This Podcast Is... Uncalled For - Anne Parelkar (Primary Special)

Episode Date: July 8, 2026

Today we're talking to Anne Parelkar, one of 11 candidates for the Democratic nomination for the US Senate.  We talk about the issues in the race, as well as problems with the political parties. Anne's campaign website: www.anneforkansas.com

Check the mic will go in live. Stories told their eyes and dive. Topics fresh with every spin. You won't guess what's coming in. Every week a new surprise. Minds away. Never lives. Conversations bold and free.

Tune in now just waiting. Hello, everybody. Welcome to the podcast. I have another great guest with me today. We have Anne Perel Carr, Dyke for Anson, correct. Herelker. Ferrell Kerr.

She is running for the United States Senate of Kansas, one of 11 Democrats running for that that spots. And happy to have her here today. Thanks for having me on. I really appreciate it. So what made you decide to run for this Senate seat? It's quite the story. I mean, there's a lot that goes into it.

I think there's no simple answer. but you know, I think the one, the biggest thing for me was I've been, you know, voting the way that I'm supposed to vote, trusting our elected officials, trusting our politicians, all of these things to do what's right for me and my family. And it just doesn't seem like anyone's doing it. And so I'm worried about the future that I'm going to leave to my kids and to all of our kids, really. I think that, you know, our country is in a very, a very scary situation. right now where we really need people coming together and talking to each other and figuring out what's really going on. And I just felt like I had to do something. And so that was that was really, I mean, that's really it. It's my kids, your kids, everybody's kids, right? Like we're all worried

for our futures. If I had kids, yes. Yeah. Yeah. Well, and then that's another thing, right? is like the more the more and more people I talk to, they'd love to have kids a lot of them, but they don't see any way to do it, especially with the cost of everything right now. There's no hope of young people getting houses of their own. Used to be, I think it was your late 20s, was the average age of the new homebuyers back in the day. And now it's, you know, it's 40s. So we really have come to a point in our history. where and actually I was watching a video yesterday by Mr. Beat.

Do you know Mr. Beat? I have seen some of his videos. So his video was comparing the 1890s with the 2020s. And I swear to you, it is so on point. So I recommend anybody watch that video. But yeah, I just think we're in a unique situation right now. I think so many people are fed up.

And I think that's why we're seeing so many just regular people stepping up to run for office. because we don't trust our government anymore. We don't trust the people that have been put there that we've sent to work for us and they're not serving us anymore. All right. I agree. I agree. And it's a problem on both sides of the aisle,

I think, there are certain Democrats. I think you know who I'm talking about here that don't listen. And it's endemic of the Republican Party, unfortunately as well so uh i think that's one thing you know that i get we always it's always like you feel hesitant hesitant to call out your own party right um but that's a huge part of the problem too is we need to be able to take criticism and learn what we're doing wrong and when i say we i mean i guess i'm putting myself as a democrat right now but it's it's happened to me where i've

said things that maybe every not everybody agrees with or not everybody likes you it or whatever, and you end up getting attacked. And so instead of having open conversations with people, we've really shut down all the conversations across the board with, with behavior like that, right? I mean, I think there are a lot of people that want to see better for everybody, but they're afraid to speak out and give their opinion on things because they're afraid they're going to say something wrong. And then they're going to be deemed whatever, you know, whatever somebody wants to call them that day. And that's, that's across the board too. It's just we've just we've vilified social media media and and our politicians have

vilified the other side for the American people and I don't think there is another side. I think most of us are somewhere here in the middle. And we've been forced to choose a side and we've voted the way that we're supposed to vote and we can't trust any of our elected officials anymore. And they seem to just use spin of information, malinformation, misinformation, misinformation to keep us voting the way that they want us to vote. And it's just not right. The American people need the whole truth in order to self-govern. And I intend to, if I go, I intend to make sure that the people of Kansas know exactly what's

going on and why to the greatest extent possible. I believe in transparency in our government. And I don't think we see that at all. Yeah. At any level, no government really. So how to explain 69 getting a toll lane? That's an example of corruption at the city level. A lot of people didn't want that toll lane, you know?

Yeah, well, I think that's one thing that you touch on. And I'm not sure the whole history of the toll lane. I do remember when it was being voted on and talked about and everything else. But that's the same thing that we're seeing with data centers. and the CAFOs and the nuclear fission project. And some of these things are, you know, I can, we can talk about all day how we can't stop technology development. And I agree with that.

