Lt. Gov. Lynn Rogers will take over as Kansas state treasurer, Gov. Kelly announces
Kansas Gov. Laura Kelly is naming Lt. Gov. Lynn Rogers of Wichita as state treasurer, setting him up in a higher-profile job and allowing her to reshuffle the Democratic ticket as she prepares to seek re-election in 2022.
Rogers was a state senator from Wichita — a must-win area for Democrats running statewide — when Kelly chose him as her running mate in 2018. The governor will now get to select a new deputy in a choice that will have to balance political realities and the need for a governing partner during the controversial COVID-19 pandemic.
As lieutenant governor, Rogers frequently focused on rural issues and led the Office of Rural Prosperity. Before the pandemic, he traveled the state, holding a series of town halls to hear from residents and championed rural broadband access.
“He works hard and is dedicated to public service,” Kelly said at a news conference.
His work on rural interests “inspired our entire administration,” the governor said. “I’m confident he will thrive in his new role.”
Kelly is heading into the election cycle in what has historically been a difficult position for Democratic governors. Since 1978, no Kansas Democrat has won the governor’s office when a Democratic president was in office. Additionally, Kelly is the only incumbent Democratic governor up for re-election in a state that President-elect Joe Biden lost in November.
Kelly didn’t name a new lieutenant governor during the news conference Thursday announcing Rogers’ selection. But Kelly did say she has already made her selection and said she’ll announce the choice next week.
“The first question I always ask is, ‘Is the person qualified?’” Kelly said.
Kelly’s appointment of Rogers became possible because the current treasurer, Jake LaTurner, was elected to Congress in November and will resign in the coming weeks. Under Kansas law, selecting a replacement falls to the governor. Rogers will serve the remaining two years of LaTurner’s term and said he plans to run for a full term in 2022.
The job of treasurer is considered to be one of the biggest plums in Kansas politics and a springboard to higher office. Three of the last four treasurers — LaTurner, Ron Estes and Lynn Jenkins — were later elected to Congress.
The position is coveted because it comes with a built-in media spotlight.
The treasurer gets to appear in public-service ads that run statewide for Learning Quest, the Kansas Section 529 college-saving plan, and the division of unclaimed property, which tracks down Kansans who are owed money from misdirected refunds, inheritances and legal settlements.
Recent treasurers have used those public-service spots as thinly veiled campaign ads to boost their name recognition throughout the state.
They’ve also hosted booths at events, including the well-attended Kansas State Fair, where residents can find out if they’re due money from the government.
Rogers said he wants to focus on improving affordable housing and an agricultural lending program, as well as expanding financial literacy programs.
“The bottom line is we are here to serve Kansans,” Rogers said.
Former Gov. and Lt. Gov. Jeff Colyer, a Republican, criticized Kelly on Twitter for appointing a Democrat to replace LaTurner.
“She substituted her partisan preferences for the votes of hundreds of thousands of Kansans who opted for Republican leadership” when they elected LaTurner, Colyer tweeted.
Kelly responded to that anticipated criticism during her news conference, pointing out that Rogers had also won a statewide race running with her.
“The people of Kansas elected Lynn Rogers to be lieutenant governor,” she said. “And they will have a chance two years from now to determine if they want him to continue in the state treasurer’s office. I have no doubt that they will.”
Russell Fox, a political science professor at Friends University in Wichita, called it a “nice promotion” for Rogers.
He said it also could help Kelly’s re-election bid, since she won’t have to run as the only Democratic incumbent in the 2022 state election.
“From Laura Kelly’s point of view, it will be nice to have a Democrat who gets to deliver some good news (via Learning Quest and recovered property), especially since she’s going to be seen — and is already being seen because of the pandemic — as the deliverer of so much bad news,” Fox said.
The last Democrat to hold the position was Dennis McKinney, who was plucked out of the Legislature for the job by former Gov. Kathleen Sebelius in 2008 after Jenkins, a Republican, won her first election to Congress.
McKinney lost the job in the 2010 general election to the Estes, a Republican who was then the Sedgwick County treasurer.
Rogers’ career before politics was as an agricultural banker for 30 years, mostly handling loans and investments for farmers and ranchers in rural Kansas.
He is a rising star in Kansas Democratic politics.
In the last four years, he has risen through the ranks from the Wichita school board, to the state Senate, to lieutenant governor and now, state treasurer.
He had served on the Wichita Board of Education for more than a decade when, in 2016, he opted to run for the Senate seat then held by Michael O’Donnell. O’Donnell decided not to run against him and instead ran for and won a seat on the better-paying Sedgwick County Commission.
Halfway through his first Senate term, Kelly tapped Rogers for her running mate, giving geographic balance to the ticket.
Fox said appointing Rogers as treasurer could open an option for Kelly to appoint a new lieutenant governor from her political base, in the northeast Kansas nexus running from Topeka through Lawrence and into the Kansas City suburbs.
In the 2022 election, Rogers will presumably be on the ballot himself and most of the Sedgwick County voters he turns out for his race will also vote for Kelly, Fox said.
“There’s not a lot of downside here for somebody like a Lynn Rogers to go into this position, certainly not a political downside in terms of how it might hurt his own election prospects or Gov. Kelly’s re-election prospects,” Fox said. “Moreover, if there is any kind of impact, there’s every reason to believe that it might be positive — probably pretty small, but nonetheless positive — insofar as rounding up the voters Kelly will need here in south-central Kansas.”
This story was originally published December 10, 2020 at 11:10 AM with the headline "Lt. Gov. Lynn Rogers will take over as Kansas state treasurer, Gov. Kelly announces."
