"Focus Is on Affordability": Cindy Holscher, Kansas Dem Nominee for Gov, on Data Center Fight & More

Guests - Cindy HolscherKansas state senator and Democratic nominee for governor. Kansas state Senator Cindy Holscher won Tuesday’s primary race to become the Democratic nominee in the state’s gubernatorial race, facing Republican Ty Masterson in November. Holscher clinched the nomination over fellow state lawmaker Ethan Corson, who was backed by the outgoing Democratic Kansas Governor Laura Kelly. Holscher’s victory is seen as another resounding defeat for establishment Democrats in Kansas and nationwide. The fight over data centers became a defining issue in the Kansas race. “We see [data centers] suck up the resources in terms of water. We see energy usage causing utility bills to skyrocket. So, certainly not things that you want to have happen during an affordability crisis,” Holscher tells Democracy Now! Holscher also celebrates the defeat of a ballot measure to change how state Supreme Court justices are elected, which she calls a “backdoor attempt” to attack abortion rights, voting access and public education. Transcript AMY GOODMAN: This is Democracy Now!, democracynow.org. I’m Amy Goodman, with Juan González, as we turn to Kansas, where state Senator Cindy Holscher Tuesday won the primary to be the Democratic nominee for governor. She defeated state Senator Ethan Corson, who was backed by the outgoing Democratic Kansas Governor Laura Kelly. Overland Park Mayor Curt Skoog was also in the race. Holscher’s victory is seen as a defeat for establishment Democrats in the state. She’ll now face the Republican Ty Masterson in November. Ty is the president of the Kansas state Senate and has been endorsed by President Trump. The fight over data centers became a defining issue of the Kansas race. This is state Senator Holscher and opponent state Senator Corson in a debate last month hosted by PBS Kansas. SEN. ETHAN CORSON: With respect to data centers, Senator Holscher also continues to deliberately mislead you by not telling you that she voted for an incentive program to attract data centers to this state. SEN. CINDY HOLSCHER: Things look a lot different a year after a bill was brought forward last year, and I have heard from the people. I’m not going to dig in on a bad vote. I’m going to listen to the people. I’m going to listen to the experts. We have to have guardrails in place to protect our resources and our communities. AMY GOODMAN: For more, we go to Overland Park, Kansas, where we’re joined by state Senator Cindy Holscher, the Democratic nominee for governor, who’s proposed a statewide moratorium for new data centers. Congratulations on your victory on Tuesday, state Senator and gubernatorial nominee. Can you explain your platform? And start with something that’s become clear from polls across the country, among Democrats and Republicans, the nationwide opposition to these AI data centers. SEN. CINDY HOLSCHER: Yeah. Thank you so much, Amy, for having me. It’s great to be here. And yeah, exactly, there’s nationwide opposition to these new data centers, talking about the hyperscale versions that have been coming into states all across the nation. So, in terms of my platform, you know, the main focus really is on affordability, in terms of addressing lack of access to affordable healthcare, childcare and housing, addressing our high property taxes and making sure our schools are funded. But the data centers do come into play here in terms of affordability, because what we’ve seen happen across the nation as some of these facilities come into communities, we see they suck up the resources in terms of water. We see energy usage causing utility bills to skyrocket. So, certainly not things that you want to have happen during an affordability crisis anyway, that you wouldn’t want to have happen on any given day, but, like I said, during an affordability crisis, even more of a concern. So, what we’ve seen across Kansas, similar to what we’ve seen across the nation, is just this huge pushing back by communities. And I really noticed it, well, like this February and March as I was doing town halls across the state, that the opposition, quite adamant that they want to ensure guardrails are in place to prevent the exploitation of resources and people, is really what it comes down to. JUAN GONZÁLEZ: And, Senator, I wanted to ask you on your position on immigration. The for-profit prison company CoreCivic has announced the sale of its Leavenworth prison to ICE, likely negating months of legal battles by city officials to ensure humane treatment of immigrants detained there. Could you talk about that situation and your position on the administration’s continued raids on immigrants? SEN. CINDY HOLSCHER: Well, I’ve been part of that battle and was part of the battle pushing back against the reopening of that facility in Leavenworth. And, you know, that was over a year in terms of the community pushing back and faith leaders pushing back, and I joined with them at council meetings and in Topeka, too, to protest and to push back. And, you know, what we saw happen there was really, you know, the result of CoreCivic putting immense pressure on