In first listening tour since Lawrence became part of Big First, Rep. Mann makes clear he differs with locals on several issues

photo by: Chad Lawhorn/Journal-World

Congressman Tracey Mann, R-Salina, speaks to a member of the audience before the start of a listening session on Monday, Feb. 6, 2023, at the Lawrence Public Library.

The Big First — the nickname for Kansas’ 1st Congressional District — has a big divide, and it was on full display at the Lawrence Public Library Monday morning.

U.S. Congressman Tracey Mann, R-Salina, was in town for his first public listening session since Lawrence, a Democratic stronghold, became part of the sprawling western Kansas district, which is one of the more conservative in the country.

The session produced a frequent phrase from Mann, who took questions from a crowd numbering a little more than 100 people for an 8:30 a.m. event at the library. The phrase: “I know you may not agree …”

With that, Mann — who in November won his second term in Congress with nearly 70% of the vote — straightforwardly spelled out his beliefs on several topics that generally don’t trend well in Lawrence or other Democratic districts.

On LGBTQ rights, Mann acknowledged, he had “lots of problems” with several federal bills on the topic, and voted against all of them. “I realize you all may agree or disagree on this, but I believe marriage is between one man and one woman,” Mann told the crowd. “That’s what I believe, and I’ve always believed that way.”

On the issue of abortion, Mann told the crowd he “believes strongly” that life begins at conception. He then told the crowd that his beliefs became stronger as he and his wife had a series of miscarriages early in their marriage. “If this is only tissue, why does it hurt so bad?” Mann said of his thoughts during that time.

On the issue of gun violence, Mann said he didn’t think limiting guns would do much to solve the problem, but said he does “have a lot of concerns with violent video games.” In a separate question about guns, Mann said the Second Amendment is a “load-bearing wall in our Constitution,” and that he feared if the Second Amendment was eliminated or altered that the entire Constitution would be at risk of collapse.

On the issue of the legalization of marijuana, Mann said he had never been supportive of legalization and that he had been clear on that position for a long time. When some members of the crowd shouted out that the majority of people support legalization, Mann calmly responded, “I don’t believe the majority of constituents in the 1st District support it.”

When further pressed, Mann said he hadn’t done any formal polling on the issue in the district.

But November’s election results — the first that included Lawrence in the district — made it clear just because something is believed in Lawrence doesn’t mean it is believed elsewhere in the 1st District. It also made clear that Mann has a wide path to electoral success without winning many votes in Lawrence. As the Journal-World reported in an analysis shortly after the election, every voter in Lawrence, the most populous city in the 1st District, could have voted for Mann’s Democratic opponent and Mann still would have won the election by 75,000 votes. In reality, Mann won by more than 83,000 votes with about 75% of Lawrence voters casting a ballot against him.

The district stretches to the Kansas-Colorado border and includes Goodland, Liberal, Hays, Dodge City, Hutchinson, Salina, Manhattan and other cities. The Kansas Legislature during last year’s session drew the map to include Lawrence in the 1st District, but left much of Douglas County in the 2nd Congressional District, which sparked cries of gerrymandering from several local leaders. However, no legal challenge to the map was ever successful.

photo by: Kansas Secretary of State

A map showing that Douglas County was the only county in the 1st Congressional District to vote for the Democrat in the November 2022 election.

Despite the numbers already being in Mann’s favor, State Rep. Christina Haswood, D-Lawrence, who attended Monday’s listening session, said she hoped Mann’s office would undertake efforts to better understand Lawrence voters and the community.

“We heard the crowd say ‘give reasons, one or two or three,’ and they were quite brushed off,” Haswood said of several exchanges between Mann and the crowd. “It sounds like there is a lot more community-building that needs to happen, some grassroots building and just some good, old Lawrence ways of how we build ourselves as a community and stay connected.”

Mann told the crowd he had made several connections with Lawrence officials, including meeting several times with KU Chancellor Douglas Girod, and Mann also has met with chamber of commerce officials and others, he said.

Mann did receive questions from the crowd on several topics that are likely to be taken up by Congress and the newly Republican-controlled House of Representatives, where Mann serves on the committees related to agriculture, small business and infrastructure and transportation. Among the other issues he addressed were:

• Social Security and Medicare: He said he “would strongly oppose” any cuts to Social Security and Medicare programs, but then added that he might be open to some changes, including privatization options that would not take effect for many years so that no one who currently is counting on the program in the near term would be affected.

• Debt ceiling: He said there is not an appetite or desire in Republican ranks to have the U.S. default on its debt, which is a possibility if Congress and the White House don’t reach agreement on the debt ceiling by this summer. But Mann said it is critical that the country “take stock” of its spending, but “I do not think we will default, and I would not be in support of default in any way.”

• The Farm Bill: Mann said his top priority for the large bill, which comes around every five years, would be to protect the crop insurance programs that many Kansas farmers rely upon. He said he also wants to ensure that the government has adequate resources to promote the opening of new international markets for U.S. agriculture products.

• Transportation: Mann was noncommittal about whether he would support the expansion of passenger rail service in the U.S., but said he expected it to be a frequent topic on the House Transportation and Infrastructure Committee that he serves on. He also said he expected to support some projects in the Lawrence area related to the Panasonic battery plant in nearby De Soto. He said servicing the traffic around that plant, which is expected to create 4,000 jobs, would be of “upmost importance.”

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