JoCo lawmaker made history as first gay man in KS House. He’s now running to lead Democrats
State Rep. Brandon Woodard, a Lenexa Democrat and the first openly gay man elected to the Kansas Legislature, is now running to be the top Democrat in the Kansas House.
Woodard, 32, announced his bid for minority leader Wednesday, a day after the current minority leader, Wichita Democratic Rep. Tom Sawyer, announced he wouldn’t seek reelection to the role.
“Women, young people, people of color, LGBT folks just showed up in record numbers in both August and November and it’s time that the leadership office reflects that coalition of our supporters,” Woodard said.
“We’ve got to have someone in that office that’s not only flipped a seat before but has held onto a seat and knows how to defend the gains we’ve made and how to pick up more seats.”
If elected minority leader, Woodard would be the first openly LGBTQ Kansan to lead either party in the Legislature.
Woodard was first elected to the Legislature in 2018 as one of the first openly LGBTQ members of the Legislature. Woodard’s historic election that year coincided with barrier-breaking wins for two other LGBTQ candidates in Kansas, state Rep. Susan Ruiz and U.S. Rep. Sharice Davids, both Democrats.
Woodard currently serves as the Kansas Democratic caucus’ agenda chair.
Johnson County, where Woodard resides, has become a Democratic stronghold in recent years. The county accounts for 16 of the 40 seats Democrats hold in the Legislature.
Democrats made substantial gains in the region during the midterm elections — picking up three seats in the bluing suburban county. But the party lost two seats in other parts of the state and Republicans retained their veto-proof supermajority in the House with 85 Republicans.
However, Woodard is not a lock for the position.
Topeka Democratic Rep. Vic Miller, 71, announced Tuesday he would also be running for the position.
Miller was first elected to the Legislature in 1979. He served until 1984 and returned to the Legislature in 2017. Miller had a brief stint in the state Senate where he was appointed in 2018 to finish the remainder of Gov. Laura Kelly’s term. He was reelected to the House in 2020.
Miller said he began considering a run for minority leader after helping to recruit candidates for the 2020 cycle. Reached over the phone on Wednesday, Miller said he had been speaking to members about his campaign for “quite some time.”
“I just want to do more than what I’ve done to increase our little band of 40,” Miller said.
“I expect to have a team of leaders and I think together, along with our caucus, we can put together an agenda and plan that does even better than we did this year.”
Sawyer, the outgoing minority leader, has not endorsed a candidate to fill the role at this time.
“The next generation of Kansans are the future of Kansas — and consequently, the future of our caucus,” he said in his statement.
Thomas Alonzo, chair of Equality Kansas, said the LGBTQ rights organization was supporting Woodard’s candidacy.
“It’s about time that there was some LGBTQ representation in the Legislature given all the toxic rhetoric that’s coming out of the state legislatures all over the country,” Alonzo said.
House Republicans and Democrats will return to Topeka next month to vote on new leaders. Kansas House Speaker Ron Ryckman, an Olathe Republican, and Speaker Pro Tem Blaine Finch, an Ottawa Republican, both chose not to run for reelection to The Legislature.
Current Kansas House Majority Leader Dan Hawkins, a Wichita Republican, is likely to replace Ryckman as speaker. Wider fields have formed to fill the majority leader and speaker pro tem positions.
Two Johnson County Republican representatives, Sean Tarwater and Chris Croft, have announced campaigns to succeed Hawkins as majority leader. Rep. Susan Humphries, a Wichita Republican, is also running for the position.
This story was originally published November 23, 2022 at 11:47 AM.
