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VOTE411 Voter Guide

United States House of Representatives, District 02

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    Nancy Boyda
    (Dem)

  • Candidate picture

    John Hauer
    (Lib)

  • Candidate picture

    Derek Schmidt
    (Rep)

Biographical Information

What is the most important challenge facing our country? How do you propose to address the challenge?

What, if any, steps should our country take concerning healthcare and healthcare access?

What, if any, steps should our country take concerning immigration policies?

What are your priorities concerning the U.S. economy? How do these priorities affect Kansas?

What measures do you support to secure elections and set voting policies and rights in our country?

What, if any, steps should our country take concerning campaign financing and the influence of money in politics?

What are your plans to deal with and prevent gun violence?

Campaign Web Site http://boydaforcongress.com
Campaign Phone 785-633-6362
Campaign Address 1236 N 100 Rd
Personal Biography In 2006 Nancy Boyda made national news by beating Jim Ryun, an entrenched Republican, KU/Olympic track star and celebrity. She won by 4 points, a landslide for a Democrat in a bright red district. She is the only Democrat in 30 years to win this seat. She served on the House Agriculture and Armed Services committees. Following Congress, Boyda was named as the Deputy Assistant Secretary of Defense at the Pentagon. Nancy now lives simply and sustainably on a small farm outside of Baldwin City.
Education Nancy graduated from William Jewell College with degrees in chemistry and education, and spent most of her professional career in pharmaceutical Research and Development.
Community/Public Service Nancy is on the Board of and manages volunteers at the Homeless Resource Center. She volunteers at the Ballard Center preschool, with wrap around services for students and familes to. For 5 years she and the kids grow 150 pounds of sweet potatoes (“the perfect whole food”), teaching them both the love and science of gardening. Nancy is on the Board of the Lawrence Barn Dance Association, a traditional, welcoming American folk dance group that promotes community through local music and unbelievably fun dancing.
Eighteen years ago, Congress barely worked. Today it’s not working at all. Important issues like income inequality, immigration, climate change, affordable housing, the soaring cost of healthcare, infrastructure and so much more languish because of the dysfunction. In some circles, bipartisanship has become a dirty word.

My campaign slogan is “Solutions are in the Center.” A vote for me will be making a clear statement that you are done with the craziness and ready to begin the hard the work of rebuilding trust. When we win this race, it will draw as much national attention as my win in 2006 did. There will be one reason that I will have won: “Stop the craziness. Start rebuilding trust. Now.”

Every American deserves access to high-quality, affordable healthcare. I am committed to extending the Affordable Care Act subsidies beyond 2025 and ensuring that Medicare, Medicaid, and Federally Qualified Health Centers are fully funded. These programs are the backbone of our healthcare system, providing essential services to millions of vulnerable citizens.

Additionally, it is unacceptable that medications, often developed with substantial public funding, remain out of reach for so many. To address this, I support price caps on drugs whose R&D costs were primarily funded by taxpayers. This policy will ensure that these medications are affordable and accessible, reflecting the public's investment and promoting better health outcomes.

When I was in Congress I broke with my party and took a strong stand for immigration reform. I repeatedly said if we don’t fix the border, there will be a disastrous, humanitarian crisis. Look where we are today: unending tragedy on both sides of the border. Two bipartisan immigration bills have been passed in the Senate (2008 and 2024). These included: a path to citizenship contingent on increased border security/improved visa tracking; a more restricted definition of asylum; increased administrative and judiciary processes to expedite decisions and reduce backlog.

Even though both sides understood the urgency, neither bill was brought to the House floor for debate and vote. I will push hard to have a bipartisan bill brought to the floor.
Income inequality adds to the hardship of working families trying to pay for housing, buy groceries, keep up with medical bills. The Trump tax cuts were a rotten deal for working families.

5% of the country receives 45% of the benefits! A $1million household gets $70,000, but a household making $70,000 sees only $1000, hardly enough to pay one medical deductible. Unacceptable. Corporate taxes are the lowest they have been in 80 years! These tax cuts along with tariffs add to inflation that devastates families. In 2017 Americans were told we'd see a $4000 benefit. Did you?

I know how hurtful the words "Trickle down economics" are to working families.

