Opinion: Full transcript of Kansas Gov. Laura Kelly’s 2026 State of the State speech

Gov. Laura Kelly greets lawmakers as she arrives for her State of the State speech on Jan. 13, 2026, in the Kansas House. (Photo by Thad Allton for Kansas Reflector)

By Gov. Laura Kelly

Mr. Speaker…Mr. President…. Chief Justice Rosen and the entire Kansas Supreme Court…members of my Cabinet…leaders of the Kansas tribes… all the constitutional officers and legislators assembled, – it is an honor to speak with you tonight.

Before I begin, I would like to recognize a special guest with us this evening– I believe many in this chamber know him, as he has been a tireless advocate for deeper economic and cultural ties between Kansas and Ireland, the land of my ancestors. Senator Mark Daly, please stand to be recognized. And as they say in the old country, failte!

This is my first time standing before all of you since we announced some very exciting, historic, actually game-changing news for our state.

Our beloved Chiefs are coming home to Kansas.

Their world-class stadium, which opens five years from now, will make Kansas a sports and entertainment mecca. We’ll compete to host Super Bowls, Final Fours, concerts, and so much more. Thousands of new jobs and billions in new economic activity.

And, as I said at the announcement, we’re reminding the nation that we are not a flyover state, we are a touchdown state.

And we brought the Chiefs to our state without a tax increase on Kansans and without pulling a dollar from other priorities in the budget.

This is not only a massive win for Kansas. It’s a win for the entire region. We were able to ensure that our kids, our grandkids, can carry on the tradition of roaring for the Chiefs just down the road.

I’m proud to welcome the local leaders who were instrumental in making this happen.

KCK Mayor and CEO of the Unified Government of Wyandotte County, Christal Watson, and Mayor of the City of Olathe, John Bacon. Please stand to be recognized.

And Mark Donovan is also in the gallery. Mark is the President of the Kansas City Chiefs and deserves much of the credit for getting this deal done. It is an honor to have you here with us tonight. Please give our regards to Clark and the entire Hunt family.

Ultimately, we were able to accomplish this amazing feat for two reasons.

First, we’ve made Kansas a place the Chiefs want to call home – with a strong economy, a strong workforce, strong communities, and – of course – an extraordinary fan base.

And second, because a bipartisan team of leaders in this chamber, along with the local officials we just recognized, and many members of my administration, worked together to make this happen.

Orchestrating these efforts was our own eco/devo wonder boy, the Lt. Governor of Kansas, David Toland.

David, please stand and take a bow for a job well done.

To land the Chiefs, we all put politics aside.

We all put personal differences aside. And we didn’t care who got credit.

We did what was best for Kansas and for our shared future.

That’s how you do big things.

That’s the way it’s supposed to work.

As you know, this is my final State of the State address. Hold your applause.

And as I reflect on my two terms as Governor, I think about three of the major challenges we faced.

First, we needed to stop the bleeding – because, when I took office, Kansas was in a world of hurt.

Our budget was pieced together with gimmicks and funny money.

Our schools were underfunded, and many had to resort to four-day school weeks. Our roads and bridges were crumbling and unsafe.

These problems had to be fixed.

Second, we needed to improve the quality of life for all Kansans.

We did that by cutting taxes, by creating thousands of good-paying jobs, and making our public schools not just functional – but exceptional.

And third, we needed to change people’s perceptions of Kansas and become a place where young people are eager to put down roots, where businesses see opportunity, where tourists flock to visit, and a place where Kansans are proud to call home.

I know there is more to do.

But after 7 years, I also know that the state of our state has never been stronger.

And I know the state of our future has never been brighter.

Now, you all know me – I am an eternal optimist, but I am also solidly pragmatic.

So let me state the obvious – we live in extraordinarily challenging times.

And I don’t just mean our politics.

If you think about the last decade in America, the speed of change we’ve endured is staggering.

We now live our lives attached to devices.

It’s now how we do business, how we keep up with the news, how we talk to our coworkers and our friends, even our own grandchildren.

And in the midst of it all, we also survived a global pandemic, only to return to a world changing even faster – with remote work, AI bots, and cars that drive themselves.

Many of us wish we could go back to simpler times, but we know we can’t.

We live in an era defined by disruption.

An era that requires more from our leaders than ever before.

Yet, right when Americans needed leaders they could look to for strength, for resolve, character, and a clear vision, they got the exact opposite at the national level.

From both parties.

Where it became acceptable for our nation’s leaders to treat one another in the most uncivilized ways imaginable.

