Kansas Republican Party to hold contentious leadership vote after governor’s race loss

Kansas Republicans are bracing for a potentially rancorous party leadership contest this weekend pitting a long-time GOP figure against a brash former statewide candidate who could take the party in a harder-edged direction.

The fight over the party’s next chair comes as Republicans debate what lessons to take from their failure last year to defeat Democratic Gov. Laura Kelly and Rep. Sharice Davids. Republicans have been losing ground to Democrats in Johnson County, the state’s most populous county.

Helen Van Etten, a former Republican national committeewoman, would make history as the first non-white Kansas GOP chair. Mike Brown, a former Johnson County commissioner, mounted an unsuccessful primary campaign against Kansas Secretary of State Scott Schwab last year that elevated baseless suspicions about Kansas elections.

The current chair, Overland Park attorney Mike Kuckelman, isn’t running for another term.

Roughly 180 party insiders will elect the next chair on Saturday at the Kansas Republican Party’s annual convention in Topeka. Republicans privately say they expect the race to be close.

The chair wields significant influence within the party, helming an operation that spans Kansas’ 105 counties and includes an array of grassroots activists and elected officials. Over time, the strength of its infrastructure has helped Republicans remain the dominant party in the state, even as they grapple with recent high-profile losses.

The next chair will also be in charge next year when the party holds a presidential caucus, one of the most logistically complex tasks it undertakes. The Kansas caucus may take on added importance if former U.S. Secretary of State Mike Pompeo, who previously represented Wichita in Congress, runs for president.

Brown has taken aim at the party’s status quo, promising to oppose what he calls “more of the same failed ‘leadership,’” and “Country Club Republicanism,” according to his campaign website. His campaign has endorsements from Johnson County Republican Party chair Maria Holiday and Johnson County Sheriff Calvin Hayden, who has been conducting a long-running investigation into elections in the county.

Brown, a general contractor focused on commercial construction, has accused Kuckelman and other GOP leaders of meddling in primaries. And he has blamed losses in the governor’s race and 3rd Congressional District on the lack of hard-fought primary campaigns.

The race isn’t Brown’s first attempt to break into Republican politics. Brown ran against Schwab last year on a platform opposing ballot drop boxes. Before that, he was a pariah on the nonpartisan Johnson County Commission, where he fought mask mandates and urged people to buy guns in anticipation of a coming war.

Brown didn’t consent to an interview but said in a text message that his team’s “message of Bold Conservative Republican Leadership for the KSGOP has been well-received.”

In a Facebook post after the November election, he wrote that the facts “speak for themselves.”

“And I speak for the majority of Kansas Republicans in saying it’s time for a big change. Its time to clean house,” Brown wrote in November. “We cannot keep doing the same thing and expect a different outcome. Leadership matters. Elections matter. Outcomes matter.”

The Republican nominee for governor, former Kansas Attorney General Derek Schmidt, didn’t face a competitive primary after former Gov. Jeff Colyer dropped out. But state Sen. Dennis Pyle of Hiawatha left the Republican Party to run as an independent and won 2% of the vote – nearly Kelly’s entire margin of victory over Schmidt.

In the 3rd District, Amanda Adkins, a former Kansas Republican Party chair, ran for a second time against Davids after not facing any significant opposition in the primary. Adkins lost to Davids by a 12-point margin despite the Republican-controlled Legislature redrawing the district to be more favorable to GOP candidates.

Van Etten, a retired audiologist and a former member of the Kansas Board of Regents, stressed the importance of unity among Republicans, pointing to Pyle’s breakaway campaign as the reason Schmidt lost. Van Etten, who was appointed to the Board of Regents by former Republican Gov. Sam Brownback, has released endorsements from Sen. Roger Marshall and Reps. Jake LaTurner and Ron Estes.

“If we don’t unify, we’re going to lose,” Van Etten told The Star in an interview.

“I think I am the only person in this race who has the ability to get two sides working together and keep this party great and red,” Van Etten said. “I really, truly believe that’s the only way we can win because it’s a numbers game.”

Van Etten, who was born in Taiwan and was appointed to the President’s Advisory Commission on Asian Americans and Pacific Islanders under former President Donald Trump, downplayed the historic nature of her potential election as chair. She said in the Republican Party people look at your skills and leadership.

“In the Republican Party you work hard, you prove yourself, there’s nothing to stop you,” Van Etten said.

Brown’s critics warn that if he is elected over Van Etten, his chairmanship will sharply divide the party. Former Kansas Republican Party chair Kelly Arnold, who was treasurer for Schmidt’s campaign, said Brown had spent his campaign attacking fellow party members.

Arnold said it’s important the party have a chair who “will keep their eye on the ball” – focused on electing Republicans and defeating Democrats.

Republicans fear a fractured party could hamper its ability to effectively aid candidates. Arizona Republicans lost several major statewide contests under the leadership of Kelli Ward, an election denier, illustrating the possible consequences of an extreme leader.

Kuckelman hasn’t formally endorsed Van Etten, but has been vocal in his opposition to Brown. In January, he sent a letter to Republicans that was sharply critical of claims made by Brown during his campaign and denied suggestions by Brown that he sought to force him from the Republican Kansas secretary of state’s race.

Kuckelman said this week that Brown would render himself irrelevant if he becomes chair because he won’t be able to unify the party because of how he has campaigned.

“Being a conservative Republican doesn’t mean that you engage in bravado in the way that he does. Apparently, there’s some people that like hearing that kind of a message but it’s not effective overall,” Kuckelman said.

But Brown’s supporters say a new direction is needed. State Rep. Samantha Poetter-Parshall, a Paola Republican, said she’s never had a problem with Van Etten but that the national and state parties have failed in several election cycles.

She contends new leadership is essential for Republicans to retake the governor’s office and 3rd Congressional District.

“I feel like Mike has more of an ear to the ground versus an ear to political operatives,” Poetter-Parshall said of Brown.

Holiday wrote in an email to party delegates on Thursday that Van Etten is a “good soldier who will lead exactly as she’s told” and urged a vote for Brown.

“We’ve had enough of that in Kansas already. We cannot afford more of the same,” Holiday wrote.

Some Republicans remain undecided or have chosen not to make a public endorsement. Kansas Attorney General Kris Kobach, who has a core base of loyal hard-right supporters, told reporters on Thursday that he was remaining publicly neutral.

Kobach himself was elected to a controversial two-year stint as chair in 2007 that included championing the creation of a loyalty committee. Kobach defeated Pompeo and Tim Huelskamp, who would later represent western Kansas Congress, in the race for chair.

“People were pretty passionate and had their heels dug in and people thought it was going to be a divisive thing,” Kobach said. “But everybody came back together.”

The Star’s Jenna Barackman contributed to this report.