to protect Democracy
The primary has not gone in my favor. This site will remain up as a resource; the candidates page has been updated with primary winners so you can continue to use it to make informed choices. Also check out the Electoral Systems page that discusses alternative election models that would give minor parties a better chance, so we wouldn't always be forced to choose between Republicans and Democrats.
I knew this wouldn't be easy. I didn't have a lot of money, or staff, or free time. What I had was a message, which came from a plan, which was born of a will to do whatever was within my power to bring our country back from the precipice. And for 30,129 people, that was what mattered.
For people still looking to fight the good fight, I recommend getting involved with groups like Boots on the Ground, the American Civil Liberties Union, Loud Light, or Leading Kansas. I'll probably be doing the same.
Mark my words: America's not dead yet. There are too many people who still believe in this country.
This is an open letter to the winners of the 2026 Kansas Democratic primary.
I’d like to begin by quoting a book that resonated with a lot of people, and not always for reasons the author intended.
I see the strongest and smartest men who have ever lived ...... and these men are pumping gas and waiting tables.
...You have a class of young strong men and women, and they want to give their lives to something. Advertizing has these people chasing cars and clothes they don’t need. Generations have been working in jobs they hate, just so they can buy what they don’t really need.
We don’t have a great war in our generation, or a great depression, but we do, we have a great war of the spirit. We have a great revolution against the culture. The great depression is our lives. We have a spiritual depression.
(Fight Club, Chuck Palahniuk. Chapter 19 page 149)
These words were published in 1995, and the 19 year old men who saw themselves in these lines were 40 in 2016. That’s when Donald Trump found them with a simple message. “Make America Great Again.”
It didn’t matter that Trump has consistently taken America toward the opposite of greatness. America was great when it fought Nazis, not embraced them. America was great before its economy was sabotaged with arbitrary tariffs and oil wars. America was great when it led the world in culture and science, not abandoned both. America was great when it earned half the world’s trust with expertise, humanitarian aid, and soft power. These were the first things cut in 2024. America was great when we invited the world in to be a part of us, and commemorated it with a poem inscribed at the Statue of Liberty, not when we embraced bigotry and persecution.
Did Donald ever stop to think about what actually makes America great? It doesn’t even matter at this point. What matters is he captured a lost generation, my generation, though I’m not proud to say that, with four simple words. He said “Make America Great Again”, and people heard it. The people who have been left behind all their lives, the people trapped in working society with nothing to look forward to, the people who felt no meaning in their lives, the people Tyler Durden called “God’s middle children”, they found something to believe in. They found those four words.
To everyone who won a Democratic primary, don’t wait for me to congratulate you. There’s no time for that. Instead, tell me this: What are your four words? How are you going to inspire me? Don’t tell me “We are against Trump”. That isn't good enough. Tell me what you stand for, not just what you're against. My generation isn’t the only lost generation. What are you going to say to inspire the next lost generation? What’s their call to action? What are your four words? I’m waiting for an answer. Don’t keep me waiting long.
-Sam Lane, August 2026