Get to know: Erik Murray, Democratic candidate running for US Senate in Kansas

KANSAS (KQTV) -- Erik Murray is a Democratic candidate for U.S. Senate from Kansas. He has never held elected office before, but he is a fourth-generation Kansan and community developer from Wyandotte County.

"I decided to run for the United States Senate because I got so fed up at this administration as a father, as a husband, as a business person, as a community leader," Murray said. "I got to a point where I just couldn't take it anymore. As a kid from Wyandotte County, I spent the first 30 years of my life saying politics doesn't matter. Then over the last ten years, I realized it really does matter. If you're not at the table, you're on the menu."

Murray said the top three issues facing Kansans are investing in the basics, healthcare, education and immigration, creating an economy that works for everyone, and having the moral courage to call out corruption.

"Investing in the basics: health care, education, economic opportunity, and a functioning immigration system," Murray said. "Those are the basics that most Americans agree on. Number two is creating an economy that works for everyone, eliminating tariffs, a fair tax policy where billionaires and corporations pay their fair share, reducing property taxes. Number three is the moral courage to call out corruption and criminality."

Murray points to what he says is government corruption as a key issue.

"This is the most corrupt, most cruel and most criminal administration in history," Murray said. "From the Epstein files to the president sticking $1.2 billion of American citizens' money in his pockets from a crypto scheme, to his attorney general saying he's not our lawyer, he's the president's lawyer. When I get to the U.S. Senate, we're going to address that."

On the campaign trail, Murray said he's visited over 70 of Kansas's 105 counties and met thousands of Kansans, with only one negative experience.

"I've been in every corner of the state," Murray said. "I was down in southeast Kansas with a Republican family that said, 'Go beat Roger Marshall. We like your energy. We like your solutions. We like that you show up.' It's sad to me that the bar is so low because Roger Marshall just doesn't even show up. People are genuinely excited when you show up."

Murray said his lived experience growing up in Wyandotte County, a community that he said has borne the brunt of disinvestment, resonates with rural Kansans facing closing hospitals and failing infrastructure.

"My lived experience in Wyandotte County seems to resonate with counties where their hospital is closing, their grocery store moved away, their infrastructure is failing," Murray said. "I was in Norton County and Linn County; both have boil water orders because nobody's investing in their water infrastructure. That sounds like the northeast of Wyandotte County. And so that lived experience and the work I've done in community development to build affordable housing, energy infrastructure, and create jobs through workforce development."

Murray is also helping Kansas House candidates break the Republican supermajority and said building a coalition is key to winning statewide.

"No Democrat is going to win statewide in this state without building a coalition," Murray said. "We are helping House candidates in every corner of the state. Breaking that Republican supermajority in the House is equally important. The work we are doing there to help others and inform the public, I feel really good about the campaign we've run."

Murray said it comes down to love, lived experience and the courage to stand up as key points to his voters.

"I'm going to keep your hospital open and expand it to have a maternity ward," Murray said. "I'm going to make sure we fully invest in public education. I'm going to make sure the federal government invests in every community to reduce property tax burdens. But with love also comes tough love. There are people in Washington right now that need some tough love. Tough love might even come in the form of handcuffs for some of these cats."