didn't want to hear from us. You know, he said you're going to write down your questions on these cards. And we did. And
then he
picked and chose what he wanted to answer so he was not going to answer anything that he did not want to talk about. I did not think that that was sufficient.
And, you know, he.
He spoke to us
like we were children beholden to him,
and he has no power but the power that we let him have when we elect him, and whether we vote for him or not, he works for us.
And I
was angry about that. I did not like the way he treated people in that room that day, and I did not like
that. He refused to answer questions, he refused to even take questions. He refused to hear from people. That's not how he's supposed to be doing his job.
Was this the catalyst for you running for office or trying challenging his seat? So
back during the first Trump term, I had a friend who had asked me to run, and my kids then were too small, and I wasn't as worried. Then,
and again, my friend asked me to run this time around, and I said, You know what, my kids are, seven and nine, they're still small,
but now I'm worried about the world. I'm going to leave them, the country I'm going to leave them.
And I know I can do a better job than the people that are there right now.
And I don't know that that was the day that I was like, Okay, I'm going to do this. Like I was kind of kicking, kicking around the idea I, in fact, no, it wasn't, because I reached out to some people to see about what position I could run for that would be feasible for me,
that wouldn't take a good person out of office, and this was the seat that was available.
So that's and what day I was like, oh, that's what I'm going for. I did tell him that day, I said, I'm going to take your job. But I was just kind of, you know,
I just kind of being a butt that day, I guess. But, but, yeah, so I did it. Did inform my my decision to run, I had, and I told this story before, when I was in college, I was a member of the Student Government Association, and you know, then it was like a resume building thing.
But we had a meeting one time where we were discussing a change to the grade scale, and it was actually my advisor who had proposed it, and he was running this meeting. And a lot, most of the people on the Student Government Association, they're straight A students, they're really good students, right? And all I heard that day was people talking about how this grade scale would impact them personally, and I just thought, you're supposed I haven't heard anyone talk about the people they represent, and it made me mad.
But where were kids? I mean, we were in college. Yeah, should have known better, but that's a learning experience, right? Like you expected from kids, but then I saw Roger Marshall do that,
and I thought, No, you're supposed to represent everyone in this state. I don't care if it makes you uncomfortable to hear from us, that's what you signed up for. And I get it. He's a human being, and I don't like to be mean to people. I'm a really nice person, like I really, really am, but if you're not going to respect me, then I have a hard time giving you respect Right? Like respect is mutual. And I don't think that he respects his constituents. I don't think that he cares about any of us. I think he's there for himself, and I am tired of watching our public offices be used for self enrichment,
to serve parties, to serve corporations, to serve anyone that is not the people of this state in this country.
So that was a lot of the reason why I decided to run.
Have you ever held elected office before?
Not short of my student government association and a homes Association position. And maybe I don't know if it was elected. Well, I mean, in college, I was on the board of my sorority, alpha z delta, and then I was also on the board of the Student Activities Council. So I had a lot of, a lot of offices that I held in college. But
I don't, I don't think there's anything else that I've held in that sort of way since then, besides the HOA. I'm curious.
You know, like I mentioned in the intro, it's likely you're going to be primary against at least one other democrat, Christy Davis from cottonwood falls. So I'm curious what what differentiates you from other Democrats, and are Kansans ready?
For a Democratic senator in this seat.
So I have a couple of things I want to say. First, first of all, I met Christy, and she seems lovely. I've spoken to her on the phone briefly. I had hoped to speak to her longer when I met her, but I was stressed out about what I was going to say in the moment, and then, and then she had her speech that she was about to give. So so I
didn't get to speak to as long as I had, like I had hoped,
protest, yes, yes,
but I've heard, you know, I've seen great things about her. I don't have anything negative say about her. I think she's just a different option from me, and I want to give people a different option, you know, I'm an attorney. I have a background in law. I think that the rule of law is under attack right now. I'm worried about our constitution
not being followed. And I'm a, you know, I renew my my oath to the Constitution every year when I renew my law licenses. So that's a big deal to me.