It's a national security issue. We can't. We have to be able to compete with the rest of the world in those avenues. But at the same time, the American people deserve to understand why so many data centers, all of a sudden coming into our backyards, why aren't our elected officials keeping us surprised of what's going on. Why the NDAs? Why all of these things, right? And I think, you know, I'm hesitant to say no data centers, but I'm certainly of the camp that there's got to be consideration of the people in the communities first. We've got to put the people in the

communities first. And then we can talk about how we get the, how those data centers can be allowed to come in. But this, what I'm watching with, with, you. know, city councils across Kansas. I'm watching some of these meetings online and good for the Kans for showing up, because they really are showing up to hear their voices heard. And I'm watching a lot of times city council people don't seem to care what the people there are trying to, you know, are concerned with. They don't want to have the conversation.

The same thing that happened in Oakley when we wanted to hear from Roger Marshall about how the doge cuts were affecting our veterans, right? Everybody in that room was ready to hear from him. And it seemed to me to be a pretty easy question. to field because everybody supports our veterans that's no-brainer um but you know he didn't want to no questioning us it's like they've forgotten who they worked for they think that they're above the rest of us and that they get to have the say and the control over everything that that's not how this is supposed to work you represent us every single person in that room deserves your time

and i understand you know there's there's limited time in a day so i get that but for the most part we need to be fielding those questions from the public, finding the answers that they need and helping them at the very least understand why these data centers, why so many, why all of the sudden, and what exactly the implications of that are, and how you're going to keep the public safe? And how is this going to enrich our communities? You prove to us that it's worth it to us to let you come in, not the other way around. Exactly. Exactly. Exactly. A lot of it is money and developers. It's the prime example of getting money out of politics. Agree. Yeah.

And I bring up 69th Street in particular because I say 69th, I'm U.S. 69. I bring that up in particular because that coincided with the last time I turned to run for office. and it was for OP City Council trying to unseat the same guy that the establishment of the Democratic Party sent after me in 2016 for state Senate.

Oh, wow. Yeah. How many times have you run for office before? Three total, so 2007 for Oakland Park State Council trying to unseat a Republican incumbent. 2016, running for the seats, currently held by Donna Sykes, by the way, and that gets into my experience with intra-party vision. And 2021, trying to unseat, yeah, the guy that they primaryed me with in 2016, who, who, who,

Yeah, after losing that seat in the 16, he got elected to OPC Council in 17 and just got reelected, unopposed this time, and I'm pretty disgusted by that. But that's a good example of intra-party fighting because he had me been on the battle for over a year. And not at all pleased with how this kid, because he was a kid at the time, ran against me having volunteers tell caucuses. Because 2016, we still had caucuses going for presidential primary. Tom caucus cars, sign the petition again on the ballots or you can't vote. which during the course of doing this podcast I learned is blatantly illegal should go to jail for that and not to serve on the Kansas House say that again something about sign the petition or what

sign the petition or we won't allow you to vote in the caucus oh wow okay that volunteer by the way was Brandon Woodard went from being a volunteer on this particular campaign to now, I guess, the minority leader in the Kansas house. So that dude belongs in prison, if you ask me.

And then they had the brilliant idea of sending volunteers to my house with campaign lit. Before the primary. If you just do a cursory check of the ballots, you know,

being a candidate, our addresses, our public domain while we're running for office. So they should have known, yeah, this particular candidate lives here. Don't go to that house. No way to do to do. They come to my house anyway. Luckily, I wasn't home because I would, that would probably not be pleasant for anyone. And then after the election, after dinah got elected uh well first of all i wasn't going to support anyone after they treat after

the way i was treated um during that primary it's like all i wasn't going to go and support him and then uh dinah wins the republican side things you know she she didn't become a democrat for another couple of years right um so she wins and uh i uh i uh i i i I support her, supported her mostly because she respected me as a person and as a candidate on that during that time

and felt the need to pan back. Well, the party was getting ready to organize as it does every two years. And I tried to get on the executive board and was blocked by doing so from my opponent's

father, who dared to say, well, he supported the Republican. Well, if you're treated with a little more respect, we're probably talking a little bit. We're telling a different story. Anyway, and also, she's a Democrat now. So I feel you owe me a little bit of an apology there.

