Thomas Palenske

Strongly Agree

Taxpayers should not be compelled to financially support organizations that perform or promote elective abortions. Public funds should instead support women, children, maternal healthcare, adoption services, pregnancy resource centers, and other providers that protect both mothers and unborn children.

I believe every human life has inherent dignity and deserves protection, including the unborn. Elective abortion should not be permitted as a matter of convenience or birth control. Kansas law should protect unborn children while ensuring that physicians can provide necessary medical care when a mother’s life is genuinely at risk. We should also do far more to support women facing difficult pregnancies, including adoption, maternal healthcare, and practical assistance.

Strongly Agree

I believe human life begins at conception and that every human life has inherent dignity and value. Our laws should protect the most vulnerable among us, including the unborn, while also protecting mothers and ensuring access to necessary medical care when a mother’s life is genuinely at risk. A culture that values life should also support mothers, children, families, adoption, and those facing difficult circumstances.

Strongly Agree

Human life deserves dignity and protection regardless of how it was conceived. I support IVF and the families who rely on fertility treatments to have children, while also believing that human embryos should be treated with respect and protected from intentional destruction. We can protect access to IVF while encouraging medical practices that respect both parents and the human lives they hope to bring into their families.

Strongly Agree

Federal laws duly enacted by Congress should be enforced. I support enforcing the Comstock Act consistent with its text, constitutional requirements, and controlling court decisions. Abortion-inducing drugs should not be distributed in violation of federal or state law, and federal agencies should not selectively disregard laws simply because an administration disagrees with the policy behind them.

I support a competitive, market-driven economy where wages rise because businesses grow and workers are in demand. Government should not price entry-level workers out of jobs. My focus is lower taxes, fewer barriers and a strong economy that creates.

Strongly Agree

Free enterprise and private property are foundations of American prosperity and individual liberty. Government should protect property rights, enforce contracts, maintain fair rules and then get out of the way. Entrepreneurs, workers and businesses create prosperity, not government. Kansas succeeds when we make it easier to invest, build, hire and grow.

1. Require every agency to justify spending from the ground up, not simply build on last year’s budget. 2. Eliminate duplicative programs and administrative bureaucracy. 3. Audit contracts, grants and incentive programs for measurable results. 4. Modernize government technology and procurement. 5. Sunset programs that cannot demonstrate value to taxpayers. Every tax dollar should have a purpose, an outcome and accountability.

“Separation of church and state” means government may neither establish a religion nor prohibit its free exercise. It does not mean separating faith from public life. Americans do not surrender their religious liberty when they enter a school, workplace or public office. Government should protect every citizen’s right to worship, speak, pray and live according to conscience, while never compelling anyone to practice a particular faith.

Strongly Disagree

Religious liberty means more than the freedom to worship on Sunday. Government should not compel Americans to speak, create, or participate in activities that violate their sincerely held religious beliefs. At the same time, every person deserves dignity and equal treatment under the law. We can protect both religious liberty and the rights of our fellow citizens.

C. Medicare and Medicaid should remain available for those who rely on them. Beyond that, I favor patient choice, competition, price transparency and private-sector solutions that lower costs and expand access. Government should protect the vulnerable and address market failures, not replace our healthcare system with a one-size-fits-all government program.

Strongly Disagree

Government can study healthcare costs using anonymized data without creating a database identifying citizens by their medical conditions. Americans should not have to surrender their medical privacy simply because they become ill. Personal health information belongs to patients and should receive strong protection from unnecessary government collection, surveillance, and misuse.

Strongly Agree

The Chinese Communist Party is our most consequential long-term strategic threat. Its military expansion, cyber operations, theft of intellectual property and efforts to dominate critical supply chains threaten American security and prosperity. We need strength, not isolation: rebuild our defense industrial base, secure critical infrastructure, protect American technology and reduce dangerous dependencies on China.

Yes. Israel is a vital American ally in one of the world’s most strategically important regions. Our partnership strengthens intelligence sharing, missile defense, counterterrorism, military technology and regional deterrence. Standing with Israel also sends a clear message that America stands by its allies. Our support should advance both Israel’s security and America’s national interests while promoting lasting regional peace.

Strongly Disagree

America is a nation of immigrants, but we are also a nation of laws. Cities should not adopt policies designed to obstruct lawful immigration enforcement or shield individuals from federal law. State and local governments should cooperate appropriately with federal authorities, particularly when public safety is involved. We can secure our borders, enforce our laws and still welcome those who come to America legally.

Strongly Agree

Education decisions belong as close to students as possible, with parents, teachers, local communities and states, not Washington bureaucrats. I support returning federal education authority to the states while protecting appropriate funding commitments. Kansas parents and educators understand the needs of Kansas students better than Washington does. Our focus should be academic excellence, accountability and preparing every student for success.

Agree

American education should never be bought or influenced by foreign governments. We should prohibit funding that creates foreign control, compromises research, threatens national security or hides its source. All foreign funding should be fully transparent, and funding from hostile governments for sensitive research or programs should be prohibited.

