Wichita, Kan.

During the 1850s, Kansas turned into a battleground for a proxy war between abolitionists and slavery supporters. Today, Kansas has become the flash point in another national debate, this one over government’s role in promoting growth.

Two years ago conservative Republican Gov. Sam Brownback spearheaded perhaps the most aggressive tax cuts in the nation. Establishment Republicans in Kansas mutinied and now have joined Mr. Brownback’s Democratic challenger, Paul Davis, the state House minority leader. By toppling the governor, they hope to marginalize conservatives in Kansas and discredit tax reform in the states.

Economic growth in Kansas has trailed the Great Plains region and nation for decades. Between 1982 and 1997, Kansas’ private GDP growth ranked 43rd in the country—ahead of only West Virginia, Oklahoma, Montana, Louisiana, North Dakota, Wyoming and Alaska. While some of those states have since boomed, Kansas has plodded along. Between 1997 and 2012, Kansas’ private economy grew by 4% a year compared with 4.3% nationally, 4.9% in Colorado and Nebraska, 5.3% in Oklahoma, and 6.1% in Texas.

Though stereotyped as a farm state, Kansas was once an industrial powerhouse. Around the Wichita Mid-Continent Airport, you’ll still see plants for Hawker Beechcraft, Cessna, Spirit AeroSystems, Airbus and Learjet. But aerospace companies have been scaling back production. Hawker Beechcraft has laid off about 4,000 workers in Wichita since 2008, while Cessna has shed about 7,000 jobs. In January 2012, Boeing said it will close its 85-year-old plant in Wichita and move work to San Antonio, Oklahoma City and Puget Sound.