Language and behavior we’d never tolerate from our own children.

And instead of using this new technology to reach people with messages of unity and hope, these devices have been turned into weapons for elected leaders to ignite chaos, and anger, and even violence.

Instead of representing their communities, elected officials turned into foot soldiers for their political parties – firing off insults and vitriol to score likes or follows or wins for their team – instead of doing what’s right for their constituents.

It’s as if they checked their free will at the door and just did as they were told.

Treating their own colleagues in such angry and dehumanizing ways, just because they’re in the other party.

And the most frightening part – it’s now become the new normal.

An accepted part of political discourse.

Well, I reject it.

We must all reject it.

When I look at the successes we’ve had these last seven years, here’s what they all have in common: they required elected officials from different parties, with different ideologies, from different parts of the state, to come together, meet in the middle, and find common ground to do what’s best for Kansas.

There’s a word for that.

It’s called civility.

It’s conducting ourselves with a sense of decency.

It’s disagreeing on issues but doing so respectfully.

It’s demonstrating the humility to know you’re not always right.

Acknowledging that folks in the other party are also good Kansans, and that they might have good ideas, too.

It’s being open to compromise, to building consensus.

And it’s always being guided by the principle that if you simply treat people the way you want to be treated, anything’s possible.

Since the beginning of my administration, by using this approach, we’ve been able to enact into law 587 bipartisan bills.

That’s 587 times coming together, across the aisle – in today’s politics.

That’s something we should all be proud of.

And just look at what we’ve accomplished by doing that.

For seven straight years, we fully funded our public schools.

And we’re seeing the benefits of that investment – graduation rates are now the highest they have ever been.

We established the Blueprint for Literacy to make sure all Kansas children are reading at or above grade level.

And, while the national discussion has only just recently turned to affordability, here in Kansas, we knew it was a top priority long before it became a political buzzword – just by talking to Kansans.

In response, to help Kansans deal with rising costs, we cut over $1 billion per year in taxes.

We totally eliminated the sales tax on food, saving Kansas families $500 a year.

That’s huge – and we got it done together.

We cut taxes for seniors living on fixed incomes by completely eliminating the state income tax on Social Security.

We cut taxes for parents to make child care more affordable.

We cut taxes for farmers to lower input costs.

All of this is why, last year, CNBC named Kansas second in the country for cost of living. There are two reasons we’ve been able to return so much money to taxpayers.

First, we’ve managed the budget responsibly – turning the deficits we inherited into surpluses. Secondly, because we’ve grown our economy – increasing our annual revenues.

That’s been driven by a sustained, historic stretch of economic wins.

I’m talking about:

• Urban Outfitters in Wyandotte County

• Amber Wave in Phillips County

• Bartlett Grain in Montgomery County

• Hilmar Cheese in Ford County

• Boeing in Sedgwick County

• Schwan’s in Saline County

• And then of course, Panasonic and the Kansas City Chiefs.

In total, new businesses have invested over $30 billion in Kansas.

That’s 30 billion dollars.

And created over 80,000 new good-paying jobs.

These are careers that Kansans can build their lives around.

And it happened because we worked together.

And that’s not all.

We also created the Office of Early Childhood.

We blended 20 programs into one so parents, providers, and businesses will have a single point of contact for everything they need to support our youngest Kansans.

We have developed partnerships with the private sector to exponentially expand access to quality early childhood experiences all across Kansas.

Right here in Topeka, the State of Kansas and Blue Cross Blue Shield will soon cut the ribbon on a 160-slot child care facility just blocks away from the Capitol.

The Office of Early Childhood was a reform most of us agreed we needed – but we had different ideas how to get there.

So, we talked about it, we hammered out our differences, we compromised, and we got it done. See, there it is again – civility in action.

Because we worked together, we also closed the Bank of KDOT once and for all.

And we’ve gone back to investing in our infrastructure the right way, the way we used to. Restoring Kansans’ rightful pride in their highway system.

Together, we opened the Office of Rural Prosperity to put a focus on the unique economic needs of our rural areas.

We’ve invested millions in high-speed internet – connecting over 117,000 homes and businesses to this economic lifeline.

And together, we’ve provided record funding for law enforcement. And they’ve spent the money well.

Crime in Kansas is now at a 20-year low.

Everything I just talked about, we did it all while making sure our budgets were balanced.

Every year.

We did it without a tax increase.

We paid down our debt.

Our credit rating is strong.

Our rainy-day fund stands at $2 billion.

Together, we have returned fiscal sanity to Topeka.

