Kansas Republicans elect Mike Brown, an election conspirator, to be their new leader
Kansas Republicans narrowly selected an activist who promoted unfounded election conspiracy theories and promised a shakeup of the state Republican Party to lead it for the next two-years. This was after weeks of infighting, which mirrors the divisions in the party throughout the U.S.
Within 30 minutes of the Kansas Republican Party’s leadership change, the state committee of the U.S. House reviewed a resolution requesting that it impeach President Joe Biden. This was in response to comments he and his aides made during the summer 2021 in which they decried misinformation regarding coronavirus vaccines spreading in the GOP. The resolution was submitted by the committee to be considered at its next meeting.
Mike Brown, a long-time Kansas City Republican, was elected to the Kansas state committee as its new chair for the 2024 elections. Three months after Democratic Governor. Laura Kelly narrowly won reelection. U.S. Rep. Sharice Daves, the only Democrat in the state’s congressional delegation, won another term in her Kansas City-area constituency.
Mike Kuckelman (the Kansas party’s former chair), and the two other Republican National Committee members supported RNC Chairman Ronna McDaniel When she was reelected last month. Brown had called McDaniel in December to resign, and he stated Saturday that the GOP was experiencing an internal “uprising”, with members still upset about COVID-19’s pandemic restrictions.
Brown stated, “The RNC must be paying very close to that.” It is the future for our party.
Brown unsuccessfully ran last year for the GOP nomination to be Kansas secretary of state. He and Helen Van Etten his opponent, a former member of the RNC and Topeka activist, both promised to revive Kansas. Brown then asked fellow Republicans to comment on their satisfaction with the election results for the previous two governor’s elections, which were won by Kelly and Davids.
The vote — with Brown prevailing 90-88 — occurred against the backdrop of the GOP’s unexpectedly poor showing in the 2022 midterms, when it won fewer than expected U.S. House seats and failed to recapture a U.S. Senate majority.
Kansas has a GOP voter registration advantage. This means that Democrats are able to win big races by winning votes from moderate Republicans and other independent voters. Republicans usually prevail when they are unified.
Patrick Penn, a Wichita Republican state representative, said to fellow GOP committee members, “We need more unity.” “That’s it.
Some Republicans thought Van Etten and Brown were fighting between an anti-establishment side and the establishment.
Johnson County, Kansas City’s most populous and home of both Brown (and retiring State Chair Mike Kuckelman), was the scene of intense fighting ahead Saturday’s vote. The county’s affluent suburbs once were GOP strongholds, but since 2018, they’ve become conspicuously more Democratic — and have been crucial to Kelly’s and Davids’ victories.
Johnson County GOP’s new chair, who is a Brown ally and concerned about the county’s “purple creep”, told GOP state committee members Kuckelman had been “absolutely abusive” in his treatment Brown. Kuckelman responded with multiple emails, including one that accused Brown of being soft when it comes to opposing abortion and supporting guns rights.
McDaniel, a Republican National Committee member, overcame opposition by the ultra-Make America Great Again party wing despite being appointed in 2016 by President Donald Trump.
Two Michigan GOP candidates, who denied President Joe Biden victory in 2020, were looking for party offices ahead the convention. After a Trump-backed candidate lost the GOP primary election for governor, Nebraska’s Republicans supporting Trump fired the state chair.
Brown promoted unfounded theories, which Trump’s supporters used to support his false claims that Trump stole the 2020 presidential election. He is a contractor and served on the Johnson County Commission until he lost his seat in 2020.
Brown lost the GOP primaries for secretary-of-state to Scott Schwab (the Republican incumbent), who has vouched in Kansas for the integrity and elections.
Van Etten is a retired audiologist who served as a member on the RNC’s board from 2008 to 2020. She was also a member of the Kansas State Board that oversees Kansas’ higher educational system.
She promised members on the state committees a “very ambitious” program to create local party organisations: “We are ready and willing be part of uniting the party.”
Michael Austin (a conservative Kansas City-area economist who is also a researcher and consultant) said that they needed experience. We need connections.
Kuckelman, who was defending current party leaders, said that they had no debt.
Kim Borchers is a Topeka activist and serves on the RNC. She defended McDaniel, and pointedly reacted to complaints against the party establishment. The members of the state committee with more than five year’s experience stood.
She stated, “Welcome in the establishment” “I call it that commitment.”