Extend tax cuts for households under $400K. End tax cuts for wealthy and corporations.
The 2020 Presidential Election was legitimately decided. Not stolen, not fraudulent. Democracy doesn’t work only when your side wins.

There have been 63 lawsuits with allegations of fraud but no evidence of wrong-doing. The only thing they accomplished was disbarment/disciplinary action against the attorneys who brought completely frivolous, illegitimate complaints, and outrageous conspiracy theories into our courts. If Republicans succeed in convincing Americans their vote has no legitimacy, our nation may never recover.

When I am confronted with election denialism, I will call these conspiracies what they are: lies. I will directly confront my Republican opponent for supporting election conspiracies that destroy trust and rip us apart.
Every Kansan I meet knows that money is corrupting our democracy. Special interests don’t give money unless they expect votes in return.

Congress attempted to control money in elections, but in 2010 SCOTUS made the fateful Citizens United decision and declared unlimited dark money in our elections was equivalent to free speech. “Free speech” for the ultra-powerful was allowed to drown out the free speech of the ordinary Kansan. It didn’t take long for both sides to get addicted to the tsunami of money that has now become commonplace.

I will join the fight to introduce a constitutional amendment to overturn Citizens United and return free speech to Kansans.To do this, we need every Kansans to speak up and make their voices heard.
For decades we watched in horror while the number of mass shootings escalated and Congress did nothing. Finally in 2022, the Bipartisan Safer Communities Act was passed with meaningful bipartisan support. Background checks were strengthed, especially under the age 21. Straw purchasing and trafficking were made Federal crimes. Red Flag laws were strengthened. Community violence intervention programs are now better supported. Thankfully, it funded training for more mental health professionals and expanded access to mental health services. It is crucial these laws be effectively implemented with maximum results.

I do not support an assault weapon ban. When tried many times in the past, it has only served to dramatically increase AWs.
Ballot City District 2, Kansas
Mailing Address Topeka , KS 66614
Personal Biography I’m just a regular working class guy. I’m a truck driver out of Topeka, and my dog Starfox and I love driving all over this beautiful state. I raise ducks and chickens in the backyard and enjoy gardening. On the weekends you can often find me camping with my dog or jamming with local musicians. I believe in taking full responsibility for all my actions and choices. With great personal freedom comes great personal responsibility!
Education I was homeschooled most of my life, for which I’m forever grateful. I attended Highland Community College in Wamego and got my degree in Elementary Education from K State. Go Cats!
Community/Public Service As co-chair of the Libertarians of Northeast Kansas, we’ve adopted Betty Phillips Park in Topeka. Join us for one of our park cleanups!
The most important challenge facing our country is the rising cost of living. This one is personal for me, so I know it’s affecting others too. The two things I will try to get done in DC to fix this are to cut taxes and end the endless cycle of money printing and money borrowing. The federal budget will have to be reduced to accomplish this. I propose to do this by slashing military spending, which means ending all the military interventions in other countries, stop dropping bombs on innocent people, and bringing every last one of our troops home.
I believe that when the government gets involved, prices go up and quality goes down. So the best way the government can lower the cost of healthcare is by getting out the way and letting natural marketplace competition do the rest.
I believe that we should close the borders to illegal immigration, but fully allow and encourage legal immigration.
My priority concerning the economy is crony capitalism. No more bailouts, no more corporate welfare, and especially no more shutting down mom and pop businesses to allow big corporations to permanently take away their share of the pie. If the government quit playing favorites it would allow competition in the marketplace and small and medium size businesses to thrive. For Kansas, this would mean more opportunities for entrepreneurs and start-ups. More regular folks would be able to follow their dreams and be their own bosses.
I think showing ID when voting is a good idea. Also, felons who have served their time should get all their rights back, including the right to vote.
The influence of money in politics is one of the great evils of our time. Lobbyists and special interest groups run the politicians and write a large portion of the bills. Personally, I will deny lobbyists access to my ears and vote my conscience. I will also vote no on any bill that includes sending your hard earned money to enrich shady politicians and their friends who consistently win big government contracts.
I fully support everyone’s right to bear arms. This includes felons who have served their time. I don’t see a quick fix solution to gun violence but I believe that when our economic problems are solved and people are doing better in general, there will be less anger and hate and violence of all kinds will decrease.
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