Ultimately, we were able to get our state back on track because we showed that civility can still exist in our politics, that you can get a whole lot done when you work with others.

But we cannot take it for granted.

There are too many forces trying to push us all into our partisan corners and make the other party the enemy.

And, sadly, we have seen some examples where the ways of Washington have crept into our conduct here in Kansas.

Where the level of discourse in this building went places I know many of you weren’t proud of or comfortable with.

We must have the courage to treat each other with respect, regardless of the intensity of debate and discourse.

We must have the courage to put what’s right ahead of what’s politically expedient.

We must have the courage to put compromise ahead of party purity.

This moment in our politics requires it.

And make no mistake, it’s also what the people of Kansas want.

I stand before you as evidence of that.

I did not get elected Governor – twice – by screaming the loudest or bullying others to get my way.

Quite the opposite, I’m here because Kansans were looking for someone who would turn the volume down, to do more listening than yelling, to bring people together, to compromise, and govern from the middle.

Kansans are the most civil, decent people on earth.

They embody the spirit of neighbor helping neighbor.

And they expect that from us, too.

So, I say to everyone here – do not let the loudest voices, on either extreme, drown out the voices of the vast majority of Kansans, who want to see us work together.

It’s been the right approach.

It’s been an effective approach.

And it’s what we need to do this legislative session to make it our strongest ever.

When it comes to this session, it won’t surprise you that my priorities always start with our public schools.

Let’s step back a moment and acknowledge this remarkable comeback story.

Just 10 years ago, in the aftermath of the disastrous tax experiment, we had many school districts in Kansas forced into 4-day school weeks.

Then, just as we finally restored full funding, Covid hit.

And educators and parents had to adjust to remote learning, which we all know was horrible for everyone, especially the students.

But our communities rallied.

Teachers went into overdrive.

Parents put in the extra time at home.

Kansans take so much pride in their public schools.

And together, we doubled down on our commitment to them.

Not only fully funding our schools, but record funding for our schools.

We all did our part – but it’s our educators who are the real heroes here.

I’d like to speak about a special group of them for just a moment.

Joining us tonight are a group of educators from Topeka Public Schools.

They have the distinction, or perhaps, at the time, the burden of teaching my own daughters, Kathleen and Molly, well over 20 years ago.

Each made a lasting impression on both me and my daughters.

Like so many of our dedicated teachers, the work they do with their students extends far beyond the classroom walls – they build relationships, they mentor, they guide – in every sense of the word, they educate.

They’re here tonight representing so many Kansas teachers who go above and beyond for our children and seldom get the recognition or gratitude they deserve.

So, please stand as I call your name:

• Marti Bass, Kathleen and Molly’s kindergarten teacher at Potwin Elementary.

• Diane Kimsey, Kathleen’s fourth grade teacher at Potwin Elementary.

• Kirsten Cigler, Kathleen and Molly’s English teacher at Topeka High.

• Anton Ahrens, Molly’s chemistry teacher at Topeka High.

• And Harry Peterson, Kathleen’s gifted facilitator at Topeka High.

They’re joined by Dr. Tiffany Anderson, Superintendent of Topeka Public Schools, who has transformed vocational and educational opportunities for students in Topeka, most notably by creating the Topeka Center for Advanced Learning and Careers.

Please give these educators and educators all across Kansas a huge round of grateful applause!

It speaks volumes that so many of us can think back decades and remember the teachers who touched our lives, and our children’s lives.

I believe there’s even more we must do to support them.

At the state level, we have.

Unfortunately, the same cannot be said about our federal partners. Once again, the federal government has dropped the ball on funding for special education.

When you think about what parents take on when they have a child with a disability, you realize just how unconscionable that is.

Now, Kansas has already stepped up and added over $120 million for special education. We’ll keep calling on Washington to cover its fair share, but until it does, my budget will continue to increase this investment.

We will never turn our backs on these children or their families.

We also know that tens of thousands of families in Kansas qualify for reduced-price school lunches – especially in some of our most rural areas.

And we know with grocery costs being what they are right now, that for many of these families, even that reduced cost is untenable.

So I am, again, including funding in my budget to allow students currently on reduced price meals to move entirely to free meals – to ease that stress on their families.

Let’s make it clear: No child in Kansas should ever have to worry about having enough to eat.

Life is hard enough for our children these days.

And we need to face this fact: technology is making it much, much harder.

Smartphones and social media have exposed our children to a world they are not ready for, and to social pressures they don’t need or deserve.

It’s creating a mental health crisis and a learning crisis.

