Kansas State Rep Explains How a GOP 'Power Play' Convinced Her to Switch Parties
*By Christian Smith*
Kansas Rep. Stephanie Clayton is leaving the Republican Party behind after the GOP leaders in her state pulled their support for a bipartisan plan to fund the local education system in what she called a "power play" to damage the incoming Democratic governor.
"What ultimately did it for me was when party leadership decided that they wanted to completely scrap an education plan that we had all spent about two years working hard to put together," Clayton told Cheddar in an interview Thursday.
Clayton said she believes the GOP policy shift was, in fact, a political maneuver to damage incoming Democratic Gov. Laura Kelly's reputation.
"The area that I represent is an area that is very strongly supportive of education and as such, I knew that I really couldn't be in line with my party any more especially on that issue ー so I'm done," she said.
Clayton joins Kansas State Sens. Dinah Sykes and Barbara Bollier, who both officially left the Republican Party earlier this month and rebranded themselves as Democrats.
Education funding has been an intensely debated issue in Kansas politics since former Republican Gov. Sam Brownback stripped the state's education budget in 2012 as part of his tax cut experiment. Brownback believed the massive cuts would spur major economic growth in Kansas, but the state's economy eventually suffered.
Between 2013 and 2016, Kansas’ real gross domestic product only grew by 3.8 percent, while national GDP growth was nearly double that, at 7 percent, according to the [Federal Reserve Bank of St. Louis Economic Research](https://fred.stlouisfed.org/series/GDPC1).
Now Kansas is trying to put the pieces back together, working on a new education budget that right some of the wrongs of the Brownback era ー until the state's Republican leaders pulled the plug on the two-year long effort.
"They decided to scrap the whole thing as part of a power play, I assume, against our new Democratic governor," Clayton said.
Despite the decision by Clayton, Sykes, and Bollier to switch parties, Republicans still hold a supermajority in the Kansas state House and Senate.
For full interview [click here](https://cheddar.com/videos/why-one-kansas-state-representative-left-the-republican-party-behind).
Instagram CEO Adam Mosseri faced a bipartisan Congressional grilling this week as the Senate inquired about safety practices for protecting the mental wellbeing of young people on the platform. Sen. Marsha Blackburn (R-Tenn.) joined Cheddar to talk about the hearing and how she was disappointed in Instagram coming unprepared with relevant information or documents. Blackburn also offered concern that the platform could continue with building a kids-only version despite having drawn significant opposition from the public.
The Great Resignation has shown some signs of slowing in October with the number of those who quit their jobs falling by 4.7 percent to 4.16 million. This comes as worker strikes and calls for unionization ramp up. Jane Oates, president at WorkingNation joined Cheddar's "Opening Bell" to discuss the implications.
U.S. markets opened lower despite positive jobs data, which saw weekly claims drop to a 52-year low. Kevin Nicholson, Co-CIO Global Fixed Income, RiverFront Investment Group joined Cheddar's Opening Bell to discuss the labor market, inflation, and the impact of the Omicron variant on global markets.
A packed Thursday pod: Carlo and Baker cover the latest developments in the Ghislaine Maxwell, Jussie Smollett and Elizabeth Holmes trials. Plus, Dems are losing the Hispanic vote, Boris Johnson in trouble again, and is it possible that Adele has peaked?
Jim Bruderman, Vice Chairman at 1879 Advisors, joins Cheddar News' Closing Bell, where he says investors experienced a 'panic attack' last week with the spread of the Omicron variant and the Fed's tapering plans. As a result, he says we're now seeing stocks climb due to a growing comfort level toward both developments.
Adam Mosseri, head of Instagram, faced withering questions on Capitol Hill about the reports the social media app was aware of the severe mental health impacts it was having on teenage girls. Karen Kornbluh, the director of digital innovation and democracy for the German Marshall Fund, joined Cheddar to discuss the rare show of bipartisan outrage on display at the Senate hearing. "The senators came really loaded for bear on both sides of the aisle," she said. Kornbluh explained how senators like Richard Blumenthal (D-Conn.) set up fake Instagram accounts with teen girl profiles in order to research the effects firsthand.
The Biden administration will not send an official U.S. delegation to the 2022 Winter Olympics in Beijing as a statement against China's "ongoing genocide and crimes against humanity in Xinjiang." Weifeng Zhong, senior research fellow at George Mason University's Mercatus Center, joins Cheddar News to discuss the boycott.
