Olivia Hayse the Libertarian candidate running for the Sedgwick County Commissioner’s seat in Kansas in the November 3 midterms. Ahead of the elections, she spoke exclusively with HT.com about the issues in the county and the need for different voices in politics.
Hayse has been a Libertarian for a long time, she shared, but has not always helped the party out. Now, a part of the national committee she’s had a learning curve, but is ready to give the upcoming elections her best. Hayse is in a two-way race against Republican Jim Howell, and when asked about her chances against the seasoned politician, the Libertarian candidate exuded confidence.
Also Read | What happened to James Talarico? Texas Senate hopeful returns to campaign trail after lengthy absence
She shared that she’s lived in Howell’s district for a very long time and served on his citizen advisory board, giving her an insight into how her political opponent works and governs. “I feel like I have a pretty good chance, I have a lot of Dem [Democrat] support, and obviously Libertarian and Independent support,” Hayse said, adding “even some Republicans” had recently approached and told her they were ‘tired of being single issue candidates’.
“They want to focus on local economy and giving me a chance,” Hayse added, expressing belief that she could pull support ‘from all sides’. “I feel pretty good about it,” Hayse remarked.
Hayse on issues at the county level
The Libertarian candidate added that taxes was an issue at the ground level and they were constantly rising. “Some of that is because of inflation,” Hayse admitted, adding that some was because the ‘state is actively doing things that are not helping’. She added that there were some areas of improvement while noting that the county officers were doing a decent job.
Hayse pointed to what she called ‘low hanging fruit’ like the salaries in the county commission, which she said didn’t need to ‘be that high’. For reference, Hayse noted that the Kansas county commissioners make over $100,000 a year. She also flagged a $12-13 million payment made to Wichita State University, which was supposed to be a ‘burden’ of the city, but the ‘county took it over’.
“Things like that which are not helping citizens and are not directly linked to relief,” are what she would look at if she won the county seat, Hayse noted. The Libertarian also spoke out strongly in favor of immigrants, with her family having come from Mexico.
Slamming the ICE actions in the state, Hayse said that there was a ‘legitimate fear’ among people due to the federal agency’s actions in Kansas. While earlier, the biggest issues were having programs culturally available for citizens, the situation has now changed. “People are not wanting to go to the grocery store, to their favorite restaurants, because of the ICE presence,” Hayse said. The Libertarian candidate explained how she’s seen low attendance at events that she’s been a part of as well.
While Hayse noted that people in rural areas are standing up against ICE actions, the Libertarian expressed belief that it would need ‘leadership standing up as well’ for any real change to come throughOli.
Olivia Hayse: ‘Kansas is very Libertarian’
She added that some of the issues likely to be on people’s minds is spending, and the political back and forth that has been going on between parties. “They’re tired of this team and that team, and they’re tired of the most extreme options,” Hayse said, adding “Especially in Kansas, there is a want of leaders that will collaborate and communicate.”
“Kansas is very Libertarian,” Hayse declared. She explained that this was because the state had people who wanted to ‘raise their families, do a good job at their careers, they don’t want to hurt other people, and they also want to be left alone’.
“We can go back to a much more collaborative space,” Hayse again asserted. The Libertarian candidate is however under no delusions. She explained as someone living in the Bible belt she expected the Republicans to have a majority in her state, but all she wanted to prevent was a ‘supermajority’ so there would be some ‘diversity in opinion’.
“The county commission I am running for, all five are Republican, and whether you like that party or that is your party, that’s not a representative government,” Hayse said. She shared that one Libertarian among four-five Republicans would be there for some checks and balances, which is what she intended to do, if elected.
Signing off, Hayse said that in the final stretch ahead of the elections, she was still seeing a lot of undecided voters. She conveyed the message that there was ‘nothing to lose’.
“We have nothing to lose by taking a chance and getting some of these career politicians…they’ve obviously failed us,” Hayse said. She added it might feel ‘risky’ to people to vote Libertarian and responded to criticisms of her alleged lack of political experience. Hayse noted she’s been a political organized for some time, just not been in elected office, but felt the skills were transferable.
“It’s okay to take a chance,” Hayse said “and now is a good time to see if we can improve our lives a little bit.” She added “Any Republican we can unseat will be better for the state, if for no other reason than we go back to collaborating, we go back to true representation…At least if we can have a more even split of representation across the entire state, that’d be good.”