the community and threatening to sue, and basically threatening to bankrupt the city in terms of the time frame that it would take for — you know, for them to really get what they wanted there in terms of all the pressure they were putting on the community. It’s been an issue here in terms of the raids we’ve seen. Even though it’s Kansas and people may think there’s not much happening here in terms of ICE, we’re seeing that we’re seeing raids carried out in several communities across the state. I actually joined in — several weeks ago, there was the threat of a raid at a Boys and Girls Club here close to my community. I joined with neighbors and stood outside that facility for three hours as a human deterrent to ensure that nothing would happen there. And here’s the thing: I’m going to push back against the policies that Trump is pushing. I’m going to push back against the horrible policies that we’re seeing to give ICE more power. But I’m going to pull every lever as governor to protect our neighbors. What we’ve seen here, Trump and ICE, they are overstepping their boundaries. And it’s just wrong, what we’re seeing happen in our communities. And people are voicing concern. And I think — I think several months ago, we heard people say things like, “Oh, it’s not going to happen here,” and they weren’t very worried about. But now that they’ve seen these raids in their communities, it’s really been an eye-opener. AMY GOODMAN: Let me ask you about the Kansas voters rejecting a Republican-backed ballot measure that could have made it easier to ban abortion in the future, though abortion did not appear on the ballot. The measure was about making members of the state Supreme Court electable by popular vote. Can you talk about how this seemingly technical issue became a proxy battle for the future of abortion rights in Kansas? SEN. CINDY HOLSCHER: Certainly. Well, we know this. We had the vote in August of 2022 in terms of access to reproductive healthcare, when the GOP was making an attempt to outlaw abortion here. So, that was a big attempt on their part. That fell; it was defeated. I believe 60-40 was the vote. And so, what we’ve seen since then is the continuation of this push to try to eliminate access to reproductive healthcare here in Kansas. So, this was the latest round or the latest version of that attack. And with this particular amendment, you’re right. It was in regard to changing the way Supreme Court justices are selected, because, essentially, what the GOP figured is they can find ways to buy those positions if it’s an election process, similar to what we’ve seen in terms of MAGA extremists taking over our Legislature. What we’ve seen is a large amount of money poured into these elections. So, essentially, that’s what they were hoping for: make it into an election system, where Elon Musk or whoever else can come help buy these positions and then get the laws changed. So, this was very much about abortion access, but also voting rights, as well as funding of our schools, because those are three agenda items that the GOP has not been able to fulfill over the past few years. So, again, this was an attempt to try to check the boxes on those three items through a different kind of backdoor attempt. JUAN GONZÁLEZ: And, Senator, Kansas was among four Midwestern states, along with Illinois, Michigan and Wisconsin, that in 2018 flipped their governorships to Democrats. But now this time around, the state is considered the most difficult electoral fight for Democrats to hold. What’s your sense of when Kansas was under complete Republican rule, in the Senate, House and the Governor’s Office? SEN. CINDY HOLSCHER: Well, the fact of the matter is, right now we have a supermajority in the Legislature, which — of GOP extremists. And, I mean, you know, we have an affordability crisis, and we have people who are struggling out there, yet we aren’t seeing those issues addressed. What we’ve seen in just this past session was two Charlie Kirk bills and a bathroom bill. I mean, that’s not putting money in people’s pockets. So, we have a Legislature, again, dominated by MAGA extremists that is not addressing the needs of the people. So, what we’ve seen, too, is, again, this affordability crisis. As Kansas was looking at these issues and the Legislature was seeing what was going on, their response has been continued giveaways to billionaires and corporations, which leaves regular people behind. And so, when you hear people say, “The system’s being rigged against us,” yes, because, again, we’ve seen this just replaying of big giveaways, tax breaks for the wealthy, and, again, leaving regular folks behind. AMY GOODMAN: Kansas state Senator Cindy Holscher Tuesday won the Democratic primary race. She is now the Democratic nominee for governor of Kansas. Coming up, we’ll speak to the Democratic nominee for Senate in Michigan, Dr. Abdul El-Sayed. But first, playwright César Alvarez will be with us to talk about The Potluck, their musical about the 1979 Greensboro Massacre, in which five people were killed by the Ku Klux Klan. César was named after two of the victims. [break] AMY GOODMAN: “Mandela” from César Alvarez’s play The Potluck. Media Options