By COLE REIF
Great Bend Post
Last week’s candidate forum in Great Bend consisted of nine individuals seeking district or state political positions, including three running for the Kansas State Senate District 33 seat.
Tory Marie Blew began her political career in 2017 when she assumed office in the Kansas House of Representatives, representing District 112. Blew first ran for office when she was 22 years old and a senior at Fort Hays State University. Along with lowering property taxes, increasing affordable housing, Blew felt childcare needs to be more readily available.
"When my husband and I got married in 2020, we got put on a waiting list for childcare and it took three and a half years for that slot to open," said Blew. "Imagine if you were not planning and you couldn't find childcare. That's something the legislature has been working on the past few years, and I don't think we're done. I think it's important to open up childcare and make it affordable for parents."
John Sturn, from Ellinwood, will be Blew’s challenger in the Republican primary on Aug. 6. Sturn grew up north of Bushton and has served the past 11 years on the Ellinwood Board of Education.
"This year, there was a bill that says for students who are at risk of following behind their peers, if their test scores don't improve enough our schools will get less funds used to educate these students," said Sturn. "My opponent in the primary election voted on all of these and more, including a vote in 2017 which would have continued the Brownback fiscal mess."
Matthew Westenfeld, a Democrat for the Senate position, earned a political science degree with thoughts of getting into politics. His life, now with four children, took him a different direction. After 20 years, he said he’s dusting off the political degree and wants to focus on making health insurance more accessible.
"We need to aim at bridging the gap of so many people in this state that are missing out on healthcare coverage," said Westenfeld. "I make too little money for the federal government to help me and too much money for the state government to help me. This leaves me with insurance bills that take over half of the family's income just to pay for insurance."
You can watch below the entire candidate forum that was livestreamed by Eagle Media.