Governor Laura Kelly does not operate from the “middle of the road” of Kansas politics. In fact, she’s far from it.

If the bipartisan persona were true, she wouldn’t have to be spending millions of dollars on television months before votes will be cast telling us about it.

Kelly’s record paints a much different picture than what her focus-grouped and poll-tested ads would have you believe. For starters, she vetoed 13 bills this legislative session, which is more than any Kansas governor in nearly three decades. That’s after she vetoed 10 bills last session.

Setting veto records is hardly “working with both sides.”

Kelly’s vetoes, and her views on major issues of the day, are well outside the Kansas mainstream.

For starters, she believes women should be forced to compete athletically with men. She vetoed the Fairness in Women’s Sports bill which would have enshrined in our state law something so decidedly non-controversial until only recently — that women should be afforded an equal opportunity as men in athletics. Gallup polling found 62 percent of Americans agree. Thankfully, our Republican nominee for governor, Derek Schmidt, stands with Kansas female athletes and has pledged to sign the bill.

Kelly instead stood with President Joe Biden, whose radical executive order will force any school that receives federal funding to either “allow biological boys who self-identify as girls onto girls’ sports teams or face administrative action.” So not only is she wrong, she’s willing to jeopardize school funding over her woke ideology. Does that sound “middle of the road” to you?

Kelly also vetoed legislation that would ensure parents always have a seat at the table when it comes to their kids’ education, saying that adopting the Parents Bill of Rights in Kansas is the “worst thing we could possibly be doing.”

According to Kelly, there’s nothing worse than making sure parents have control over what their own children are being taught. In contrast, a recent poll shows 88 percent of parents and grandparents in Kansas support the concept that parents should have the primary say in their children’s education. In vetoing the bill, Kelly sided with the 12 percent who say parents should not.

Perhaps the only thing Kelly might conceive as worse for our state than protecting parents’ rights are our common sense abortion laws that protect mothers, unborn children, and Kansas minorities. As a member of the minority community whose story could have been ended before it began, and with 59% of abortions being Black and Hispanic babies, this is an issue close to my heart. As a state senator, Kelly voted against every single abortion restriction that came before her. Just like opposing parents’ rights in education, she’s opposed to parents being notified if their minor daughter seeks an abortion. Pew research polling shows seven of 10 Americans support such a law. She voted against bans on late-term dismemberment abortions and abortions after 22 weeks when the child can feel pain.

If Kelly believes in anything short of abortion on-demand until the moment of birth, she’s never said it out loud. Perhaps the reason is the abortion lobby, which shares her extreme views and appreciates the 13 percent increase in abortions the last two years on her watch, has pledged millions of dollars to defend her re-election.

Kelly has also vetoed more than 20 tax cuts — including food sales tax cuts in 2019 — and work requirements for welfare eligibility.

Kelly knows her re-election is in peril. That’s why she doesn’t want to be honest and talk about these issues. She would rather pull the wool over your eyes by portraying herself as a moderate, so she can spend another four years governing as a far-leftist in conservative Kansas.

Unfortunately for her, Kansans can see the game she’s playing.

Patrick Penn, Wichita, is a member of the Kansas House of Representatives

Click here to read the whole piece in the Wichita Eagle.