Voters across the state have two questions for Rep. Roger Marshall as he campaigns for a seat in the U.S. Senate.
“Folks want to know when it’s going to get back to normal,” Marshall said, “and what’s that normal going to look like?”
Marshall, one of a handful of Republican candidates seeking to replace the outgoing Pat Roberts in the U.S. Senate, paid a visit Friday to Strickler Dairy in Iola.
During his tour of the dairy, Marshall touched on a new trade agreement between the United States and Canada, which should “even the playing field for America’s dairy farmers.”
A healthy dose of perspective is necessary as the nation struggles to reopen its economy, Marshall said.
“Respect the virus, but don’t let it consume your lives,” Marshall said. “There’s a way to responsibly and safely open up our businesses and schools again.”
He pointed to the low mortality rates for COVID patients, particularly Americans under the age of 60.
“We are treating it so much better today than we were six months ago,” Marshall said, while predicting a vaccine could be available for high-risk patients by Thanksgiving.
“Looking across the state, we get eight or nine people hospitalized a day, and we’re losing an average of one person a day” from COVID-19, he noted.
“Of course, we don’t want anyone to die from COVID, but in the big scheme of things, we’re losing more people to auto accidents than to COVID. Driving a car in Kansas is more dangerous.”
Marshall also pointed to the USMCA trade deal approved by Congress in February that went into effect July 1.
One of the offshoots of the deal is it prevents Canada from subsidizing its dairy farmers, thus opening the markets further for U.S. producers, Marshall noted.
“That’s one of the big wins of the trade deal,” he said.
Marshall’s visit was one of several stops during the day organized by Kansas Farm Bureau, which has endorsed him in the crowded Republican field. Other notables vying for the seat are former Secretary of State Kris Kobach, retired professional football player David Lindstrom and Kansas City-area businessman Bob Hamilton.
The winner will advance to the general election in November to face presumptive Democratic nominee Barbara Bollier.
An obstetrician by trade, Marshall was voted into Congress in Kansas’s First Congressional District in 2016, defeating incumbent Tim Huelskamp in that year’s GOP primary election.
