Governors Should Be the Face of the Democratic Party

Opinion|Governors Should Be the Face of the Democratic Party

Laura Kelly, the Democratic governor of Kansas, jump-started a recent Tuesday afternoon with a crash course in heavy-duty tires — for tractors, for semis, for Humvees, tires that top six feet and weigh 13,000 pounds.

At the Goodyear distribution center in Topeka, Ms. Kelly received a mini-tour from a gaggle of large men decked out in black golf shirts and khakis. Diminutive and crisp in a navy sweater and slacks and sensible black pumps, the governor looked out of place yet totally at ease as she admired the next generation of M.R.T.s. (That’s medium radial truck tires.)

Ms. Kelly is, by now, a pro at these kinds of visits, visual manifestations of her administration’s impressive record of economic development. Focusing on the economy is how she won the governorship for the first time in 2018, and it has defined her two terms. Under her leadership, Kansas, a deep red state that President Trump won by 16 percentage points last year, has gone from a fiscal disaster — the casualty of blunt-force tax slashing by her predecessor Sam Brownback — to winning national kudos for its comeback. Capital and jobs have flowed in. In 2021 and 2022, Kansas had the most private business investment per capita of any state. In 2020, Ms. Kelly signed a 10-year state transportation infrastructure plan.

The education system, which the Kansas Supreme Court ruled was unconstitutionally underfunded, has been fully funded for seven years running. And she achieved all this while contending with a Republican-dominated State Legislature.