Joy Eakins discusses her run for the governor's office
TOPEKA, Kan. (KAKE) — "I think that Kansas needs a comeback, and I think I'm the leader to bring it for us," said Joy Eakins, the latest Kansan to seek the Republican nomination for Governor.
Eakins is a familiar face, at least to Wichita area parents. She spent several years on the Wichita School Board.
She announced her bid for governor with an online video. In it, she blamed current politicians, in part, for the current problems she sees in Kansas.
She's leaning into the fact that she's not only a Washington outsider, but a Topeka outsider. When KAKE News sat down with her, we asked why she was running when she faced an uphill battle, given how few voters outside the Wichita area knew who she was right now.
She said, Kansas is filled with great people who just need a chance, she wants to give them.
"This amazing group of people are having to leave the state because they can't find opportunity here, and so we're losing our best asset. And when I look at that, and I look at the reasons why I think we we have to turn this around and change it, or we're going to lose who we are as a state. So, that's why I jumped in the race," she said.
Unsurprisingly, education plays a large role in her priorities for the office.
"We are spending a lot of money on education. I've spent a lot of time in education, as you know, on the Wichita School Board, and we're spending a lot of money, but our outcomes are getting worse and worse," she said. "And so we have to turn that around, and we have to give parents a voice in that, I think, with some school choice options for parents."
Eakins points to Denver as an example of a liberal district that was able to institute school choice and improve outcomes across the board.
But she's talking about a lot more, including concerns about a coming financial cliff for Kansas, the continued departure from the state of young, bright families, and the need for better options for both affordable and appropriate housing for different communities.
Eakins says she feels Kansas is at a turning point. She believes Kansas is in a decline and voters can choose to continue politics as usual and simply shepherd that decline in, or they can choose a different direction for the state. She sees herself as that different direction.
In her announcement video, Eakins talks about the need for a Kansas Comeback, tapping into the Make America Great Again attitude of the recent presidential election.
"We started with the data before we even put a campaign together, and the data says that people aren't interested in the candidates running. They're just not sure. They're looking for something different. They're looking for an outsider," Eakins explained.
She believes what Kansans want is for the government to just get out of their way.
"Mostly, what I'm hearing from people is they don't need a hero or a savior to come in and take care of them. What they want is the government to get out of their way and let them run their businesses and their families as they see fit. And that's the American dream, I think," she said.
Eakins is a former Wichita School Board member and a small business owner who specializes in data analysis. She joins five other announced Republicans (Doug Billings, Stacy Rogers, Scott Schwab, Charlotte O'Hara, and Jeff Colyer) and one Democrat (Cindy Holscher) who've announced their runs for governor. At least one more major announcement is expected.