Challenging incumbent 4th Congressional District Representative Mike Pompeo, Miranda Allen campaigns as a political outsider to a “broken system,” appealing to an increasingly pervasive sentiment of weariness and distrust toward political parties and career politicians among American people.

A Kiowa native, Allen ran unsuccessfully for Kansas State Senate as a Republican in 2012 before becoming an Independent.

“We need a leader that will be a strong voice for our district, not a rubber stamp for the special interests,” Allen states on her campaign website, allenforkansas.com.

The district covers more than 16 counties — including Sedgwick, Harvey, Sumner, Butler and Cowley — in south central Kansas. Democrat Dan Giroux and Libertarian Gordon Bakken are also challenging Pompeo for his seat in the House of Representatives.

Allen blames the two-party system for an increasingly polarized political climate. Choosing to forgo the label will allow her to be a “collaborative force” between feuding parties, Allen said to The Wichita Eagle last week.

Allen approaches the economy with the mindset of a business owner. She is CEO of Radiofrequency Safety International, an environmental health and safety consulting telecommunications company.

On her campaign website, Allen called Gov. Sam Brownback’s tax policy a “failed experiment” that has been “devastating for Kansas.” She also calls for a simpler tax code and criticizes the current code, deeming it “too complicated for most Americans to understand.”

Allen would like to see a switch to renewable energy sources, saying Kansas “prospers with renewable resources.”

“Those are jobs that can’t be outsourced overseas,” Allen said.

Allen supports abortion rights and “trust(s) the women of Kansas to make their own decisions,” she states on her campaign website. Allen supports ease of access to contraception as a means of reducing unwanted pregnancies.

She is also co-founder of Project Pink, a non-profit organization that helps unsupported pregnant women gain independence and learn life skills to help them get back on their feet.

A strong believer in the second amendment, Allen advocates for “responsible” gun ownership.

Allen is also a proponent of comprehensive immigration reform and advocates for “strongly” secured borders as well as a path to legal status for otherwise law-obeying immigrants. Allen argued that deporting illegal immigrants would have an adverse effect on the agriculture industry, a business she said depends heavily on immigrant workers.

“It would have a devastating effect on Kansas’ economy,” Allen said to KSN News last month. “Rounding up 11 million people for deportation is logistically impossible and cruel to the families it would separate.

“Our great nation should remain a beacon of light and opportunity for people around the world and we can’t let fear and intolerance extinguish that light.”

Throughout her campaign, Allen has stressed the importance of rejecting divisiveness and a willingness to work down both sides of the aisle.

“We need to realize we’re all in this together,” Allen said to KSN. “We need to return civility to governing.”