Susan Estes, Congressman Ron Estes’ wife, announces her own run for Kansas House seat
Susan Estes, the wife of U.S. Rep. Ron Estes, announced Friday that she will run for a seat in the Kansas Legislature next year.
Estes told a meeting of the Republican Wichita Pachyderm Club that she has decided to seek the seat in House District 87, currently held by Rep. Renee Erickson, R-Wichita.
Erickson, who like Estes is a conservative Republican, announced that she will be trying to move up to the Senate, running for an open seat in the Wichita-based Senate District 30.
Both districts include part of east Wichita.
The District 30 seat is now held by Senate President Susan Wagle, who plans to leave the state Senate to run for the U.S. Senate seat to be vacated by the retirement of Sen. Pat Roberts.
All the elections will be held in 2020.
In a brief speech livestreamed on Facebook, Estes said she decided to run after prayerful consideration and because she has been encouraged by business and community leaders.
“I realized I was being called to serve the community and state that I’ve really come to love so dearly,” she said.
Ron Estes served as Sedgwick County and Kansas treasurer before winning a special election to Congress in 2017 after Mike Pompeo resigned the seat to join the Trump administration, where he now serves as secretary of state.
Susan Estes’ political background goes beyond being the wife of a congressman.
She has worked as a field director of Americans for Prosperity, a conservative/libertarian group that is part of a nationwide political network associated with Koch Industries and its top executives, Charles and David Koch.
AFP regularly intervenes in Kansas elections with mass mailings praising or criticizing candidates. Because the mailers don’t specifically say to vote for or against anyone, they fall outside the reach of the state’s political spending disclosure law.
Estes identified three legislative priorities she wants to pursue: improving schools, reducing taxes and regulation for business, and vigilant budgetary oversight
She said she plans to hit the campaign trail right away.
“Beginning immediately, I will be going door to door gathering signatures to file by petition,” she said.
This story was originally published July 26, 2019 at 8:51 PM.