I don't like the labels
that we have anymore. I think that this two party system, and it's not people. People get upset when I start talking about the the parties, which is, which is part of the problem, right? Anytime you have a bring in the party, emotions start to get high, tensions start to rise. But we're all just people first, right? We're all just Americans first, or we should be, and I think we need to get back to that. And
I've,
I don't
agree with this loyalty to party that we've
I felt that I've had to
take on over the past 810, 12 years, how many years?
And I've heard other people say it too.
They
some people will register as Republicans just to have any say in their local government, because they know a Republican's going to win, even though they they're Democrats and they want a Democrat to win, but if they don't vote in that Republican primary, the
Republicans going to win right? Like the Republican almost always wins in Kansas.
To me, I don't think that the Republicans are the answer to our problems at all. So I do think it's time for something else, something new, and I think I bring that to the table.
You know, I'm not, I've not been in politics before,
so I'm new. I'm another option. I'm
I believe in the rule of law. We have a very big problem with immigration in our country right now, in the sense that there's a lot of confusion over it, there's a lot of anger over it, and there's a lot of good people being impacted by it.
We do need immigration reform. We need immigration reform that will work. We need solutions to problems. What I see happening is these big issues, these big cultural issues, right that that evoke so much emotion from people, rightfully so, because they're very personal, they have taken precedent over
everything else.
And while they may be important, they're not the most important, because they're not what keeps the world moving, I guess is what, how I would put it.
So they've they pigeonholed us. They categorize this. You're Democrat or you're Republican, you're you're a person of color or you're not, you're an immigrant or you're not, you're LGBTQ, or you're not, or you're
you know, just categories, right? But no, no more, we are Americans first. We are one nation indivisible, and we've gotta start acting like it. And I believe that I can do that. I believe that I can bridge these gaps. I believe that I have what it takes to go and talk to people on both sides of the aisle and have conversations that will lead us to actual solutions. We're not going to get solutions if we keep living in our echo chambers, if we keep just
having reinforced what we think, we get solutions when we start thinking outside of our immediate bubble.
So what I would propose is we get the smartest people
on both sides of an issue, and we bring them together and we say, what's going to work? Because while we all have in our minds, what.
It's perfect. What the answer should be, what we want it to be. It's not going to work in reality, and we have to live in reality, and we have to make the country work for everybody, not just one side or the other, because that will lead us into certain doom. That's
a little bit dark. But you know what I mean, like, I mean, I mean it kind of is dark, if you think about it, if it, if it continues on, I think we are going to a dark place. And I don't want to see that. I don't want to I don't want to see it. I'm so tired of the fighting. I saw two veterans fighting at a protest one day, a Vietnam veteran and a younger guy. And it's just not right. It's sad, it's not funny. You know, there was a time when we made jokes and all of that, and I'm as guilty as anyone of making jokes, especially in the past, I've stopped because it's not helpful. At least I've tried to stop. And I'm not perfect. I'm a human so I will fail and I will falter. And to anyone who sees me do it, call me out, because I need to be better than that. I need to do better than that for people, because that's what I'm trying to do right now. I'm not trying to be an individual who thinks she's hilarious. I'm trying to be someone who can help people.
So I hope does that answer kind of Yeah, yeah. And I want to get into a little bit more of those kind of nitty gritty policy issues, including immigration. I'm interested to hear you talk a little bit more about that,
I guess, in your experience so far, and I know you hadn't formally announced, and the way that I found out you were running was looking at paperwork that you filed with the Federal Election Commission. Still are very good at your
jobs,
so I understand that you haven't, you know, formally launched a full campaign and everything that goes along with it, yet, but you know, you've mentioned you've been to protests, you've been to town halls. So what in your mind are some of the biggest challenges facing Kansans right now, and what are the things that you're keeping in mind as you prepare to launch this campaign,
one of my biggest concerns for Kansans is how this big,
ugly bill is going to
harm their access to healthcare. We already have health care scarcity in rural Kansas, they can't afford more places of
hospitals, clinics, they can't afford for them to shut down.