Strongly Agree

Parents, not government, have the primary responsibility and right to direct the upbringing, education and healthcare of their children. Schools and government should be partners with parents, never substitutes for them. Parents deserve transparency, meaningful involvement and a voice in decisions affecting their children, while government retains its responsibility to protect children from abuse and neglect.

Agree

Children deserve protection from irreversible medical decisions they are not mature enough to fully understand. I oppose sex-change surgeries and other irreversible gender-transition procedures for minors. Parents must also be fully informed and involved when schools address a child’s gender identity. Every child deserves compassion and respect, but protecting children must come before political or ideological agendas.

Agree

I believe marriage was ordained by God as the union of one man and one woman, and government should respect and protect the religious freedom of Americans who hold that belief. At the same time, as a legislator I have a duty to uphold the Constitution and the law. No American should be denied equal protection, nor should government compel anyone to abandon sincerely held religious beliefs.

Disagree

Kansas already permits significant forms of gambling, including casinos, the lottery and sports wagering. I do not support expanding gambling simply to generate more government revenue. Any proposal should be judged on its economic benefits, costs to families and communities, enforcement requirements and impact on problem gambling. Major expansions should have clear public support and strong safeguards.

I am a Christian, and my faith is the foundation of how I try to live, lead and serve. I believe in God, the teachings of Jesus Christ, the sanctity of human life, the importance of family, and treating every person with dignity. More than three decades of military service taught me that faith is not simply something we profess. It should be reflected in how we live, especially through integrity, humility, courage, forgiveness and service to others. I will never claim to be perfect, but I strive to live by those values and to remember that public office is a responsibility to serve, not an entitlement to power.

Strongly Disagree

Voting is a fundamental right, and protecting the integrity of our elections is essential to maintaining public trust. Requiring identification is a reasonable safeguard to verify that every lawful vote is cast by the person entitled to cast it. Government should also ensure that every eligible citizen can obtain acceptable identification easily and at no cost, so election security never becomes an unnecessary barrier to voting.

Strongly Disagree

America must honestly acknowledge the terrible injustice of slavery and racial discrimination and continue working to ensure equal opportunity for every citizen. But government should not assign benefits or burdens to people based on race. I oppose race-based reparations. Our laws should treat Americans as individuals, guarantee equal protection, and expand opportunity based on need and merit rather than ancestry or skin color.

Strongly Agree

Women and girls deserve fairness in athletics, privacy and safety in intimate spaces. Sex-based protections exist for legitimate reasons and should not be erased. I support preserving women’s sports for female athletes and maintaining appropriate sex-based protections in locker rooms, shelters, correctional facilities and other sensitive settings. Every person should be treated with dignity and respect while we protect the rights of women and girls.

Disagree

Climate change is real and human activity contributes to it, but that does not justify every costly government mandate proposed in its name. I support practical, science-based solutions that protect our environment while keeping energy reliable and affordable. Kansas should pursue an all-of-the-above strategy, including nuclear, natural gas and renewables, while encouraging innovation rather than imposing policies that raise costs on families and businesses.

Nuclear power offers the most reliable long-term source of clean baseload electricity, backed by natural gas for flexible generation. Kansas should pursue an all-of-the-above strategy that also uses wind and solar where they are economical and reliab

Conservative

I am a conservative grounded in faith, constitutional principles, individual liberty, limited government, free enterprise, strong families and a strong national defense. But conservatism also means governing effectively. I believe in solving problems, protecting taxpayers and individual rights, and judging policies by whether they actually work, not simply by whether they satisfy an ideological label.

No.

No.

The first goal of the criminal justice system is to protect the public and uphold the rule of law. It must hold offenders accountable, deliver justice for victims and ensure due process for the accused. Punishment should fit the crime. For those who can be rehabilitated, the system should also reduce repeat offenses and provide a path back to becoming productive, law-abiding citizens.

Strongly Agree

Protecting children from sexual exploitation is a fundamental responsibility of government and law enforcement. We should aggressively pursue predators, traffickers and those who create or distribute child sexual abuse material, while holding online platforms accountable when they knowingly facilitate exploitation. We can protect children without sacrificing the privacy and constitutional rights of law-abiding Americans.

Strongly Agree

The Constitution and laws enacted under it are the supreme law of our nation. No religious legal system, including Sharia law, should supersede American constitutional law or the individual rights it protects. At the same time, the First Amendment guarantees Muslims, Christians, Jews and Americans of every faith the right to freely practice their religion. We can defend both the rule of law and religious liberty without compromising either.

The Second Amendment protects an individual constitutional right, not a privilege granted by government. Law-abiding citizens should not lose that right because criminals misuse firearms. Public safety is best served by enforcing existing laws, keeping firearms from violent felons and others lawfully prohibited from possessing them, prosecuting gun crimes, and addressing violent crime directly. I oppose bans on commonly owned firearms.