One candidate is faced with defending the use of a racial slur on social media.
The other is defending a report that she lied about having a college degree.
The race for House District 67 in Manhattan between Democrat Kim Zito and Republican Angel Roeser has boiled over in controversy in the last 24 hours.
It’s a potentially pivotal race as Democrats need to win two seats in the House to break up the Republican supermajority, and this is a district won by Democratic Gov. Laura Kelly in 2022 with about 61% of the vote.
It started on Tuesday when the Manhattan Mercury reported that Roeser didn’t have a degree from Kansas State University, although she claimed otherwise.
Then on Wednesday morning, House Republicans blasted remarks Zito made in a post on Nov. 9, 2020 where she wrote, “FUCK YOU” followed by a racial slur. It was the second time in as many election cycles that the same issue has surfaced.
She followed up that in a lengthy post saying, “I write that because I want you to see that. That’s what we heard yday while cheering for our new president and our first female VP.
“I held a new friend in my arms yesterday as she cried, ‘Why do they hate us so much? What did I ever do to them? I don’t understand.
“That is the level of hating being hurled at people of color and anyone supporting the end of the 45th regime,” she wrote in referring to former President Donald Trump.
In an email, Zito said the racial slur was not her remark.
“Those weren’t my words,” Zito said.
“I was quoting the insults that were being hurled at my friends, and I never regret fighting for the causes and the people who are dear to me.”
House Republicans called on Kelly to withdraw her political action committee’s endorsement of Zito.
A spokesperson for the PAC could not be immediately reached for comment.
“This type of language is never OK, no matter the context,” House Speaker Dan Hawkins said in a statement.
“The governor of the great free state of Kansas shouldn’t be in the middle of racist comments,” Hawkins said.
“And sadly, this type of volatile rhetoric seems to be quite common from Zito,” Hawkins said.
This is not the first time Zito’s racial remark has surfaced in a campaign. The use of the epithet was used in mailers against Zito in her 2022 campaign.
The Republicans’ denounced the ad about a day after they posted a video showing other comments that Zito has posted online using profanity.
The ad included a post that got Zito into trouble during her unsuccessful 2022 campaign for the House where she said she wanted the Catholic Church to “go extinct.”
She told the Manhattan Mercury that the remark was taken out of context.
Zito told the newspaper that she grew up in the Catholic Church but left because it covered up child sex abuse in the Boston diocese.
Zito on Wednesday said that Republicans were targeting her to glaze over issues facing her Republican opponent.
“The Kansas Republican Party has a fundamentally flawed candidate who has a broken relationship with the truth,” Zito said in a statement.
“The Republicans are trying to distract the voters of Manhattan from the fact their candidate lies about her voting history and lies about whether she graduated from K-State, which is an insult to hard-working Kansans,” she said.
On Tuesday, Roeser posted a statement on her Facebook page addressing the Manhattan Mercury’s reporting about her lack of a degree from K State.
The newspaper reported that Roeser, 23, is currently a senior in human development and family science at K-State.
School officials confirmed to The Mercury on Monday that she has no degrees.
The newspaper reported that a Kansas House GOP campaign website described Roeser as a “proud K-State grad,” although as of Wednesday morning it said she studied at Kansas State.
The newspaper also reported that Roeser had posts on her Instagram account describing herself as a K-State alumna.
“Roeser’s campaign website previously said she had a bachelor’s degree from K-State. In the last few weeks, it changed and says she “worked on” her degree,” the newspaper reported.
In a statement posted on Facebook on Tuesday, Roeser said she would receive her degree from Kansas State this fall.
Roeser said she is finishing two courses that weren’t offered before her graduation ceremony so she would receive her degree in the fall.
“There was never any intention to withhold about my degree attainment and I will continue to be transparent with voters at their doorstep,” Roeser said in her statement.
“The people of the 67th District I am visiting are more concerned about property taxes, school funding and keeping our community safe than they are about my opponent’s manufactured agenda,” she wrote.
It wasn’t the first time Roeser’s comments have been called into question.
The Manhattan Mercury reported that Roeser wrongly claimed to have voted on the abortion amendment in the 2022 primary election.
During a debate on Sept. 26, Zito accused Roeser of not voting on the amendment that would have removed the right to an abortion from the state constitution.
The newspaper reported that Roeser responded by saying she did vote in that election. Here’s a video of the entire forum; the issue surfaces at about the 27 minute mark of the roughly one-hour debate.
The newspaper followed up on Roeser’s claim and reported that while Roeser did register to vote on March 16, 2022, as Angelina Vy Layfield, there was no voting history that showed she voted in the 2022 primary election.
The newspaper reported that Roeser voted once in 2023 and twice in 2024 and is now registered under her married name.
She voted in those three elections under the last name Roeser, according to the Mercury.
Roeser told The Mercury she was certain that she voted in the 2022 primary.
She said she could have registered under the name Tran because she changed her last name from Layfield to Tran at about that time.
But the newspaper reported that no records show any votes cast under the name Tran.
“In 2022, I went through several name changes due to a difficult personal situation,” Roeser told The Mercury.
“I will be working with the Riley County Election Office to ensure my voter file accurately reflects my voting history.”
