Eudora ? Republican U.S. Rep. Lynn Jenkins portrayed herself Sunday as a bipartisan leader in Congress who can work across party lines. Meanwhile, her Democratic challenger, Margie Wakefield, accused Jenkins of being a source of the partisan gridlock in Washington.

But perhaps the biggest surprise in the 2nd District congressional debate at Eudora Middle School was Libertarian candidate Christopher Clemmons, who drew applause from both Democrats and Republicans with a stinging attack against the high cost of higher education and student loans.

For nearly an hour, the three candidates answered questions on topics ranging from the Affordable Care Act, agriculture and the war on terror, as well as their basic philosophies on government.

“Washington is gridlocked because people are refusing to sit down and have conversations,” Jenkins said in her opening remarks. “I have always remained open to the best ideas of others, regardless of their political party. Due to that approach, most of the legislation I have introduced this Congress has garnered bipartisan support.”

Later in the debate, though, Wakefield claimed that in Jenkins’ six years in Congress, she had only gotten eight bills out of committee and five bills passed by the House, none of which ever became law.

“Certainly there’s a lot of blame to go around in Washington,” Wakefield said. “But she’s a leader of the gridlock and the obstruction in Congress, and she’s not taking one ounce of responsibility for it.”

When asked about agriculture policy, Jenkins touted her background growing up on a farm, milking goats and farrowing hogs. She also noted that she’s been endorsed by the Kansas Farm Bureau.

“You don’t learn agriculture by a briefer or listening to the Democrats’ complaints,” Jenkins said. “How you learn agriculture is you live it, you breath it, and then you go out and fight for it.”

Wakefield shot back: “I don’t need to know how to slop pigs today in order to be able to advocate. That’s what we need in Washington.”

Wakefield criticized Jenkins for voting against the 2014 Farm Bill, saying that bill was important for farmers so they could make planting decisions for the future. Jenkins said she believed the bill was flawed because it didn’t address such issues as country-of-origin labeling or issues surrounding the Packers and Stockyards Act, which regulates livestock markets.

Clemmons said he thinks the biggest problems in Kansas agriculture are the depletion of soil and water resources, including the Ogallala Aquifer, which he blamed on crop subsidies that provide incentives to grow water-intensive crops in the semi-arid climate of Western Kansas.

“Farm subsidies are killing our agriculture,” he said. “We should be growing things like hemp and wheat, the things we have been growing in this state for hundreds of years.”

Both Jenkins and Wakefield said they support current military operations targeting the Islamic State terrorist group in Iraq and Syria. Jenkins, however, accused President Barack Obama of not having a comprehensive strategy to win the conflict, and Wakefield criticized Congress for being on vacation for re-election campaigns instead of working on the issue in Washington.

Clemmons said he believes the operations are unconstitutional.

The debate in the Eudora Middle School auditorium drew about 300 people, the vast majority of whom appeared to be Wakefield supporters. But it was Clemmons who drew the biggest applause from both Republicans and Democrats when he used his closing remarks to talk about an issue that hadn’t come up in the debate, the high cost of higher education.

“I just paid $25,000 for my master’s,” said Clemmons, a science teacher in Kansas City. “That’s something I probably will never pay off in my lifetime on a teacher’s salary. And that is how hundreds and thousands of citizens in this country are going to live the rest of their lives, as wage slaves trying to pay off the debt that they took on to try to make a better future for themselves.”