I spoke to people in Pratt, and I heard there's already been somebody that had a heart attack and had to helicopter out. Well, now that person, I can't imagine how they paid for that.
That's gotta be,
I mean, they must still be paying for it. I don't, I don't know. I don't know, but it's not sustainable. It's not going to work. People are going to die from it. I have a friend who runs nursing homes. He has told me people will be kicked out on the street because of it.
I don't understand how anyone can be okay with that. I've spoken to mothers. We have maternal care deserts in rural Kansas.
These are basic things that people need.
I love rural, rural areas. I you know, I come from Arkansas, and I do live in Little Rock, which is a bit of, a bit of a city, but, but Arkansas is rural, I mean,
and I love the people out in these small towns, they're so welcoming and so sweet, and they're good people, and they work hard, and they don't deserve
for their assistance that they rely upon to be rug pulled from them.
So that's a big one for me. Is the health care, the access to health care.
I'm also concerned about our farmers. I've heard many differing
perspectives on that. I met a farmer on Sunday who's offered to
to educate me more. We're going through the Farm Bill. We're going through the big, beautiful bill, big ugly bill, whatever you want to call it. Have lots of names for it, but and I'm going to figure out what these what the impacts are going to be, and I'm going to explain it to people, because we cannot self govern as we are supposed to if we don't understand what our laws are, and we can't understand where our laws are, hold on one sec. I want to show you something. Show you something so exciting. I.
If this
is our law
one, oh, that's blurry, right? Let me unblur. I don't even know how
one, can you explain for listeners what you are showing me. I'm holding up the big, beautiful bill. So, one, one, section, two,
three, and are these leather bound, or are they bound in plastic covers? Four, they are just those little What is this? It's like, it's not like a coil. It's the other kind of thing. Yeah, they called me and they were like, we can't find this. It's so big, it's 870
pages in its final form. And not only that, It amends other bills in the first 100 pages alone. And I don't even think I got through the first 100 pages to be honest with you, I think it was a lot shorter than that. There are three other bills that It amends. So now if you want to understand this, you gotta go find those bills too and understand those first and Lord only knows how far back that chain goes. This is not a government of by and for the people.
I don't know if any of them actually read this, except for that they read it on the Senate floor, I think
so they did finally get through it, but we know that before the House voted on it, they didn't know what was in it. Marjorie Taylor green told us
that is the most basic thing that they should be doing, and they're not doing it.
Not only that,
no individual, if I'm a lawyer, I'm licensed in three states. I practice law since 2013 I think is when I got my first job practicing law, because I had to pass after the Arkansas bar, I had to do the Missouri, and then I had to do the Kansas. So that's what you get when you follow your husband somewhere.
But um, if I have to put in so much effort to understand this, how can I possibly expect that people who have dedicated their lives to anything other than the law are going to make it through this and understand it? That's not going to happen.
This is not a bind for the people. This is not what it's supposed to be. So, yeah,
we're going
to go through this entire bill, and we're going to tell people what's in it and when to expect these changes. And my understanding, though I can't I can't promise it, but my understanding is that these putts
to medical services or to medical assistance will come in December of next year,
so that will be after the elections. So
and either we reelect the people who did this and they don't care because they're in power, they clearly didn't care because they voted for it. I don't know how a doctor votes to take health care away from his constituents, but that's another story, right?
Or they lose, and then they blame whoever takes over
for what happens to the American people. Because this
it's all smoke and mirrors, it's all games, it's all
BS.
It's a political football game, and I'm sick of it.
In the couple minutes we have left, I want to get your quick thoughts on a couple of other issues that I think have ramifications both on the state level, local level and federal level, all of the above.
So I'll do a bit of a lightning round here, if you're up for it. So tell me a little bit about your thoughts on K through 12 education I know both at the state level and federal level, vouchers and directing money away from public schools and even dismantling the US Department of Education have been topics of conversation. Where do you fall on that?
I do not believe in taking money away from our public schools at all. We provide a basic level of education to our kids. My kids are in public school. I want our public schools to
to produce
society members, contributing members of society. That's what they're supposed to do.
