© 2024 Kansas City Public Radio
NPR in Kansas City
Play Live Radio
Next Up:
0:00
0:00
0:00 0:00
Available On Air Stations
Up To Date

Senate Challenger Greg Orman Gears Up For Final Four Weeks

Beth Lipoff/KCUR

Senate races in Kansas aren't usually big news in the rest of the country, but this is an unusual year. Greg Orman, challenger to incumbent Pat Roberts, is running as an independent. If he wins, that would make him a much more powerful senator.

On Monday's Up to Date, we talk with Orman about how he's different from Roberts, what his main policy stances are and how his background got him to this moment. We invited Pat Roberts to join this discussion, but he did not respond to our repeated requests.

Here are some of Orman's words from that interview:

On health care:

  • "I think the Affordable Care Act expanded a broken system."
  • "Healthcare is one of the only industries I know where you get paid to fix your own mistakes."

On immigration:

  • "Sen. Roberts talks about caring about agriculture, and yet the policy he's espousing would ultimately decimate agriculture in this country."

On working across the aisle in the Senate:

  • "I think both parties would be well served by selecting someone (to lead the party) who has a demonstrated track record of bipartisanship."

On gay marriage:

  • "I actually believe that if there are two people who want to enter into a lifelong commitment to each other in a loving way that we shouldn't, as a country, stand in the way of that. By the same token, I respect the rights and the freedoms of religion, so if there are religions that don't want to perform those ceremonies or don't want to recognize those marriages, I understand that as well."
When I host Up To Date each morning at 9, my aim is to engage the community in conversations about the Kansas City area’s challenges, hopes and opportunities. I try to ask the questions that listeners want answered about the day’s most pressing issues and provide a place for residents to engage directly with newsmakers. Reach me at steve@kcur.org or on Twitter @stevekraske.