Governor
Cindy Holscher
Democrat
Ty Masterson
Republican
COST OF LIVING & AFFORDABILITY
Cindy Holscher
Holscher is focused on keeping health care, child care, groceries, and gas costs down and supports wage increases that keep pace with the cost of living.
Holscher is running on economic security for working families and on keeping essentials affordable, including making diapers and other essential family products tax-free.
Holscher is committed to “Immediately lowering costs for families by eliminating meal expenses for students, reducing household food budgets, and improving child nutrition.”
Holscher supports a “moratorium on new giant corporate data centers” — which raise our energy costs and put our farmland and water supplies at risk.
Holscher: Cindy for Kansas, Priorities page, accessed 8/26/26.
Ty Masterson
Masterson’s tax agenda centers on a flat tax and automatic rate cuts, which would shrink pension contributions.
Masterson voted for legislation that cuts food assistance that working families rely on to buy groceries. The bill also cuts food assistance for veterans, homeless Kansans and former foster youth, and permanently blocks the Governor from restoring food assistance during a recession without a full act of the legislature.
Masterson voted to override the veto of HB 2062, stripping longstanding protections that shielded workers’ 401(k)s and IRAs from seizure — allowing courts to order total liquidation of a worker’s retirement savings, penalties and taxes included.
Masterson: Kansas Reflector, 7/20/25; Kansas AFL-CIO Legislative Scorecard, 2025–26 session, accessed 8/26/26; Associated Press, 1/18/2024; Kansas AFL-CIO Legislative Scorecard, 2025–26 session, accessed 8/26/26 (HB 2731, 3/27/26 and veto override 4/10/26); Kansas AFL-CIO Legislative Scorecard, 2025–26 session, accessed 8/26/26 (HB 2062) veto override, 4/10/25.
JOBS & WAGES
Cindy Holscher
Holscher supports repealing Kansas’ so-called right-to-work law, which makes it harder for workers to negotiate for fair wages, better benefits, and safer workplaces. She supports paid sick time for every private-sector worker, and raising the state wage floor to $16 while letting higher-cost cities and counties set their own higher minimums.
Holscher says every hard-working Kansan should be able to support their family and is running on wages that keep pace with the cost of living.
Ty Masterson
Masterson voted to block floor debate on paid sick leave, on raising wages, and on letting Kansans vote on right-to-work.
Masterson backed HCR 5008, a constitutional amendment letting the legislature revoke any state regulation — including workplace safety rules and workers’ comp standards — by resolution that the governor cannot veto.
Quality Health Care
Cindy Holscher
Holscher vowed to protect Social Security, Medicare, and Medicaid to “ensure that no matter who you are or where you come from, you have the support to live a good life, stay healthy, and retire with dignity.” She’s also determined to make Medicaid available to more low- and moderate-income Kansans.”
Holscher stated that “Healthcare workers deserve fair wages and safe staffing, and we all deserve hospitals and medical centers with enough staff who can do their very best.”
Ty Masterson
Masterson voted for SB 161, requiring a full act of the legislature before any agency can raise Medicaid reimbursement rates for disability services — handing the legislature veto power over the only realistic path to a raise for roughly 30,000 Kansas direct support professionals who earn only $13 to $15 an hour.
Masterson voted to take away guaranteed year-round health care coverage for low-wage workers and backed legislation that forces people to repeatedly prove they qualify, creating more paperwork and bureaucratic hurdles that often cause eligible workers and their children to lose coverage.
Masterson backed a proposal requiring legislative approval to expand health care access for working people.
Attorney General
Chris Mann
Democrat
Kris Kobach
Republican
COST OF LIVING & AFFORDABILITY
Chris Mann
Mann served as a prosecutor for the Kansas Securities Commission, holding white-collar criminals accountable and protecting consumers and seniors. He has made consumer fraud a top-three campaign priority.
Mann supports cracking down on price gouging and fraud
to protect Kansas families and will fight to recover money
that was stolen from Kansans. As a prosecutor, he held
fraudsters and white-collar criminals accountable.
Mann: Campaign website, (‘Priorities’); Chris Mann for Kansas (@ChrisMannKS), 3/6/26, X.com; Chris Mann for Kansas (@ChrisMannKS), 3/6/26, X.com; “Chris’ Priorities,” accessed 9/28/26, ChrisMannForKansas.com.
Kris Kobach
Kobach has not said anything about price-gouging, grocery prices, utility rates, or corporate pricing.
Kobach sued his own state’s Governor to force her administration to hand over Kansans’ personal SNAP records to the federal government. The administration had refused, saying it would put the personal details of roughly 730,000 Kansans at risk. Kobach refused to join the multistate lawsuit to restore SNAP funding during the federal shutdown, when roughly 188,000 Kansans were set to go without food assistance.
JOBS & WAGES
Chris Mann
Mann has said that he will combat wage theft, worker misclassification, and unsafe or dangerous working conditions, and promises to establish a labor table within the Attorney General’s office.
Mann has said that collective bargaining empowers workers to secure the competitive wages necessary to support their families.
Mann: “I’m honored to receive the endorsement of the Kansas AFL-CIO.” Instagram, 04/17/26; “Kansas workers deserve an Attorney General who will fight alongside them.” Instagram, 8/31/26.
Kris Kobach
Kobach opposed a federal rule that would have extended collective bargaining protections to seasonal farm workers. His stated objection was to unions themselves: “Giving unionization protections to a class of employees naturally drives up the cost of doing business for their employers.”
Kobach: Kansas Reflector, 11/16/23.
Insurance Commissioner
Dinah Sykes
Democrat
Dan Hawkins
Republican
COST OF LIVING & AFFORDABILITY
Dinah Sykes
Sykes says she would promote competition among insurers specifically to keep coverage affordable, and would require human oversight of artificial intelligence making payment decisions.
Sykes has committed to standing up for policyholders when claims are wrongfully denied or delayed. Her stated pillars are consumer protection, transparency on policies and rates, and fighting unfair and discriminatory practices.
Dan Hawkins
Hawkins has not proposed any policies to keep rates or premiums affordable.
Hawkins supported forcing the Kansas Governor to hand over Kansans’ personal SNAP records to the federal government.
Hawkins: Kansas Reflector, 9/8/2025; KSNT, 9/8/2025; Kansas Reflector, 10/31/2025; KWCH, 5/13/2025.
Quality Health Care
Dinah Sykes
Sykes has said, “It’s simple — the cost of health insurance in Kansas is simply out of control. Families and consumers can’t afford to keep up with the rise in premiums — on health care, auto, property or any other kind of insurance for that matter.” Her platform is lowering costs, consumer protection, and holding “big insurance companies accountable.”
As Senate Minority Leader, Sykes supported bills to lower the cost of prescription drugs. She said, “It is our job as legislators to serve and advocate for our constituents, not multibillion-dollar industries.”
Sykes has vowed to decline any campaign contributions from the insurance industry.
Dan Hawkins
As Speaker, Hawkins said there was “zero” chance he would support expanding affordable health coverage to more than 150,000 Kansans.
A 30-year insurance agent, Hawkins used his power as Speaker to block SB 284, a bill to lower prescription drug prices. He voted against regulating pharmacy middlemen and protecting Kansans from overpaying for prescriptions.
Hawkins has not pledged to refuse industry money.
Hawkins: kcur.org, 02/28/2024; Kansas Reflector, 4/18/2024; Kansas Reflector, 3/22/2026; Kansas Reflector, 3/25/2026; Yahoo News, 3/20/2026.