Roger Marshall (politician)

Marshall ran against incumbent Tim Huelskamp in the Republican Party primary election for Kansas's 1st congressional district in the United States House of Representatives. Marshall ran with the support of many of the state's agricultural groups, who were angered at Huelskamp losing his seat on the House Agriculture Committee, the first time in a century that a Kansan had not been on that panel.[5] Huelskamp's campaign said that Marshall had attacked a neighbor with his truck. Marshall was charged with two offenses, pleading guilty to the lesser of the two charges.[6]

On August 2, 2016, Marshall defeated Huelskamp in the Republican primary, 56 percent to 44 percent. No Democrat even filed to run.[7] However, any Democratic candidate would have faced nearly impossible odds. The district had a Cook Partisan Voting Index of R+24, tied for the 19th-most Republican district in the nation, and the Democrats had only garnered as much as 30 percent of the vote twice since 1992.

In the general election, Marshall won handily, defeating independent Alan LaPolice and Libertarian Kerry Burt with 65.9 percent of the vote.

Marshall's candidacy was endorsed by the United States Chamber of Commerce, the Kansas Livestock Association, the National Association of Wheat Growers, and the Kansas Farm Bureau, an affiliate of the American Farm Bureau Federation.[7][8]

Marshall was sworn into office on January 3, 2017. He is a member of the both the conservative Republican Study Committee [9] and the moderate Republican Main Street Partnership[10] He is also a member of the Congressional Western Caucus.[11]

Committee assignments

• Committee on Agriculture
  • Subcommittee on Commodity Exchanges, Energy, and Credit
  • Subcommittee on Nutrition
  • Subcommittee on Livestock and Foreign Agriculture
• Committee on Science, Space, and Technology
  • Subcommittee on Oversight
  • Subcommittee on Research and Technology
• Committee on Small Business
  • Subcommittee on Health and Technology
  • Subcommittee on Contracting and Workforce

Marshall has criticized the Environmental Protection Agency and supports reducing its authority.[13] Marshall supports the federal Renewable Fuel Standard, which requires corn-based ethanol to be blended with gasoline; corn is produced in Marshall's district.[14]

Marshall supports repealing the Affordable Care Act (Obamacare).[15] Like many other Republicans who want the "health care system to rely on the free market rather than Obamacare's regulations", Marshall "measures success in how many people can afford to leave the Medicaid program and enter the private insurance market."[15] In opposing the Act's Medicaid expansion, Marshall said in an interview in March 2017, "Just, like, homeless people... I think just morally, spiritually, socially, (some people) just don't want health care. The Medicaid population, which is [on] a free credit card, as a group, do probably the least preventive medicine and taking care of themselves and eating healthy and exercising. And I'm not judging, I'm just saying socially that's where they are. So there's a group of people that even with unlimited access to health care are only going to use the emergency room when their arm is chopped off or when their pneumonia is so bad they get brought [into] the ER."[15] Those who support Medicaid, say that Marshall did not understand how Kansas Medicaid operates. The program provides "medical coverage for low-income families and disabled Kansans".[15][16] Marshall's remark attracted widespread attention and criticism.[17][18][19]

Marshall voted in favor of the American Health Care Act of 2017 which would have repealed and replaced the Affordable Care Act.[20]

Marshall, who represents a rural district, supports farm subsidies, such as federal crop insurance. Marshall's support for subsidies gained him the 2016 endorsement of the Kansas Farm Bureau (KFB) in the Republican primary, in which he prevailed over Representative Tim Huelskamp. The KFB opposed Huelskamp's own opposition to some farm subsidies.[21][22]

In December 2017, Marshall voted in support of the Tax Cuts and Jobs Act of 2017.[23]

Marshall supported President Donald Trump's Executive Order 13769, which barred the nationals of seven Muslim-majority nations from entering the United States.[24] However, Marshall supports an immigration bill with a pathway to citizenship for people not living in the US legally; such legislation is supported by the agriculture lobby, which is powerful in Marshall's district.[14][25]

Marshall is anti-abortion.[13][26]

Marshall is not "convinced" that medical marijuana is safe and provides medicinal benefits. In early 2017, he stated "I'm not convinced yet so I'm going to be very cautious," regarding the legalization of medical marijuana, "I think there's a path there, but I just haven't seen enough scientific data to say it's a good thing,"[27]