Wichita State students who live on or near campus won’t have a competitive Kansas State Legislature race on their ballot this election cycle — but that doesn’t mean their representatives in Topeka aren’t involved in the community.

Reps. KC Ohaebosim and Ford Carr and Sen. Oletha Faust-Goudeau are the candidates many students will see on their ballots — and none of them will have opponents listed. The three Democratic legislators are running unopposed this cycle.

Carr and Faust-Goudeau spoke on their backgrounds and path to the legislature, along with what they are doing for Wichita State students. Ohaebosim did not respond to requests for comment from The Sunflower.

Oletha Faust-Goudeau

Faust-Goudeau said her passion for politics was developed “on the playground in fourth grade.”

“I just kind of noticed how people were treated differently,” she said. “And I was always that little kid on the playground trying to help solve the problem. And so my desire was to be a lawyer … I know it’s all cliche, but to speak for the voiceless, and to, you know, have life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness for everyone.”

Faust-Goudeau’s mother, Oretha Faust, was a prominent Wichita-area civil rights activist. She died in 2001 but passed on an important message to her daughter on her deathbed.

“She said, ‘Keep fighting for equal rights for everyone,’” Faust-Goudeau said. “And so, I ran for office.”

In 2002, Faust-Goudeau ran unsuccessfully for the 84th District Kansas House of Representatives seat that represents students living in the Seventeenth Apartments next to campus and those living between 21st and Hillside and Douglas and Washington.

Two years after her failed campaign, Faust-Goudeau was appointed to represent the district in Topeka after the incumbent representative moved into the Senate. 

She won reelection to the seat in 2004 and 2006 before moving to the Kansas Senate herself in 2008, winning the election in the 29th District, which spans the majority of northeast Wichita. She has represented the district for the past 15 years and currently serves as senate assistant minority leader for the Democratic Party.

“My district, I represent your inner city, some of your poorest Wichitans, and then I represent Koch Industry and College Hill, some of your wealthiest constituents,” Faust-Goudeau said.

Ford Carr

Carr fills the 84th District seat that Faust-Goudeau used to represent. He took a much different route to get there.

He said he’s been involved in the Wichita community for over 30 years, working as an aeronautical engineer and independent contractor for Spirit AeroSystems and Boeing and hosting various volunteer events on the side.

His predecessor in the 84th District, Rep. Gail Finney, would “always show up” to Carr’s events. One time two years ago, however, Finney failed to arrive. Carr said she called him immediately afterward to ask if he had ever thought about running for political office.

Carr said no. But a few months later, Finney called again.

“She called back, and she said, ‘Hey, remember when I asked you about whether or not you’d be interested in politics?’” Carr said. “She said, ‘Well, I’ve been thinking about not running this next election, and I’d really appreciate it if you would run in my place.’”

Carr agreed to her request before he “really had a chance to think about it.” He said Finney promised to talk with him to get him up to speed on how to serve in the legislature.

That conversation never happened, as Finney died in August 2022. Carr was appointed to fill the seat in her place, won the proceeding general election and has represented the district since then.

The adjustment period to Topeka wasn’t easy for Carr. He said prior to his ascent into office, he wasn’t interested at all in local politics — and couldn’t even have answered who the Kansas governor was if you gave him a multiple-choice question. He calls this disinterest in politics “disgraceful” and “nothing to be proud of” today.

“Amongst me and my friends, with as many things as we talked about, we might have talked about a presidential election, but we just didn’t talk about politics at the state and/or local level,” Carr said. “And honestly, I don’t know why.”

Work in Congress

As members of the minority party in the state capitol, neither Carr nor Faust-Goudeau control the agenda of the legislature.

Faust-Goudeau spoke on her “relationships across the aisle” from her time in both chambers of the state legislature in Topeka. 

“I’m just across the board, whatever is needed is, you know, that’s what I have dedicated my life to now, of helping (so) that everyone can achieve the American dream,” she said.

Carr said he had to learn how to be “smarter than the other side” when he arrived in Topeka.

“The role is to learn all of the rules and regulations,” he said. “Sleep with your Mason’s Manual (of legislative procedure) and learn how to get small victories in a game that everyone knows you’re going to lose.”

Carr said he’s “mad all the time” about how “unfair the system really is” in Topeka. He said he’s the type of person who speaks up when things don’t sound right — even when it gets him in trouble.

“I grew up as kind of the smaller kid … And so, I know what those struggles are when you’re the littlest guy,” Carr said.

Carr faced some criticism last year for breaking party lines to initially vote in favor of House Bill 2238, which restricted transgender students from participating in school sports under their gender identity.

Kansas Gov. Laura Kelly vetoed the bill, and Carr flipped sides to vote against a motion to override the veto. The override passed anyway, and the bill went into law.

Carr said he wasn’t presented with enough information on the initial vote, but “still stands with” the decision to pass the bill.

After the initial vote, Carr went to a Wichita State track and field meet, where he talked to athletes. He said after polling around 30 students, he left more confident in his initial stance — but had an alternative solution.

“Everyone believed that a person has the right to compete,” Carr said. “I agree with that. But additionally, everyone, save for one young lady, believed that it wouldn’t be exactly fair if a biological male competed in a class with biological females … They said, ‘Well, just add another category.’ And so, I said, ‘Well yeah, that sounds reasonable to me.’”

Carr went to Republicans in the legislature to propose an amendment to the bill that would eliminate restrictions on pre-pubescent children and add a special competition category for transgender athletes. He said the solution should have been a win-win, but his colleagues didn’t see it the same way.

“The Republicans weren’t happy,” he said. “That wasn’t what they wanted to do. That’s the point at which I realized it had nothing to do with being fair … they just wanted to put a thumb down on people that they could.”

Student representation

Faust-Goudeau, an alumna of Wichita State, said she “bleeds black and gold.”

“Whenever I’m in the state capitol and we’re voting on issues, Wichita is always my main priority,” she said.

She said she serves on numerous local boards and works with the Wichita City Council and Sedgwick County Commission to advocate for issues and understand the community. On campus, she said she has talked to Wichita State Student Government Association leaders to get a sense of students’ priorities.

Faust-Goudeau pointed to numerous legislative accomplishments relating to students, including working to reduce the cost of books and tuition and helping advance the Innovation Campus and broader funding to Wichita State.

“I’ve been at the table … convincing my colleagues who live in Johnson County and other areas to support funding for Wichita State,” Faust-Goudeau said.

Carr said he has hosted local town hall meetings, but the turnouts haven’t been “what I would have liked for them to have been.”

“And maybe that’s in large part my fault because maybe I just haven’t gotten the word out in the spaces that the word needs to have been gotten out,” Carr said.

He said he still knocks on doors despite running unopposed this year. Additionally, he’s developing a “cartoon” that would be shown on billboards around campus in an attempt to appeal to young voters.

“There will be an advertisement … directing people to a website where they’ll get a chance to become familiar with these cartoon characters,” Carr said. “I’m hoping that it catches on, and then that will kind of bridge the gap.”

Both Carr and Faust-Goudeau urged students to become more involved in the political process. Faust-Goudeau said it’s a “two-way street,” and that college students should offer to shadow her in Topeka and learn about the legislature.

“At the end of the day, lawmakers are going to have a say on … just about everything that happens here,” she said.