I am a Kansas Democrat. That means I am used to putting my time and resources into elections for candidates I support, and then watching as Kansas voters deliver a different outcome. I have been disappointed, distressed and quite unhappy about election results, but have never — and would never — consider declaring without a shred of evidence that a free and fair election was fraudulent because my chosen candidate lost.
We have a number of elected Kansas Republican officeholders who have done just that. They have participated in an attempt to undermine the confidence of their constituents — and the country — in free and fair elections, the hallmark of our democracy, and used the power of their elected offices to try to declare votes from other states fraudulent simply because their preferred candidate lost. The repeated accusations that the election was stolen led ultimately to a violent invasion of the U.S. Capitol, where five people lost their lives.
Now some of those same Kansas Republicans are claiming shock at the violence, pretending that they were not the instigators.
Kansas Attorney General Derek Schmidt, who frequently decries “judicial activism,” joined a small band of Republican attorneys general to ask the Supreme Court to overturn the results of a free and fair election because his candidate lost. Unless Schmidt had some secret evidence that was not presented in any of at least 60 court cases preceding this last-ditch attempt at a judicial coup, Schmidt’s stunt was purely political — and the U.S. Supreme Court didn’t hesitate to toss the case.
Newly-elected Sen. Roger Marshall and Reps. Ron Estes, Jake LaTurner and Tracey Mann voted not to accept the election results in states where recounts and court cases had already determined that no widespread voter fraud occurred, but President Donald Trump lost.
They cast these votes after learning of a phone conversation where the president of the United States asked his fellow Republican elected officials in Georgia to say they “recalculated” the state’s election results and declare Trump the winner. They cast these votes after returning from a lockdown caused by an invading mob breaking into the Capitol, causing them, Vice President Mike Pence, other members of Congress and their staffs to flee and hide, fearing for their lives.
These elected officials should resign, as they have violated the oath of office they took, which promises that they will “support and defend the Constitution of the United States of America.” Nothing could be less supportive of our Constitution than denying the right of all voters to cast ballots, and for those votes to be counted.
I am sympathetic to those who are disappointed that their chosen candidate for political office did not win. I know that pain and heartache. But I have no sympathy for elected officials, paid with taxpayer dollars, who ask for our votes and then violate their duty to the Constitution.
They should resign. And if they don’t, Kansans should remember it when these officials again ask for their votes.
Kathleen Sebelius is the former governor of Kansas and former U.S. Secretary of Health and Human Services.
