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

GOP candidate sits nearly 850 votes ahead of longest-serving legislator in Kansas history

By TIM CARPENTER
Kansas Reflector

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.