Kansas governor striving to fulfill campaign pledges amidst stubborn COVID-19 pandemic

TOPEKA — Under normal circumstances, Democrat Laura Kelly’s summary of her term as governor would end with discussion of stabilizing the state budget, adopting a bipartisan transportation program, improving state aid to K-12 public education, reforming the troubled foster care system and moving the ball on economic development.

The past 21 months have been anything but ordinary as the dark menace of COVID-19 that descended in March 2020 has claimed lives of nearly 7,000, seriously sickened 16,800 and infected more than half a million Kansans. The pandemic exposed rifts between Kansans who eagerly rolled up a sleeve to receive vaccinations and those adamantly opposed to government prescribed shots. It created political division and litigation on wearing masks, closure of businesses, social distancing, mass gatherings and use of billions in federal relief dollars funneled to Kansas.

Kelly, who faces reelection in November 2022, said the role of a governor in these times was to juggle day-to-day decisions regarding COVID-19, for which she garnered praise and condemnation, and remain vigilant with fundamentals of running state government.

“There’s no doubt that COVID has really consumed a lot of focus, a lot of energy,” Kelly said in a Kansas Reflector interview. “Not just on the administration’s part, but the entire state. Every single citizen in the state of Kansas has been really impacted by this in some way, shape or form. Some people financially. Some people, obviously, health-wise. And, certainly, psychologically. It’s been a grueling time.”

Read more: https://kansasreflector.com/2021/12/27/kansas-governor-striving-to-fulfill-campaign-pledges-amidst-stubborn-covid-19-pandemic/