So, yeah, it's been going on for quite a while, this whole establishment versus progressive thing. Yeah, I'm learning more, more about it, the more that I, like, the longer that I've been in it, I had genuinely not, did not realize there was so, so much just, I don't want to say division in the party, because it's not necessarily division in the party, but, but it is people feeling like they're not being heard and feeling like they're being kept out and that their concerns are just not being voiced. And I think a lot of people, too, feel like, and I feel like this, I feel

like, you know, and I talk about, you know, I don't do labels because I think that they're used to tear us apart and keep us divided because as soon as you, you know, a lot of people get mad at me. Why don't you lead with your party? Why don't you tell us your party before you start talking? But there's a reason for that. And that is because either the person likes me because I match their party or they dislike me because I don't. And there's just no path forward for the United States of America for Kansas if we continue like that. We've got to be able to have these hard conversations. We've We've got to be able to talk to each other. We've got to be able to get everybody's ideas out. What can we live with? How do we make this country work for us all? How do we make us all? Okay, because we're all here, right? Like, we're here.

We've got to figure out how we're going to be here now. And so that's one thing that I just, I absolutely hate the labels. But I will tell you this, the message that I have, the things that I talk about are very, accepted across the board. Now, there's always that question of, well, how are you going to pay for things, all of this? And that's a valid question. We do have to have a way to pay for things if we're going to have those programs, right? But I think that those, I think that we have resources available to do that. For example, like I talk about, you know, how are we going to get to Medicare for all? We're going to start with Medicare for all kids. And then we're going to expand it up.

that's going to be funded with, you know, you use the patchwork of CHIP and Medicaid that kids are on now and then the employer-sponsored, um, uh, health care, um, that they get. Anyway, so all of that can be used to pay for Medicare for kids now. Kids are the youngest to ensure they are the youngest, the easiest to ensure they're one of our most vulnerable, vulnerable populations. but they're also tend to be healthier and it would free up parents who are tied to an employer because they have to make sure that they have health care for their children. I just see it as a win across the board and I think that that's something that everybody can get behind. And then we expand it up from there once we have the money to do so. And quite frankly, I agree that we should be looking for the fraud, waste, and abuse.

But I think if we start looking up for that fraud, waste, and abuse, we're going to find a whole lot more than what we find by looking at the mom who's working three jobs trying to make ends meet, right? I don't mind making sure that my neighbors are taken care of. If my neighbors are doing well, then I'm doing well. It's good for all of us for society to do better, right? We talk about how there's a, there's a rise in our homeless population and people don't like that there are homeless people around, but they exist.

We have to figure out how we're going to exist, right? Like let's figure out how we can help these people, how we can make it so that this is not so much of a problem. What can we do? And but then, you know, we look at like just recently the example with the reflecting pool and the no bid contracts, whatever that. Oh, look, I thumbed up to whatever that guy, whoever that guy was that was just buddies with Trump, I think. And he just, we paid however many millions of dollars for that guy to do what he just. and now it's a completely destroyed project. Nothing good came of it.

And it's being used again to tear us apart, tear apart the American people. We're arguing over the digum reflecting pool and the algae in it. I mean, it's just so ridiculous, the things that they keep us distracted with, when people can't make ends meet and people can't put food on their table. And one thing that I was thinking about this morning, and I'm sorry, I just go off on tangents. But one thing I was thinking about this morning is, you know, we talk about, And I think so many people are tired of the social justice, like the culture wars, right? The culture wars is what we like to call it.

And they're tired of just talking about the culture war issues. And quite frankly, I think that those are the issues that have been used to tear us apart. I don't think anyone, I don't think most people want to walk back civil rights for people, right? I think most people want equal rights across the board. I think. I hope and I pray that I'm right about that. But you can't worry about that if you can't, if you don't know how you're going to feed your family that week. If you don't know how you're going to get your kids medical care, you know, if you're facing a bankruptcy because of medical bills, those are the things that you focus on because that's the only thing that matters in that moment to you. And so we've got to stop being mad at people for not, you know, understanding that these other things that they, they just don't have the time and energy. to focus on right now. But if we if we can give them, if we can give them ways that we can actually improve their quality of life, they're going to be on board with it. And that's going to be across the board from the left to the right and everybody in the middle. We all just want to

live our lives and be okay and take care of our families. That's all we want, most of us. Some people need 10,000 yachts, but, you know, most of us are normal and we don't. So anyway, so it's Sorry, I'd have an inchered off there. You bring up a great point. Yeah, the people on the rights who are defending exactly the nonsense that you're talking about. They're going to say, oh, social justice is bad, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah, don't help poor people and everything. If they bothered reading the Bible, that's exactly what Jesus was the battle was helping poor people in the and they're taking care of our neighbors.

