Kansas GOP needs to understand the value of representation

A few months ago, the Kansas GOP received scrutiny on a national level after a proposed By-Laws change. The change would limit the Executive Committee and State Committee to those elected from within the KSGOP, kicking out state and federally elected Republican officials and several special constituency groups from the board that oversees issues regarding budgetary decisions and party operations. This includes the chair or president of the Kansas Federation of Republican Women, Kansas Young Republicans, Kansas Chapter of the Republican National Hispanic Assembly, Kansas Black Republican Council, and Kansas Federation of College Republicans. Groups that have been part of such decision-making in the KSGOP for years.

Tomorrow, the Kansas GOP will be having a meeting, and this proposed change is not on the agenda. However, some Republicans still have concerns as these changes can still be proposed on the floor.

Should this issue be brought up, the KSGOP should realize the message of which they would be upholding should they press forward with such rule change that should already be dead in the water after the amount of backlash it has already received. That message being: The Republican Party is the party of old, white men—a narrative many Republicans have tried to pushback on, but regularly fail to prove inaccurate. However, such rule change, would uphold this narrative, and even pushback against the little progress Republicans have made in recent years as more minorities walk away from the left.

What Republicans need to understand, and indeed, the KSGOP, is that representation matters. It seems that Republicans inaccurately identify representation as being the same thing as the liberal idea of “Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion (DEI).” However, these two things are very different, and Republicans seem to be seriously running the risk of over-correcting and attacking representation, something that is a net positive for the political party.

DEI provides no standard or merit. People are able to join, not because of their skills or intelligence, but simply because of their race, or gender, or sexual orientation, or whatever. However, there is merit through representation. Remember, we’re talking about the presidents and chairs of these groups. These are the men and women who have put in the time and the effort and have been chosen by the people in their groups to represent them. Regardless of the size of the group, that is a big ask because that means that people have chosen these leaders, based on their merit and how well they believe they will be represented by their chosen leaders. Allowing such high-ranking members to be a part of the Executive Committee and State Committee shows that the KSGOP does actually want to hear from Black people, Hispanic people, women, and young people, and do care about these unique perspectives. When you get rid of them, the message becomes that the KSGOP does not care about these voices—whether that is true or not.

The KSGOP needs representation that is Black, that is Hispanic, that is woman, that is young, because without them, opposition has no reason to think differently about the party of old, white men.