We need to pay our teachers more
and then we'll have better schools. I mean, if you pay people, you'll get the best people. And we do have great teachers. My Don't, don't, don't, get me wrong. We have great teachers, but we can't keep them because they can't afford to live. They're not given the respect that they used to be.
And that's, you know, that's a balance, because.
Yes, they have to. They have to do well and have the respect.
But we need to start looking at
school as
as working with parents to arm these children and prepare them for the real world, and we're not doing a good job of it. We do need to fix our education system, but the way these folks are doing it is going to harm many, many people. The people that can afford to go to private schools, they'll be fine. The rich people who are passing these laws, they don't care, because their children are never going to need this public these public schools, they're going to the best of the best, their private schooling, their home schooling, whatever they're doing, right? They don't care about public schools.
You don't have
a country that can compete
internationally unless you have an educated
society,
the way we get that is to arm our public schools properly,
to fund them, to make sure they have what they need.
And I understand that some people don't like what's being taught in public schools,
and it is your right to find an alternative.
The public schools are the basic
the basic education available. We give that right. It's basis. You can go and get better. You can go, Oh my gosh, they're going to think I did the thing.
You can go and get better. I have to keep my arms
up. Sorry.
You can go and pay for better. That's your right. If you want to go and send your kids to religious school, you can do that. I do not want anyone indoctrinating my kids. I grew up Presbyterian. I do take my kids to church, but that is my choice, and they learn Presbyterians teach you, at least the ones that I've been around. You love everybody. That's it. And if I don't want my kids being taught anything other than that.
So K through 12 schools, I'm very worried about our curriculum. I'm very worried about the screens in the schools, the phones in the schools. I'm worried about social media for our kids. I have a lot of concerns for our kids these days. I don't think that we're
we're doing what we're supposed to for our kids anymore, and that's going to take a lot. That's going to take, you know, that's going to take community deciding to do it. You're not going to legislate good parenting. You're not going to legislate
you know, you can't, you can't force people to be good people, but I think most people are. And I think we can do it if we decide we want to do it. I think that we can make this country what we want it to be, what we thought it was, what we hope it will be for our children, and we can raise our children to
take the reins at some point and make it even better.
What? Yeah, what are your thoughts on the
proposed or, I guess now it's a for sure, the constitutional amendment to change the way Kansas Supreme Court justices are selected, so switching to a popular vote instead of using the current merit based system. You know, it's my understanding. Not only will this have impacts in the state, but it could also set an example for elsewhere, or it could have ramifications across the country based on precedents sent here in Kansas. So, so what? What are your thoughts on on that process? I love that you asked me about this because it actually this is, this is an important issue for me as a lawyer
and as a historian. Actually,
everything that I have researched tells me that the way we do it right now is the best way available,
and I can send you links to articles on that so that you can understand we tried it other ways before and other places. There's a very famous case. Have you ever heard of the Scottsboro trial?
No, so it's a it's a historic case. It's about some, some kids who were,
who ended up wrongly accused of of some bad acts. I think it's Alabama. You can look it up. I can see the link too. Very interesting case, but it's a very good example of why we don't want public opinion to sway our judiciary, the judicial branch has to be independent of public opinion, political interference and any other outside influence. Now we have people in there, so people are going to be flawed, but this is the best way to do it. Why? Because that case, that Scottsboro case, will show you.
Yeah, and other cases, other other articles that I've got will show you that there is a tendency for a judge, and I would never speak bad about a specific judge, ever, but there is a human tendency for a judge to want to retain their seat right
so they will
be more easily, easily swayed by public opinion than law and facts, and that is not that is not a safe way to have our judicial system. It's not balanced, it's not independent.
It's it cannot work. They have to rule independent of anything else. Now we may all disagree with them,
but that doesn't mean that they were wrong. We might not like it, but it doesn't mean that they
were wrong. Kansans do get a say in our Supreme Court. After they have served for you for one year, they are then on the ballot to either retain them or not.