And one thing that's really sad is that, you know, you probably know people that use these services or have at some point in their lives. And there are people that you care about and you would never, you wouldn't want them to have to suffer without assistance. You know, you wouldn't want them to have to.

But people don't advertise that, right? Like, we don't go around telling people, hey, I had to get food stamps for a while or I had to be on snap or whatever. it is, you know, they're not, a lot of people feel ashamed about getting assistance. A lot of people don't want to. Most people want to be self-sufficient. Most people want to work and take care of themselves and their families. We just made it nearly impossible to do that these days, especially for the younger people coming up. There's just not a way to do it. And if we want the society, you know, we want

families. We want, I think, I think, you know, we want to, we want to make the world better for families and have families again, then we're going to have to do something to make it family-friendly again. Like, we just have to do it. Yeah. Yeah, I agree. And honestly, it all goes back to the 80s with Reagan. And the idea that the rights still cling to to this day that you give tax breaks to the wealthy that somehow trickle down the rest of us, it doesn't work that way.

It doesn't. It goes so, well, it goes so wealthy. and stays with the wealthy unless you do things like raise their taxes. Say, yeah, you have this much money. You have to either, yeah, you have to give someone in taxes, or if you happen to be running a business, make sure you pay your employees a fair, livable wage. That's the big thing on our side.

or the aisles made sure we have living wages and so that's why we're hearing this 15 an hour thing and and all that so I don't so I think there are some of but they don't want to teach that part of history they want to treat Reagan

as though he was he said the god of the god of all that is good and holy human uh no he's done quite his legacy caused quite a bit of damage to this country. If there's one president, I would say we should be looking at it. I would say FDR, because he instituted the New Deal, Social Security, wage programs, working programs to get us out of a depression. Ultimately, I think that's, ultimately I think that's. that's where they want to take us is another great depression in this country.

And some people just never learn, I guess. Yeah. Well, I think for, you know, and for the wealthy, it just always goes back to money. They don't care about people at all. And we're seeing that across the board with, you know, the glyphosate company wants to not be sued for killing people. even though they know their chemicals, skin kill people. I personally knew someone

who died after using Roundup when he was working for the city from the, was it non-Hodgkins lymphoma? I think it is. And I could be messing that up. But the point is we're all just line items to them. You know, our lives are worth chump chains to these big companies.

And if we don't, If our government doesn't pull the reins on them and tell them, hey, you're not going to treat our people like that. You're not going to use them as line atoms. You're not going to, we don't care if it's efficient, if it's cost efficient for you to let these people die. We don't care if it's cost efficient because these are our people and we're going to protect them. And that's what our government owes us. And that's just not what they're doing anymore. They're just letting these mega corporations run roughshod over the American people.

over all of our communities, over everything. Meanwhile, they want to tell us how to live our lives. That's exactly the opposite of what our government is supposed to do. We're supposed to be free. We're supposed to have the right to life, liberty, and to try to find happiness. And their job is to protect us from would-be bad actors who want to come and destroy our communities and make their millions, their billions, their trillions now. off the backs of the American people and without even paying them a living wage.

It's got a stock. We just have to say enough is enough. And 40 hours a week of work should get you a middle class lifestyle where you can take care of family, own a home, have a family, and get the health care that you need. I don't understand how that's controversial to anyone. I think we should all want it. We used to have that. We used to have it. Now, I will never say that we've been perfect.

But let's take the good and let's go. Let's get better from here, you know? Like, let's certainly not go backwards. Yep. Yep. Absolutely. Absolutely. Yeah, just, yeah.

The system is what it is. But we can, once we, once we, once we, get the money out of as well once we tell these corporations enough is enough then we can start rebuilding for the people making sure we have

the living wage and people being able to afford a home or raise a family which yeah cost of family is not the issue for me that's a discussion for another time

but but yeah all sorts of things and getting around too is a big thing yeah once again going to use that US 69 example the money they did there to extend that highway they could have easily taking that money and done a study for streetcar or some form of rail transit because that that's a that's a big thing too is pollution and climate change and transportation unfortunately is a big contributor to that but people still need to get to them from jobs and all that good stuff

yeah that's a really good point and i do think i would love to see us moving towards more public transportation um for all of those reasons but also because you know a lot of people can't afford cars and gas these days. I know so many, you know, when I was a kid, so I'm 43, when I was a kid, when you turned 16, man, you, you got your license. Now kids don't even get it because they don't have money to go anywhere. They can't, there's nowhere to go. There's nothing to do.

