Lynn Rogers (politician)


Lynn Wayne Rogers is an American politician and businessman who is the 51st and current Lieutenant governor of Kansas since 2019. A Democrat, he had previously served on the Board of Wichita Public Schools from 2001 to 2017, and in the Kansas Senate representing the 25th District of west Wichita from 2017 to 2019.

Early life and career

Rogers was born on September 11, 1958 in Fremont, Nebraska. Raised by Republican parents, he grew up on a large hog farm in rural Nebraska. His grandfather was a county commissioner, and his father served on the school board.
After graduating with a Bachelor of Arts degree in Business Administration, from University of Nebraska–Lincoln, in 1980, he began working as a Marketing Specialist for Citibank Savings. After working for Citibank in Chicago, he moved, with his wife, to Wichita, Kansas, in 1985, to accept a marketing position with the Federal Land Bank of Wichita . In 1993, Rogers became a Vice President with CoBank Farm Credit Leasing, where he would remain until his election to the Kansas Senate in 2016.

Political career

School district politics

In the 1990s, as a parent of a public school student, Rogers was active in a Wichita-area Parent-teacher organization, and aided fundraising for the Wichita Public Schools, including the district's bond drive in 2000. Rogers' first elected office was as a member of the Wichita School Board, where he served from 2001 to 2018.
During his tenure on the school board, Rogers -- "never die-hard ideologue" -- switched from the Republican Party to the Democratic Party, citing frustration with Republicans in attempts to get support for the public schools, and citing a less-rigid ideological "litmus test" for Democratic politicians to qualify for support from their party.

Kansas Senate

In 2016, he was elected to the Kansas Senate's traditionally Republican 25th district, replacing outgoing Republican Senator Michael O'Donnell, who vacated the seat to run for Sedgwick County Commissioner. In his time as a Senator, Rogers worked to "reverse the Brownback-Colyer tax experiment and invest more in our schools." Rogers focused primarily on education, agricultural and banking issues..
In the Kansas Senate, senator Laura Kelly sat at the desk next to his, and became his mentor -- particularly in her areas of expertise -- while working with Rogers to overturn the Brownback tax "experiment."

Lieutenant Governor

On May 24, 2018, Senator Kelly announced that she had selected Rogers as her running mate in the 2018 Kansas gubernatorial election. On November 6, 2018 -- despite Kansas, a deeply Republican state, having voted overwhelmingly for Donald Trump in the Presidential election of 2016 -- Kelly and Rogers defeated the Republican gubernatorial ticket of Kris Kobach and Wink Hartman, as well as the independent ticket of Greg Orman and John Doll. Rogers became the first Lieutenant Governor from Wichita -- the state's largest city -- since fellow Democrat Tom Docking served in the 1980s.
As Kansas' Lieutenant Governor, Rogers' role has few constitutional duties. In addition to representing Kansas in official visits to other states, Rogers has spent much of his time, as Lieutenant Governor, traveling extensively throughout the state, engaging in political outreach, visiting over half of the states' 105 counties, with the goal of eventually visiting all of them.

Personal

Rogers is married to Kris Rogers. They have grown children, including a son who serves as an attorney in the Oklahoma Supreme Court. They have a daughter who teaches in the Kansas City area, and a son "involved in arts community."