A Labor Leader, running for the people she loves

Candace Landers is a former teacher, labor advocate, community leader, wife, mother, and Kansan who believes public service means showing up, doing the work, and leaving your community stronger than you found it.

Candace moved to Kansas in 2000 and has spent more than two decades building a life and raising her family here. Her path to public service began in the classroom, where she spent nearly 15 years teaching children from kindergarten through third grade. Teaching shaped the way she leads: listen before you act, tell the truth, bring people together, and keep the people you serve at the center of every decision.

But her commitment to service has never been limited to the classroom.

Candace became active in her teachers' union because she saw that many of the challenges facing educators could not be solved one classroom at a time. Through her union work, she learned the power of collective action and the importance of giving working people a meaningful voice in the decisions that affect their lives.

That experience led her further into community and civic leadership. She has served on the Kansas Professional Standards Board, participated in strategic planning and superintendent advisory work, and worked alongside educators, labor leaders, and community partners to advocate for stronger schools and stronger communities.

Today, Candace serves as a Labor Liaison with United Way of the Plains, bringing together labor, nonprofit, and community partners to address challenges facing working families. Her work has broadened her understanding of the systems that shape people's lives—from education and employment to economic opportunity and access to services—and reinforced her belief that lasting solutions require people to work across institutions and interests.

Candace also believes democracy is not something that happens only during election season. She has served as a poll worker, helping ensure that her neighbors can participate in elections with confidence, and was elected to serve as a director of her township. These experiences have given her a firsthand understanding of the responsibilities of local government and the importance of earning the public's trust.

She is a mother of two and a wife who understands that families experience government not as abstract policy, but through the schools their children attend, the jobs available to them, the services they can access, and whether they believe their communities are moving forward.

Some of the kindergartners from Candace's first classroom are old enough to vote today. She still runs into former students, and those encounters remind her that leadership is ultimately about what we leave behind for the people who come next.

Candace is running for the Kansas House of Representatives in District 88 because she is ready to take that work to the next level.

She brings the perspective of a teacher, the organizing experience of a union advocate, the community-building skills of a Labor Liaison, and the civic responsibility of someone who has served her neighbors at the local level.

Candace believes Kansas doesn't need leaders who simply manage what we have. We need leaders willing to imagine what is possible, bring people together to build it, and do the hard work to make it real.