There's no point. And just having that ability to, to commute somewhere or to get where you need to go is so huge. And that in and of itself would, would, would, would. benefit society so much. But, you know, they don't want to do that because then money. Yeah. Yeah.

I keep hearing the stories of how Kansas City in particular had the, had an old street car system that got paid. Oh, well, that's an example. What happened in the 50s? Yeah, people were moving out to the suburbs and the auto industry wanted them to drive. so they could keep making cars and all that and they bought out the old street car

systems including the one in Kansas City paved over it and now it's either drive or take a bus and of course I don't know how much better they say they've gotten better

but as far as I'm concerned the buses particularly in Johnson County have been a joke. Yeah, I don't and I think they just I think they just cut some of the stops in Johnson County if I recall correctly, but I could have possible that I dreamed

it, but you're exactly right. And it's... And I'll use the current street car as a example of a transportation done right because they've expanded, they started that line 10 years ago and then just did the two extensions.

that opened just this year. And everyone, people are using it. And, yeah, heck, I used it yesterday. There's a park on the plaza,

take it to where I was going, take it back, and, yeah, it's really, it's really nice. I'm really glad to it. And the best thing about that system

is that it's free to use. Again, good use of tax dollars. right there. And I'll end the streetcar with a street car talk with this. I do know that in the future they plan on studying Johnson County lines.

Oh, really? Yeah. That would be awesome. Yeah, that would. We have a little less than 10 minutes to go. So if there's anything you want to, anything else you want to add to the discussion. What do you think most people would want to know?

That's where I don't. You know, I mean, I've got my big concerns. And mine are, you know, getting the money and corruption out of our government, getting public servants back in there. Honestly, the institutional reform, I think that that is, that's foundational, right? The institutional reform has to be there for any of the other things that the American people need to be done for enforcing our antitrust laws. or overturning Citizens United, all of these things.

Because once you get public servants back in there, once you get people back in office who are going to serve their country, not to line their own pockets, or that of their friends or whatever, or just advance their own careers or whatever it is, you know, people have all of these personal motives for going in. But once we stop that, once we put a stop to their ability to line their own pockets and that of their friends, I think we'll start seeing more people who are genuine, who want to serve their country, who don't run because it's such a nasty thing and such an expensive thing.

But great public servants, but for our campaign system and our election system. But is there anything that you've seen people talking about that you think I should address? or those are the big ones for me especially at the national level yeah yeah I could go on talking about the state level of things too but

that'll have to be a discussion for another time so in closing and for Kansas dot com is where we can find you yes sir and and the primary is coming up first what's the date

August 4th, August 4th, vote no. And then vote for Ann in the, and if you don't, if you're not registered as one party, if you're unaffiliated, you can go in that day and ask for a Democratic primary ballot to vote for me. So please go and do that. We really have, we have a unique opportunity this year. We have a lot of normal people on our ballot,

which I think is huge. And if we can get some of those, some normal people into office, I think it's going to do wonders for our country. and for all of us. So anyways, go ahead, Michael. Sorry I interrupted. Yeah, no, that's, that's perfect.

That's perfect. And, of course, that only applies to Kansas voters for those of you listen outside the state of Kansas. So, and thanks for coming on. And check out her platform and consider giving her your votes. And everyone else, we will talk to you next time. Thanks so much, Michael.

This podcast is Uncalled for. It's hosted, produced, and edited by myself, Mike Charenewski. Our opening music is the, this podcast is Uncalled for Theme, which was created at suno.com. S-U-N-O- dot com. Our outro music for this special edition is America the Beautiful by Pipe Choir, licensed at creative comments by attribution and 4.0 international license, and you can find this music at free music archive.org.

And one last disclaimer, I was not paid to do this episode. The candidate came to me and asked for this time, and I gladly granted it. Please support the podcast and purchase our exclusive uncalled for merchandise. T-shirts, sweatshirts, mugs, stickers. and so much more. Go to www.com.cafepress.com slash uncalled for pod. Thank you so much for listening. We will see you next time.