And I've heard people say, Well, it's hard to find out if they're Republican or Democrat. Good. I don't want to know if they're Republican or Democrat. If I know if they're Republican or Democrat, then they're not doing their job as they should. They are not being neutral. There should be no Republican or Democrat influence over our judiciary, we see the circus that is our campaign system today that is throwing mud at each other,
tearing each other down, just
and the amount of money that's poured In,
I don't want to see that in our judiciary. So not only do they get the say after one year, but then it's on a regular basis every so many years, and I can't remember the exact number they will be on the ballot again for retention or not. So Kansans do get that say, and I do believe that they should have it, but I do not believe
that there should be no neutral neutrality in our judiciary. In our judiciary, they should not be working to keep that seat. That is what our politicians do. That is what Roger Marshall does. He works to keep his seat. He doesn't do anything helpful or useful. He just works to keep his seat. I don't want our judges to do that. To do that. I don't want that. I want people who know what they're doing. I want people who are experienced in there, and I want people that we can trust to the best of our abilities. You're always going to have some flaws. There's always going to be flaws in any human system,
but I think it's the best we got.
Returning back to immigration, tell me a little bit about you know, you've mentioned your personal story with immigration, and obviously your professional story with immigration.
Politically, where are we at? Or where are you at? Rather, with immigration, as this current Trump administration is approaching it as Congress as a whole has been approaching it as a localities and states have been approaching it. Is this the right approach?
No, I do not think that we are taking the right approach right now, immigration has been has been used to pit the country against each other as well. Like I said, there's a lot of bad information about immigration out there. There's a lot of conflicting information about immigration and immigrants out there.
I want violent criminals off our streets, period. I don't care what their immigration status is, so I have no problem with if they want to go and pick up
these violent criminals and keep our people. That keeps the immigrants safe, the immigrants don't want violent criminals in our country, everybody agrees on that. I heard Barry Grissom, who's a former US Attorney, talk, and he said it. He said, give us the top 100 and we'll find them for you.
We will help you. We don't want them,
but I also don't want people who have been here for 20 plus years contributing to society, whose children are citizens who
who want nothing more than just to better their lives for their kids. I
don't want children taken away from their mothers.
That's unconscionable. That makes me sick.
There are ways
to manage our immigration system to make it better.
Right now, we're scaring away
the best and the brightest. They're going to other countries. So at the same time that we're saying our education system is flawed and we're dismantling the Department of Education, and I do agree that we need to up our game and educate.
Education, we're also scaring off the people that could come to this country and keep us on the cutting edge while we get that education up to snuff.
It's going to harm us in the long term,
big time,
and the last 30 seconds we have left, and why don't you give to listeners you know your your stump speech, if you're out on the campaign campaign trail, why should people vote for you 30 seconds or less?
So I am an immigration attorney. I never dreamed that I would run for public office. A lot of people have asked me, why not a local office? And my simple answer to that is I have no interest in holding office for a long time. I have an interest in going and fixing the things that are broken,
and finding ways to help people while I'm there. I would like to see a world where the farmer that I met on Sunday
is not can run for office, can afford it, can figure it out and have a competitive edge in it. If
Roger Marshall already has like $2 million raised, right? I think last time Barbara Bollier spent like $23 million
no one can run for office. When I hear those numbers, I can't even dream of that much money. We've got to get the big money out.
We've got to make it where regular people can run for office again, or regular people can understand our government again, where we can self govern again. That is not my stump speech
but, but I believe that if we can start talking to each other again, and this is one of the most important things that I want to get out there, we start talking to each other again, if we stop yelling at each other, if we stop shouting down each other, name calling, villainizing each other, we will find that we agree on a lot more than we think, and on a lot more than that which we disagree upon.
And once we do that, we can start to learn more about each other. We can figure out how to take this country forward for everybody, not just one side or the other,
and we can be united again like we're supposed to. And we can, we can continue to be the great nation that that we all want us to
be, but we don't do it by fighting each other by having each other as enemies and by allowing
big money to buy our government.
And thank you so much for being here today and talking to us. I appreciate it. Thank you so much. I'm Anna Kaminsky, and this is been the Kansas reflector podcast. Thank you so much for listening, and we will see you next time bye.
