Trump heads to Kansas amid farmers

Economic pressures reach farms

For Glenn Brunkow, a fifth-generation Kansas farmer, autumn is a demanding season of harvesting, moving crops and shifting livestock to winter pastures. He said pressures were coming from many directions.

Frustration carries political weight

Trump is traveling to Kansas before visiting Iowa later in the week, seeking to energize his supporters in the run-up to the midterm elections. Republicans are directing substantial funding toward Senate races in Kansas, Nebraska and Iowa amid concerns about voter engagement.

Brunkow, whose Kansas Farm Bureau endorsed Marshall, said financial hardship may dampen agricultural producers’ enthusiasm for voting, though he did not think it necessarily would make them vote Democratic. Western Kansas rancher Don Hineman said frustration is growing among Republican voters, including some who have backed Trump in multiple elections.

Kansas voters weigh their choices

Nortonville resident Debbie Geneva, 61, said Hamilton’s visit to a local market impressed her, and she remains undecided despite never having voted for a Democrat. Hineman said the traditional Republican warning that Democrats would empower the party’s liberal wing is losing force for some voters, including him.