15-03-2025
Maggie Ballard goes to Washington and cold-shoulders MAGA Sen. Roger Marshall in photo op
The coolest thing that happened around here this past week didn't happen here, and it wasn't really a thing, it was more of an image.
The Wichita City Council spent most of the week on its annual trip to Washington, D.C., where members participate in a National League of Cities conference and ritual glad-handing with our representatives and senators on Capitol Hill.
But the grip-and-grin photo op featuring the Wichita City Council posing with U.S. Sen. Roger Marshall was more like a grip-and-grimace for council member Maggie Ballard.
Ballard practiced some, shall we say, 'social distancing' from the pro-MAGA senator, who recently starred in a viral video where he stalked out of his own town hall meeting in Northwest Nowhere Kansas, when the crowd got a little testy over the Trump administration's ongoing dismantlement of the federal government.
Ballard's distance from Marshall, and the gap between her and the rest of the council, was so large that she was almost out of the frame.
And lest anyone may have thought that was accidental, she later posted the picture on Facebook with the caption: 'How do you say you don't want to be in the picture with Senator Marshall without saying you don't want to be in the picture?'
Along with it, she posted a selfie wearing 'my new lapel pin for DC.'
It's an alligator embossed with the message 'EAT RACISTS.'
City Hall posted the Marshall picture on its Facebook page, along with another picture of the council members with Kansas' other senator, Jerry Moran — a conservative Republican, but one who has criticized some of the more excessive excesses of the Trump administration.
The difference is striking. In the Moran picture, all six council members and Mayor Lily Wu are smiling like it's spring break. In the Marshall shot, council member Brandon Johnson is almost as grim-faced as Ballard and Mike Hoheisel is trying his best to look neutral.
In the comments on Facebook, hilarity ensued.
'Marshal didn't run out of the room?'
'Oh look he was finally in a room with people who are from Kansas. Let me guess, no questions?'
'Where did they park the Weenie Mobile?'
'Why are we flying them to DC? Marshall and Moran allegedly live in Kansas.'
'Name 5 things accomplished by your trip:'
'Team Koch earning their donations?'
'Glad the council was able to take a trip without getting into another bar fight.'
'Omg ! Maggie . I almost peed a little.'
It went on like that for some time, but you get the drift.
There are a lot of people angry with Marshall right now, and not just over the disastrous town hall.
His no-questions-asked devotion to the MAGA agenda has irritated a wide range of Kansans, including:
▪ Farmers being whipsawed by on-again-off-again tariffs disrupting their markets and business plans.
▪ Family and friends of federal workers who were summarily fired for being federal workers.
▪ Supporters of nonprofit groups that are being stripped of federal contracts and funding.
▪ Minorities in the crosshairs of the administration's anti-DEI campaign to rid the nation of diversity, equity and inclusion.
Marshall's up for reelection next year and if he decides to run again, he's vulnerable.
This is a deep-red state where the default vote is always Republican. But it's made up of reasonably independent people who've shown that they can break with the GOP on statewide elections, most recently electing Laura Kelly as governor and rejecting the anti-abortion rights amendment called Value them Both.
Democrats could steal Marshall's Senate seat if they can find the right candidate.
They could do worse than Maggie Ballard.
Senator Marshall, you're no Dwight Eisenhower. And neither is Donald Trump | Opinion
Does Sen. Roger Marshall even know what a town hall meeting is? | Opinion
