<figure>
 <img src="https://media.eaglewebservices.com/public/2020/11/1604523843742.png" alt="Topeka Republican Rick Kloos leads by more than 800 votes in the Kansas Senate race against Senate Minority Leader Anthony Hensley, the longest serving member of the Kansas Legislature in state history. Kloos, left, stands Wednesday next to his controversial campaign sign with his son, Nathaniel. (Tim Carpenter/Kansas Reflector)" />
 <figcaption>Topeka Republican Rick Kloos leads by more than 800 votes in the Kansas Senate race against Senate Minority Leader Anthony Hensley, the longest serving member of the Kansas Legislature in state history. Kloos, left, stands Wednesday next to his controversial campaign sign with his son, Nathaniel. (Tim Carpenter/Kansas Reflector)</figcaption>
 </figure><h2>GOP candidate sits nearly 850 votes ahead of longest-serving legislator in Kansas history</h2>By TIM CARPENTER <a href="https://kansasreflector.com/2020/11/04/kloos-ill-fated-campaign-for-governor-guides-shocking-senate-run-against-icon-hensley/">Kansas Reflector</a>TOPEKA — Republican Rick Kloos’ confidence began growing two weeks ago that a majority of voters in the 19th
 District were willing to turn away from Democratic Sen. Anthony 
Hensley, the longest serving member of the Kansas Legislature in state 
history.Kloos understood why 
reasonable folks could be skeptical. Hensley has served in the 
Legislature for more than four decades and had led Senate Democrats for a
 quarter century. Kloos, with his son Nathaniel as his running mate, had
 finished last with 0.6% of the vote in their audacious independent 
campaign for governor in 2018.“A lot of people have 
looked to him as kind of an icon in this district because of his strong 
base,” Kloos said during a Topeka coffee-shop interview Wednesday. “I 
don’t think people thought this was doable. But the last two weeks, I 
had a sense we were winning. Even among Democrats, I heard ‘term limits’
 come out.”On Tuesday, voters in the 
Senate district spread over Topeka and eastern Shawnee County, western 
Douglas County and all of Osage County responded in concrete terms to 
Kloos. With totals unofficial and ballots still to count, Kloos leads 
with 15,676 votes to Hensley’s 14,827.Hensley carved a 
2,200-vote advantage in Shawnee County, but Kloos outran Hensley by 
nearly 3,000 votes in Osage County — a county in which 71% of voters 
chose President Donald Trump over Democrat Joe Biden. In Douglas County,
 Hensley and Kloos essentially tied at 1,600 votes each.Bottom line, for now: Kloos is up by 849.Hensley said he wasn’t 
prepared to concede the race until all votes were tabulated, including 
provisional votes and advance ballots still arriving by mail at election
 offices in the three counties.“We will be waiting until 
every vote has been counted,” the senator said Wednesday. “As such, I 
have not conceded. We will know the official counts and the final say of
 the people of Senate District 19 on November 16.”Hensley, a retired Topeka 
public school teacher, said he was grateful for expressions of support 
for his family. He also said that “serving the people of Senate District
 19, and Kansas, has been one of the greatest joys of my life.”Kloos said he was doubtful there were enough uncounted votes for Hensley to make up the deficit and alter the outcome.Kloos, who helped found a 
Topeka community thrift shop called God’s Store House, generated 
controversy during the campaign by including a reference to God’s Store 
House on more than 100 large campaign signs scattered throughout the 
district.Questions were raised 
about a nonprofit organization’s name being a featured on a political 
candidate’s advertising. Kloos said the name God’s Store House wasn’t 
trademarked and the unusual appendage was allowed by the Kansas 
Governmental Ethics Commission. He said it was his wife’s idea to add it
 to the signs.“A third of my signs were 
in Democrat yards,” Kloos said. “That’s because they made a connection 
with what I’d been doing in the community with God’s Store House. That 
was powerful. I shared with people who I am.”“People want to know that you’ve been doing something. It’s not so much what you’re going to do, but what have you been doing.”Kloos said he drew upon 
his experience running for Kansas governor two years ago, a campaign in 
which he finished far behind the four other candidates in the contest 
won by Democratic Gov. Laura Kelly over Republican Kris Kobach, 
independent Greg Orman, Libertarian Jeff Caldwell and Kloos. He 
attracted more than twice the votes for Senate than he did for governor.“The governor’s race, 
obviously, I reflect on because that was my boot camp. From that I 
learned strategy and how important it was to listen to people,” Kloos 
said.He said the Senate 
campaign had what his run for governor lacked: A meaningful ground game.
 He went door to door and spoke directly to residents in the diverse 
Senate district with a voter registration ranging from 32% Republican to
 30% Democrat and 28% independent.“That was our strategy,” Kloos said. “We knocked on thousands of doors. Hundreds and hundreds of conversations.”He didn’t surrender urban 
areas to Hensley, and conducted three meet-and-greet events with music 
and food in the Highland Park, Oakland and East Topeka neighborhoods. 
The gatherings were more social than political and served as an 
opportunity to engage with Democrats and independents in Topeka.“In this district, they’re just not policy driven as much as they are that we want to put a face to the name,” Kloos said.Kloos said there was no 
avalanche of early endorsements and financial support from conservative 
organizations pushing their special-interest agenda. He assumed it was 
because most didn’t think it possible to dislodge Hensley. Kloos said 
his opposition to abortion did attract attention of Kansans for Life. 
Hensley had at least three times the campaign budget, Kloos said, but 
“our social media plan was really good.”Tim Carpenter has reported on Kansas for 35 years. He covered the Capitol for 16 years at the Topeka Capital-Journal and previously worked for the Lawrence Journal-World and United Press International.

Ill-fated campaign for Kan. governor guides shocking run against icon Hensley