Talk to parents, these are the first concerns they raise – 9 times out of 10.

The research on this is now very clear.

Anxiety in our kids is up.

Depression is up.

And, tragically, even suicide is up.

Cell phones are making it much harder for our children to learn and for our teachers to teach.

We need to step up and do something about this.

This session, we must pass the bipartisan proposal to ban cell phone use during the school day.

I want to thank Majority Leader Chase Blasi and Minority Leader Dinah Sykes for their work on this critical issue.

Get that bill to my desk, and I will sign it into law.

We know that mental health challenges are not limited to our children.

It is a reality so many Kansans and their families face.

When I first took office, our mental health system in Kansas was seriously lacking. Our continuum of care – prevention, treatment, inpatient, post-discharge services – all had huge gaps, dangerous gaps.

We had no crisis hotline.

We had long waitlists for treatment.

We had a severe shortage of mental health professionals and services, particularly in our rural areas.

Fortunately, there were legislators on both sides of the aisle and leaders in our state agencies who recognized the danger and focused like a laser on solutions.

Now we have the Office of Early Childhood, which will ensure our youngest children get the start in life they need to become resilient, productive adults.

We were one of the first states in the country to implement the Certified Community Behavioral Health Clinic model, that will focus on the whole person approach.

We were one of the first states to operationalize the 988 Crisis Hotline, a vital link to lifesaving services.

We initiated and substantially increased mental health services in our schools, ensuring that our children have access to help where they need it, when they need it.

Soon, we will open a new state psychiatric hospital in South Central Kansas that will mitigate the wait lists at Osawatomie and Larned.

And now, when judges must incarcerate someone whose primary issue is substance abuse, they can be sent to the newly renovated East Campus at Lansing Correctional Facility, where they will live in a therapeutic environment designed to treat their addiction and prepare them for successful reentry to their community.

We have done a lot. We have filled many gaps.

But unfortunately, the needs of Kansans require that even more must be done.

We need more treatment beds.

We need more professionals.

We need more crisis response.

And my budget does just that.

Join me in making mental health a real priority this session.

When we announced the agreement with the Chiefs to move to Kansas, we showed Kansans – and the rest of America – that we are capable of coming together to do big things.

And that we’re able to think long term.

Now, we must do that again.

We must do something that no legislature, no administration, has ever been able to accomplish, and that’s to properly address our water crisis.

Last year, we took a critical step by establishing the Water Task Force, led by Representative Jim Minnix and Senator Kenny Titus.

Now, I’m calling on the legislature to support that task force in its work to lay out a comprehensive, long-term strategy and identify a dedicated funding source, much like we have successfully done for our highways.

I know it won’t be easy.

I know it is a very sensitive political issue.

But the future of our entire state is dependent upon the actions we take today.

It will require looking beyond the next election and looking instead to the next generation.

And some day, when your great-grandchildren are looking at the family album, let it be said that when you were in the legislature, and you had the chance, you did the right thing.

Water isn’t a partisan issue. It’s a Kansas issue. And it is a time-sensitive issue.

Let’s treat it that way and make it a top priority this session.

When you think back on this journey we’ve been on together, it’s quite remarkable – the turnaround Kansas has made.

Ten years ago, Kansas was generating national headlines like:

“What’s the Matter with Kansas? It can’t do math.”

Late night shows mocked Kansas, calling us a Laboratory of Fiscal Disaster.

But now, instead of being a national punch line, we’re winning national awards for economic development, for modernizing our unemployment system, for our first-class roads.

And perhaps the greatest recognition of all, the Kansas City Chiefs, who have won three Super Bowls while I’ve been governor, something no other current governor can claim, they will literally move Kansas to the big leagues.

Big things are happening in our small state.

And there are more big things to come if we work together.

In my first State of the State in 2019, I encouraged us to consider a fairly profound question: what is Kansas worth?

What sacrifices are we willing to make for the state we love?

Were we willing to do the hard work, putting what’s right for Kansas above what’s right for our political parties?

Tonight, I highlighted all of the successes we’ve had by doing just that.

But that spirit of civility must endure in the months ahead and years ahead, as the challenges we face will only get bigger.

We must live up to our state motto, Ad Astra Per Aspera, and show America that civility in our politics is still possible.

That civility is what brings us together.

And that civility is a winning formula.

For governing. And for life itself.

Thank you. Good night.

This article was republished with permission from the Kansas Reflector. The Kansas Reflector is a non-profit online news organization serving Kansas. For more information on the organization, go to its website at www.kansasreflector.com.