'Proud progressive' takes on Ron Estes with grassroots campaign
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Who is Cole Epley and why is he running for Congress?
Voters in the August primary will have their pick of four Democrats or two Republicans in the Wichita Area Congressional District. That's district number four, the one held by incumbent Republican Representative Ron Estus. The Democratic challengers include Cole Epley, a twenty eight year old who is running a grassroots campaign as a proud progressive, as he puts it. I'm editor in chief Sherman Smith, and Cole is my guest today on the Kansas Reflector Podcast. Welcome to the show. Howdy howdy. Hey. Thank you for being here. Who are you and uh why are you running?
Yeah, so my name is uh Cole I play. I'm a twenty-eight-year-old foster care social worker and sergeant in the US Army. Uh I was born in Wichita, moved around a bunch of toddler as a military brat, and then settled down in Rose Hill, Kansas for my K through twelve childhood. Uh after that I passed my Army Band audition, joined the Army Band in the reserves, uh went to K U, got my degree in music education, became really politically active in college. Um Kinda got disenfranchised a little bit with politics after Bernie twenty twenty uh kinda was taken down. Um why is that?
What what happened with Brittany twenty twenty?
Uh, from what it sounds like, the establishment Democratic Party kinda did what they what they do and uh make sure that things stayed the same for corporate uh Democrats and corporate donors. So uh I kinda got disenfranchised with that, really focused in on the last back half of my c uh Of my Why am I blanking on my words? Wow.
That's okay. We'll go back to talking about Bernie Sanders. Yeah. What what happened with with Bernie in twenty twenty? I knew in twenty sixteen there was an issue. It did something happened in twenty twenty.
Uh twenty twenty was even though he was leading the primary for the most part, um he mag he didn't magically drop out, but uh Apparent the understanding said Biden's the guy. Yeah. And everybody took that as gospel in the Democratic Party. So
what does being disillusioned with politics mean to just check out of it for a while?
So um I was a member of the DSA in the Lawrence chapter for a year or so a year plus. Um and during that time I was very active. Um I was, you know, during this is also during COVID as well. So I was going out, I was uh doing street medic support for the BLM protest up in KC. Uh I was just my goal was to help the communities I was a part of. Um and then to do all that work and to see the BLM protest fight as hard as it was and to do Yeah. try to do everything we could just for at the national level for it all to just be kinda shut down or, you know, told this isn't happening anymore. Spe from people who were supposed to be our political allies and our party kind of uh It uh disillusioned me a little bit for and uh I focused in on my degree.
That's the word I lost for a little bit, uh, but focusing on my degree, moved back to Wichita, focused in on uh my work as a foster care social worker. I pivoted from music education to being a foster care social worker. I knew I wanted to work and advocate for kids. I was
gonna say, what does that mean? Uh what what does that work entail being a a social worker?
Yeah, so for the first two years I ran a boys home uh for middle middle school aged boys. Uh any f at any point in time there was five to seven middle school aged boys in there. Uh it was chaos, but I loved it. Uh I was their primary caretaker and the uh the house manager for that house. Uh so there are I eventually did work for one of the state contractors when it comes to it being a placement agency, but uh you have placement agencies and then you have actual uh group homes that are licensed by DCF and so I worked for an an organization called Life Inc. Okay. Where I was one of the five house managers for the five different houses that they had at the time. And so I did that for two years. It was really fulfilling.
I got a lot of experience, got a lot of my resume, um being a social worker, didn't make any money.
How did Bernie Sanders’ 2020 campaign shape Epley’s political outlook?
I was making twenty dollars an hour. Um I pivoted over after two years I pivoted over to being a
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Chapters
8 chapters
1
Who is Cole Epley and why is he running for Congress?
0:03–3:51
2
How did Bernie Sanders’ 2020 campaign shape Epley’s political outlook?
3:51–8:17
3
What experiences as a foster‑care social worker influence his platform?
8:17–13:05
4
Why does Epley call himself a “proud progressive” and how does that differ from other Democrats?
13:05–17:57
5
What are Epley’s specific immigration reforms, including abolishing ICE?
17:57–22:19
6
How does he view abortion rights and universal health care in his campaign?
22:19–26:38
7
What is his strategy for running a grassroots campaign without corporate PAC money?
26:38–31:13
8
What does Epley predict for the 2024 election and his chances against Ron Estes?
31:13–36:40
Speakers
1 identifiedMore from Kansas Reflector Podcast
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