People often hear the word moderate and think it means weak, indecisive, or unwilling to take a stand. Someone lost in a bland, shifting middle.

At United Kansas, we believe moderation is not the absence of conviction, but both a governing and a values-based ideology. We call it Principled Moderation: moderation with a backbone. Click here for the full description.

Third parties don't always fail. In U.S. history, third parties have succeeded, and in fact have succeeded in Kansas. Click here for the full answer.

We get it. Moderates don’t usually start movements.

That’s the reputation, anyway.

Moderates are reasonable. Practical. Not prone to shouting. They value stability. They listen before they speak. And they don’t usually organize. In a political climate where outrage drives attention, moderates often seem out of place.

But that’s exactly why they matter now. Click here for our full reply.

In 2024, 40 percent of Kansas House races went uncontested. In 2022, it was 50 percent.

That’s not democracy. That’s a system protecting itself. We’re not spoilers when the two parties can’t even be bothered to run against each other.

We are starting small and focusing on those races where voters have no credible choice in the general election.

What we see isn’t a spoiler movement. It’s an opening.

Running as an independent sounds simple, but it makes long-term change almost impossible. Independent candidates must gather signatures every time they run, which creates a major barrier for anyone trying to run more than one or two candidates.

Independents also appear on the ballot only as “independent.” Even if a group of them shares a moderate agenda, voters never see that identity. A party gives people a clear shortcut when they are voting in races they have not followed closely.

We chose the party route because one collective petition gives ballot access to all our candidates, and because a party identity gives voters something meaningful to respond to. It is the only practical way to build a long-term coalition of the reasonable middle.

Read the full explanation here.

A common question we hear is fair: if moderates want change in politics, why not work within one of the two major parties?

For many Kansans, that was once the answer. Over time, however, both parties have moved in directions that leave many voters without a natural fit. The reasons are different in each case, but the result is the same: many no longer feel at home in either one.

The links below explain why many moderates have reached that conclusion.

Direct election primaries were introduced about a century ago to give voters more influence over who becomes a party’s nominee. Instead of party conventions choosing candidates, voters in each party now select them through primary elections.

Over time, however, primaries have had an unintended consequence. Turnout in primaries is usually low, and the voters who participate most reliably are highly motivated activists. Because they consistently show up, these factions can have an outsized influence over who wins party nominations.

Moderates tend to participate less in primaries and many register as unaffiliated rather than joining either party. In states like Kansas with closed primaries, unaffiliated voters cannot vote in those contests at all. As a result, the nominations that shape our elections are often decided without much participation from the political center.

No. To become a member of the United Kansas Party, you need to visit the Kansas Secretary of State’s website or your county clerk’s office and change your affiliation. Signing up with us just keeps you informed and let’s all of us working on this know that we are not alone. So, sign up!

We merged with a similar group that was working to create a moderate Free State Party for Kansas. We all decided that we were better together (being the pragmatic problem solvers that we are) and joined forces.

FAQ