As K-State students navigate rising tuition, increasing housing costs and an uncertain job market after graduation, Lauren Reinhold, congressional candidate, said student voices can help shape those outcomes.

Reinhold, the Democratic candidate for Kansas’ 1st Congressional District, spoke to students and community members during a town hall Tuesday at Forum Hall in the K-State Student Union. Indivisible MHK — a pro-democracy grassroots progressive organization founded in Manhattan — sponsored the event along with the Manhattan branch of the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People and K-State Young Democrats. The event was the second part of their 2026 Town Halls series following Jennifer Day last week.

Questions from the audience covered healthcare, Social Security, agriculture, immigration and abortion. But underneath much of the discussion was a broader question many students and young people face today: how federal decisions affect the cost of college, future career opportunities and whether young Kansans can afford to build their lives here.

“They’re concerned about being able to get a good-paying job, buy a house, afford a family,” Reinhold said. “They’re concerned about their student loans. They’re concerned about affording college.”

Those concerns are especially visible in Manhattan, said Amber Starling, security chair and board member of Indivisible MHK.

“Manhattan is pretty unaffordable,” Starling said. “A lot of students are working one or two jobs just to afford to go to college.”

Starling said rising housing and living costs have made it increasingly difficult for students to focus solely on classes and earning their degrees.

“This is the point in your lives that you’re supposed to be investing in yourself,” she said. “The decisions that they’re making at the national level absolutely affect you.”

Another issue discussed was why many college graduates leave Kansas for other opportunities after earning their degrees. Reinhold said stronger communities and greater investment in rural areas, specifically western Kansas, could help keep young people entering the workforce in the state.

“A lot of them would like to go back and be in strong communities,” Reinhold said. “We need the federal government to strengthen rural communities.”

She pointed to infrastructure, education and research investment as ways to strengthen communities and expand opportunities in the state for recent college graduates, and said action should be taken at the state and federal level to accomplish this. 

For Philip Nel, Indivisible MHK board member and K-State university distinguished professor, the discussion illustrated why congressional races matter to students.

“If you’re a student at K-State, you’re probably here about nine months of the year,” Nel said. “This is where you live, and these are the people who are your voice in Washington.”

Nel said federal decisions directly affect university funding, research opportunities and the overall cost of attending college.

“When federal funding for universities is down, universities have to figure out how to pay the bills,” Nel said. “One way they do that is raise tuition on students.”

Rep. Tracey Mann, Republican incumbent congressman seeking reelection, was invited to participate in the event but declined, organizers said. Starling said accessibility and engagement with constituents are important qualities for elected officials.

“You can, and you should expect more from your politicians,” Starling said. “It’s not unreasonable for you to expect that politicians should be coming to college campuses and talking to you specifically.”

As the discussion concluded, Reinhold offered one final message: civic participation and engagement both on and beyond Election Day.

“Vote, vote,” Reinhold said. “Get your friends to vote. If you don’t vote, nothing’s going to change. … You guys need to scream loudly about it. About your futures. I mean, get in there, get involved in your local politics, your local political organizations.”

Nel agreed, offering a similar message.

“Democracy is an act of faith,” he said. “And we have to keep showing up.”