KS governor candidate distances himself from private prison that gave him money
AI-generated summary reviewed by our newsroom.
- Corson’s campaign gave $1,000 from CoreCivic to a Johnson County food bank (Feb 2026).
- CoreCivic won recent approval to reopen Leavenworth as an ICE detention center.
- CoreCivic has donated widely and faced lawsuits over facility conditions.
A Democratic candidate for Kansas governor this week distanced himself from CoreCivic amid revelations that the embattled private prison chain donated to his campaign in 2023.
Sen. Ethan Corson, a Fairway Democrat, faced scrutiny over the $1,000 donation to his 2024 Senate re-election campaign at a precinct committee meeting Monday evening. The Star reviewed a recording of the exchange.
“As soon as we found out about the CoreCivic contribution, we contributed that same amount back to the community in the whole amount,” Corson said in the recording.
He said he had never met with a representative of the company. The check was sent to a campaign P.O. Box in December 2023 and deposited as part of “routine, end-of-year check processing,” Corson said.
“I have never accepted, and will never accept, campaign contributions from CoreCivic in my gubernatorial race,” Corson said in a statement to The Star. “I do not support private prisons and I do not support having an ICE detention facility in Leavenworth. I want to be clear, I’m not bought and paid for by anyone. I only serve working families.”
A representative for Corson provided a receipt showing the campaign donated $1,000 to a Johnson County food bank. The receipt did not show when the donation was made, but Corson’s spokesperson said the campaign gave to the food bank in February 2026.
CoreCivic finally won approval from Leavenworth officials last week to reopen its shuttered prison there as an ICE detention center after a bitter years-long fight.
CoreCivic spends big on Kansas campaigns
Brentwood, Tennessee-based CoreCivic has positioned itself as an indispensable government partner in President Donald Trump’s quest to deport millions of noncitizens during his second term. The company operates at least 14 immigrant detention centers around the country.
CoreCivic entered into a $60 million-a-year contract with ICE last September related to its Leavenworth facility, which had stood empty since the end of 2021.
The Leavenworth City Commission approved a zoning permit last week that cleared the path for CoreCivic to reopen under its ICE contract. As recently as February, attorneys representing the company argued in court that the city’s objections to reopening without a permit amounted to interfering with the federal government’s ability to enforce immigration laws.
CoreCivic has donated regularly to Kansas lawmakers on both sides of the aisle in the years since its Leavenworth facility was shuttered as it lobbied to reopen as an ICE detention center.
Federal campaign finance records show that CoreCivic’s political action committee donated $5,000 to Republican U.S. Senators Jerry Moran and Roger Marshall and then-U.S. House candidate Derek Schmidt, also a Republican, during the 2024 election cycle.
The company PAC has also donated to state lawmakers of both parties in recent years, and candidates for statewide office, including $1,000 each in 2025 to Rep. Pat Proctor, a Leavenworth Republican running for secretary of state, and House Speaker Dan Hawkins, a Wichita Republican running for insurance secretary.
CoreCivic’s PAC donated a combined $5,000 to candidate and later Gov. Laura Kelly, a Democrat, between 2018 and 2022. The company also contributed $5,000 checks to Kelly’s Middle of the Road PAC in October 2024 and November 2025, secretary of state records show.
Kelly, who has endorsed Corson to be her successor, told The Star on Tuesday that she’s weary of CoreCivic’s checkered human rights record.
“I understand the need for detention centers. I mean, we’ve always had them. We will always have them as we go forward,” Kelly said after a State Finance Council meeting in Topeka.
“What I’m very concerned about with CoreCivic, I think, is their past record of service and care of inmates at the facility when it was a private prison, and I have the same concern about their treatment of the detainees, so I expect that we’ll keep a close watch and make sure that people are being treated humanely,” she said.
Before CoreCivic’s Leavenworth facility was shuttered in 2021, chronic understaffing and violence at the facility threatened the safety of inmates and prison guards, court records show. Around the country, CoreCivic has also faced a slew of lawsuits that include accusations of medical neglect and falsifying records to cover up unsafe conditions in its facilities.
The Star sent Kelly’s office a follow-up question about the donations her campaign and PAC received from CoreCivic.
“Throughout my political life, I have consistently said, ‘I will take legal contributions from anyone; therefore, I am beholden to no one,’” Kelly said in an email statement. “While in the state senate, for instance, I accepted campaign contributions from tobacco companies, while co-sponsoring the Clean Air Bill.”
‘Unfortunate reality’
Corson, an attorney and former advisor in the Obama-era Department of Commerce, has reiterated his opposition to CoreCivic in public and private, according to messages he exchanged with a former Johnson County official last summer and The Star authenticated.
Those messages, which make no mention of the food bank donation, appear to undercut Corson’s assertion at the precinct committee meeting that his campaign immediately gave away the money after learning about the check from CoreCivic.
“I am opposed to private prisons, full stop,” Corson said in the text message after being asked about the $1,000 he received from CoreCivic. “If there was a bill involving private prisons, I would have been/would be on whatever side was the side against private prisons.
“I think what matters is not a donation from years ago, but my actual position on the issue, and that position is that I oppose the ICE detention facility and oppose private prisons,” he continued.
Corson went on to opine on the state of campaign finance regulations in Kansas and the morality of accepting political donations.
“Gov. Kelly, the Senate Democratic Caucus, the House Democratic Caucus, and many other Democrats have accepted donations from CoreCivic. That doesn’t make it right, but it is a reflection of how screwed up our campaign finance system is,” Corson said in the text message.
“I am the first person who would support campaign finance reform,” he continued. “The unfortunate reality of our current system is that if you look at anyone’s finance report, you can point to donations from entities the politician probably doesn’t agree with.”
End Citizens United, a leading national campaign finance reform advocacy group, endorsed Corson’s bid for governor earlier this month.
Sen. Cindy Holscher, an Overland Park Democrat and Corson’s highest-profile opponent in the Democratic primary, has been an outspoken critic of CoreCivic and attended demonstrations opposing the company’s attempts to reopen in Leavenworth.
“The last time Kansas trusted CoreCivic to run this facility, conditions were so bad that a federal judge called it ‘an absolute hell hole,’” Holscher said in a statement after the zoning permit was approved, referring to remarks made by U.S. District Court Judge Julie A. Robinson during a September 2021 sentencing hearing.
“Particularly at a moment when ICE personnel are operating with impunity, detaining U.S. citizens and breaking the law, we must demand much greater accountability before doling out permits to operate in our communities,” Holscher said.
