By Roger Sims, rsims@linncountyjournal.com
FORT SCOTT – Allie Gregg isn’t your normal candidate for state office. Graduating from Girard High School earlier this year, the 18-year-old Pittsburg, Kan., native decided just before the Oct. 15 deadline to sign up as a write-in candidate to the 4th District Kansas House of Representatives.
Gregg is running as a Democrat, and has sought help campaigning from both the Bourbon County and Linn County parties. However, she has also reached out to a group of Bourbon County citizens for property rights.
The 4th District includes northern Bourbon County and all of Linn County except for Liberty Township (the Parker area). The district has not been a Democrat-friendly district for decades, the last Democrat to represent the district was the late Shirley Palmer.
A former teacher, Palmer served in the House from 2007 to 2011. She lost her bid for re-election in 2010 to Caryn Tyson, a Parker Republican. Palmer died in March 2023.
Since Palmer, Democratic candidates for the seat have pulled less than 30% of the vote on the seat that is up for election every two years.
So why did Gregg, who is a student at Fort Scott Community College (FSCC), decide late in the game she wanted to run?
“I didn’t want to see Rick James run unopposed,” she said.
She said she feels like the policies he supports don’t reflect the needs of everyday people.
James, a La Cygne Republican who is seeking to replace retiring Rep. Trevor Jacobs in January, easily won the Republican nomination in the August primary. No Democrat, Libertarian or unaffiliated candidate signed up by the June 1 deadline, so many assumed that James was the only choice.
One of the top issues for Gregg is education. Her grandfather was a teacher and principal in the Pittsburg area, and Gregg said that the state needs to take steps to increase teachers’ salaries, make school lunches free for all students, and do a better job of funding public schools.
Public education is being funded at a constitutional level now, and that needs to be increased, she said.
An abortion-rights candidate, Gregg criticizes the Legislature for trying to throw up too many roadblocks to women’s rights in light of the 2022 abortion referendum in which a clear majority of Kansans voted against an attempt to place an amendment banning abortions in the state constitution.
An advocate of workers’ rights, Gregg believes in increasing the minimum wage above the federal minimum of $7.25 an hour. She also wants to protect voter rights in the state.
Gregg plans to attend Pittsburg State University after completing her general classes at FSCC with the aim of going to law school once she receives her bachelor’s degree.
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