Kansas Congressman Jake LaTurner won’t seek reelection, creating race for open seat

U.S. Rep. Jake LaTurner, a Republican who represents Kansas’ 2nd District, announced Thursday he won’t seek reelection, creating another open race in a furious partisan fight for control of the House.

LaTurner, 36, was first elected to the House in 2020. In a statement, LaTurner said it was time to “pursue other opportunities and have the benefit of spending more time with my family.”

“It has become fashionable for some to fear for the future of this country and act as though the problems we face and the divisions that exist are insurmountable, but that is just not true. Undoubtedly, the current dysfunction on Capitol Hill is distressing, but it almost always has been; we just didn’t see most of it,” LaTurner said, adding that he remains optimistic about the future of the country.

LaTurner joins a wave of Republican members who have resigned or retired as their party’s narrow majority in the House has struggled to govern. His announcement came as a surprise to many Kansas Republicans and his departure creates an open race in a district that largely supports Republican candidates.

It is unclear which candidates will step up to run for his seat and the Democrat who registered to challenge LaTurner, Eli Woody, already dropped out of the race to run for the Kansas House. This is the first open race since the district, which spans much of eastern Kansas, was redrawn in 2022.

“Most people figure Jake LaTurner would run for that seat again … this news at least caught me completely by surprise. I had no idea he wasn’t going to run again,” Mike Kuckelman, a former Kansas Republican Party chairman, said.

“So I imagine there are people scrambling now to kick the tires. But what will be interesting to see is how many of those actually jump in the race.”

On Thursday afternoon, Leavenworth County Attorney Todd Thompson and Kansas House Majority Leader Chris Croft both said they were considering entering the race.

Over the past two years, LaTurner has been a loyal supporter of Republican leadership, even as a small group of conservative hard-liners have held up significant legislation, ousted a Republican speaker and have threatened to oust a second over his support for foreign aid to Ukraine.

His support for several pieces of legislation that have helped keep the government running has led to criticism from the Republican base in Kansas.

After LaTurner voted to pass a large spending bill last month, Mike Brown, the chairman of the Kansas Republican Party sent a public email implicitly warning LaTurner and Sen. Jerry Moran to hew closer to the party’s base.

“It is my job to remind our electeds they should be referencing the Kansas Republican Party Constitution, Bylaws, and Platform and cast their votes accordingly. It is also my responsibility to share with them the positive and negative feedback I receive from the grassroots base,” Brown wrote.

“In that spirit and vein, and specifically for those who voted for the $1.2T spending package, please hear me loud and clear: the base is mad as hell.”

A former rising star

LaTurner was once seen as a rising star in the Republican Party.

“I think most people would think of him as a young, very energetic go getter on behalf of Kansans,” Kuckelman said. “Every time you’d see LaTurner at a political event he was full of energy and really wanted to do great things for our state and our country”

He became the youngest member of the Kansas Senate in 2012, when he defeated former state Sen. Bob Marshall at the age of 24.

Five years later, former Gov. Sam Brownback appointed LaTurner as the Kansas State Treasurer, making him the youngest statewide office holder in the country at the time.

But he quickly left the role to challenge Watkins, a scandal-plagued congressman who was facing criminal charges for voting in the wrong city council district in 2019.

LaTurner easily won the primary in Kansas’ 2nd Congressional District and won the general election by 15 percentage points.

Once in Congress, LaTurner appeared to be taking the traditional route of rising in the ranks of the Republican Party. By his second term, he was serving on the leadership team for the Republican conference. He had posts on both the House Appropriations Committee, which helps steer federal funds, and the House Oversight Committee, a committee often featured in high profile House investigations.

In his first major vote, LaTurner voted against certifying the results of the 2020 election.

Over LaTurner’s four years in Congress, the dynamics of the Republican Party have shifted. Hard-line Republicans, empowered by a small majority, have made it difficult the annual legislation needed to keep the government running.

After former House Speaker Kevin McCarthy was ousted by a group of Republican hard-liners for passing a deal to keep the government open, LaTurner appeared visibly frustrated during the weeks-long process to find a replacement.

“I thought we had reached rock bottom, but we hadn’t,” LaTurner said at the time.

His retirement announcement comes as, once again, conservative hardliners are threatening to oust a Speaker, this time over his decision to allow a vote to send military and humanitarian aid to Ukraine, Israel and Taiwan.

Sen. Jerry Moran, a Kansas Republican, said he was sad that LaTurner is leaving office, but understood his decision to spend more time with family, particularly as Congress has become more partisan.

“There are too many members of Congress who just find excitement in just stirring the pot,” Moran said. “And it leaves those, as Jake LaTurner is, somebody who wants to get things done, wants to legislate, wants to be engaged in policy that’s good for the country and protects our nation, it’s got to be discouraging.”