Ronald Gene Estes is an American politician, engineer, and farmer who has been the U.S. Representative for since April 2017. A member of the Republican Party, he previously served as the 39th Kansas State Treasurer from 2011 to 2017. A fifth-generation Kansan, Estes studied engineering and business at the Tennessee Technological University. He began his career as a consultant and executive in various manufacturing and service industries. In 2004, Estes was elected the treasurer of Sedgwick County and reelected in 2008. In 2010, he was elected the Kansas State Treasurer and reelected in 2014. After the resignation of Congressman Mike Pompeo to become Director of the Central Intelligence Agency, Estes won the special election for the seat and was sworn in on April 25, 2017.
Early life, education, and career
Estes was born in Topeka, Kansas, and is a fifth-generation Kansan. He earned a bachelor's degree in Civil Engineering and a master's degree in Business Administration from Tennessee Technological University. Estes worked in consulting and management roles in the aerospace, oil and gas, automotive, and several other manufacturing and service industries, working for several companies including Procter & Gamble, Koch Industries, and Bombardier Learjet. He was elected as treasurer of Sedgwick County, Kansas, home to Wichita, in 2004, and subsequently reelected in 2008. During his political career, he also served as the Treasurer for the Kansas County Treasurer's Association, and in several posts in the Republican Party including Vice Chair of the Kansas Republican Party.
Kansas State Treasurer
Estes ran for Kansas State Treasurer in the 2010 election, against incumbentDemocratDennis McKinney. Estes was the first statewide elected official from Wichita, Kansas in two decades. He was reelected in 2014, defeating Carmen Alldritt. As state treasurer, Mr. Estes managed more than $24 billion in public money and he came in under budget by over $600,000. He made a priority telling Kansans about unclaimed money, such as funds from forgotten bank accounts. In 2016, Estes said his office had returned $100 million in unclaimed property since 2010. During the 2016 U.S. presidential election, in February 2016, prior to the Kansas presidential caucuses, Estes endorsed Florida Senator Marco Rubio for the Republican nomination. Estes served in the Electoral College and cast his electoral vote for Donald Trump.
In the 2018 election, the District's Republican incumbent for Congress, Representative Ron Estes was challenged in the primaries by a candidate who shares a similar name, Ron M. Estes. This led to a conundrum as to how the candidates should be distinguished on the ballot, with Kansas Secretary of StateKris Kobach deciding that Ron G. Estes could include the prefix "Rep." on the ballot according to Kansas law, although Ron M. Estes complained this to be unfair. The incumbent won with 81.4% of the vote. In the general election, Estes defeated James Thompson in a rematch with 59.4% of the vote.
Tenure
Rep. Estes was sworn into office on April 25, 2017. In December 2017, Estes voted in favor of the Tax Cuts and Jobs Act of 2017. In an op-ed for the Wichita Eagle, Estes said he is "confident it will make a real difference for families and businesses in Kansas." He says it will provide economic and job growth, and that workers will see larger paychecks. He says that local companies, including Cessna and Spirit AeroSystems, will be able to "compete on a level playing field with international rivals," as a result of the bill, and that more jobs will return to Kansas from overseas. He says the tax-filing process has been simplified, even though the process remains the same. In July 2017, Estes received national attention for interrupting Rep. Kathleen Rice mid-sentence while she offered a question at a Homeland Security subcommittee hearing. Rice tweeted "Day in the life. Worth noting there are men from both parties who don't act like this" and included a video of the exchange. Estes explained that he was simply trying to follow committee rules after Rice's time was up.
Estes defines himself as "proudly pro-life" and he supports defunding Planned Parenthood. In the only election debate he attended, where he joined Democrat James Thompson, and the campaign manager for Libertarian candidate Chris Rockhold, he repeated the claim that Planned Parenthood had been profiting by selling parts of aborted fetuses.
Economic issues
He supports a balanced-budget amendment to the Constitution and a reduction in corporate and some personal income taxes.
