Democratic Kansas Gov. Laura Kelly has broken with the White House on President Joe Biden’s vaccine mandate. “Yesterday, I reviewed the ne...
Democratic Kansas Gov. Laura Kelly has broken with the White House on President Joe Biden’s vaccine mandate.
“Yesterday, I reviewed the new vaccine mandate from the Biden Administration. While I appreciate the intention to keep people safe, a goal I share, I don’t believe this directive is the correct, or the most effective, solution for Kansas,” Kelly said in a Friday statement posted on her website.
“States have been leading the fight against COVID-19 from the start of the pandemic. It is too late to impose a federal standard now that we have already developed systems and strategies that are tailored for our specific needs,” she continued.
“I will seek a resolution that continues to recognize the uniqueness of our state and builds on our ongoing efforts to combat a once-in-a-century crisis.”
Through the Occupational Safety and Health Administration, the Biden administration issued a rule on Thursday forcing all employers with more than 100 workers to have a policy requiring everyone to either be vaccinated against the coronavirus or be tested weekly.
On Saturday, the 5th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals put implementation of the rule on hold, according to Fox News.
Kelly had foreshadowed her break with Biden on Thursday.
“Kansas has really developed our own strategy for dealing with this pandemic, and it has been really in partnership with our business community, our schools, our health folks, and we were forced to do that right at the beginning of the pandemic when the governors were really, literally told, ‘you’re on your own,’” Kelly said, according to the Kansas City Star.
“So we took that, and we developed systems and strategies that work within our state. So at this point to have the federal government come in and say, ‘OK, now you all have to do it this way,’ is a little tough to deal with,” she said.
Some Republicans, noting that Kelly faces a 2022 re-election campaign, put a political spin on her rejection of the federal mandate.
GOP challenger Kansas Attorney General Derek Schmidt’s campaign took to social media to jab Kelly.
“Attorney General Schmidt has been fighting Joe Biden’s mandates since the moment they were announced. After two months of silence, Laura Kelly has now voiced her concerns some 36 hours after her party suffered defeat in blue state Virginia – words accompanied by no action. Kansans are smart, and can see which candidate is acting on principle defending their livelihood and which is making a desperate political ploy to save her own job,” Schmidt’s campaign manager CJ Grover tweeted.
Republican Kansas House Speaker Ron Ryckman chimed in as well.
“Democrats across the country have raced to distance themselves from President Biden after Tuesday’s elections, so it’s not surprising to see the Governor backtrack on this issue,” he said, according to the Kansas City Star.
However, he noted that every ally is needed to defeat the mandate.
“Nevertheless, we need every state leader engaged in fighting this gross federal overreach, and Republicans will welcome her participation,” he said.
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