Mark Kahrs
Mark Kahrs is a former Republican member of the Kansas House of Representatives, representing District 87 from 2013 to 2017. In May 2016, Kahrs was elected to serve as national committeeman for the Kansas Republican Party; his term began after the party's National Convention in July 2016.[1]
Kahrs announced in late April 2016, that he would not seek another term with the Kansas Legislature.[2]
Career
Legal career
After graduating from law school in 1991, Mark Kahrs practiced law for three years before starting his own private law practice, Kahrs Law Offices, P.A. His areas of focus are retail and commercial collections, creditor law, and civil litigation. From 2009 until 2014, Kahrs served as the president of the Wichita Creditor Attorney Association.[3]
Kahrs served on the board of the Wichita Independent Business Association. He was the chairman of the No Casinos initiative campaign in 2007.[4]
State Republican Party
Kahrs has served as the chairman of the Sedgwick County Republican Party as well as chairman of the Fourth District Republican Committee.[4]
Kahrs was elected to take over the position of national committeeman for the Kansas Republican Party; Kahr's term started after the Republican National Convention in July 2016; Todd Tiahrt served as the previous national committeeman.[1]
Committee assignments
2015 legislative session
At the beginning of the 2015 legislative session, Kahrs served on the following committees:
| Kansas committee assignments, 2015 |
|---|
| • Elections, Chair |
| • Judiciary |
| • Rules and Journal |
| • Appropriations |
2013-2014
At the beginning of the 2013 legislative session, Kahrs served on the following committees:
| Kansas committee assignments, 2013 |
|---|
| • Appropriations |
| • General Government Budget |
| • Judiciary |
Campaign themes
Kahrs' website highlighted the following campaign themes:[5]
Job Growth
- Excerpt: "To create private sector jobs, government must reduce the tax burden, and eliminate cumbersome and unwarranted regulations so that businesses can operate more economically, efficiently and productively."
Pro-Business
- Excerpt: "I will fight for needed tax reform for our small businesses, which would allow them the opportunity to expand their business and add needed jobs."
Limit Government Growth & Spending
- Excerpt: "I am committed to reducing government spending which will keep those dollars invested in our community."
Faith & Family
- Excerpt: "I will fight to protect our right of conscience, and our right to worship freely. I am also committed to protecting life at every stage, from conception to natural death."
Excellence in Education
- Excerpt: "I will support reform measures to ensure the highest level of academic achievement for all Kansas children, and that the dollars invested stay in the classroom."
Sponsored legislation
The following table lists bills this person sponsored as a legislator, according to BillTrack50 and sorted by action history. Bills are sorted by the date of their last action. The following list may not be comprehensive. To see all bills this legislator sponsored, click on the legislator's name in the title of the table.
Elections
2016
Elections for the Kansas House of Representatives were held in 2016. The primary election was held on August 2, 2016, and the general election was held on November 8, 2016. The candidate filing deadline was June 1, 2016. Incumbent Mark Kahrs (R) did not seek re-election.
Roger Elliott defeated Tonya Howard and Marco Giorgi in the Kansas House of Representatives District 87 general election.[6][7]
| Kansas House of Representatives, District 87 General Election, 2016 | ||||
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Party | Candidate | Vote % | Votes | |
| Republican |  Roger Elliott |
55.09% | 5,530 | |
| Democratic | Tonya Howard | 34.25% | 3,438 | |
| Independent | Marco Giorgi | 10.66% | 1,070 | |
| Total Votes | 10,038 | |||
| Source: Kansas Secretary of State | ||||
Tonya Howard ran unopposed in the Kansas House of Representatives District 87 Democratic primary.[8][9]
| Kansas House of Representatives, District 87 Democratic Primary, 2016 | ||
|---|---|---|
| Party | Candidate | |
| Democratic | Tonya Howard (unopposed) | |
Roger Elliott defeated Jeremy Alessi in the Kansas House of Representatives District 87 Republican primary.[8][9]
| Kansas House of Representatives, District 87 Republican Primary, 2016 | ||||
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Party | Candidate | Vote % | Votes | |
| Republican | Roger Elliott |
57.45% | 1,345 | |
| Republican | Jeremy Alessi | 42.55% | 996 | |
| Total Votes | 2,341 | |||
2014
Elections for the Kansas House of Representatives took place in 2014. A primary election was held on August 5, 2014, and a general election was held on November 4, 2014. The signature filing deadline for candidates wishing to run in this election was June 2, 2014. Charles Jenney was unopposed in the Democratic primary. Incumbent Mark Kahrs was unopposed in the Republican primary. Kahrs defeated Jenney in the general election.[10][11]
| Party | Candidate | Vote % | Votes | |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Republican | Mark Kahrs Incumbent |
60.9% | 4,954 | |
| Democratic | Charles Jenney | 39.1% | 3,180 | |
| Total Votes | 8,134 | |||
2012
Kahrs won election in the 2012 election for Kansas House of Representatives District 87. He was unopposed in the August 7 Republican primary and defeated Chris Florquist (D) and Santana Marie Talbert (L) in the general election, which took place on November 6, 2012.[12][13]
| Party | Candidate | Vote % | Votes | |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Republican | Mark Kahrs Incumbent |
62.4% | 5,939 | |
| Democratic | Chris Florquist | 33% | 3,146 | |
| Libertarian | Santana Marie Talbert | 4.6% | 440 | |
| Total Votes | 9,525 | |||
Campaign finance summary
Note: The finance data shown here comes from the disclosures required of candidates and parties. Depending on the election or state, this may represent only a portion of all the funds spent on their behalf. Satellite spending groups may or may not have expended funds related to the candidate or politician on whose page you are reading this disclaimer. Campaign finance data from elections may be incomplete. For elections to federal offices, complete data can be found at the FEC website. Click here for more on federal campaign finance law and here for more on state campaign finance law.
Scorecards
Kansas Freedom Index
The Kansas Policy Institute, Kansas’s "first free market think tank," releases its legislator scorecard as a part of its Kansas Freedom Index for Kansas state representatives and senators once a year. The Score Card gives each legislator a score from 1%-100% based on how they voted in the prior legislative term on specific issues which the Kansas Policy Institute thought were pro-limited government policies.[14]
2013
Mark Kahrs received a score of 77.0% in the 2013 index.[15]
2016 Republican National Convention
- See also: Republican National Convention, 2016
Kahrs was a district-level delegate to the 2016 Republican National Convention from Kansas.[16] Kahrs was one of 24 delegates from Kansas bound by state party rules to support Ted Cruz at the convention. Cruz suspended his campaign on May 3, 2016. At the time, he had approximately 546 bound delegates. For more on what happened to his delegates, see this page.
Delegate rules
Kansas district-level delegates were elected at district conventions, while the Kansas Republican State Committee elected at-large delegates at a state convention. All delegates from Kansas to the 2016 Republican National Convention were bound to vote at the convention for the candidate to whom they were allocated and bound unless released by their candidate.
Kansas caucus results
- See also: Presidential election in Kansas, 2016
| Kansas Republican Caucus, 2016 | ||||
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Candidate | Vote % | Votes | Delegates | |
|
Ted Cruz |
48.2% | 35,207 | 24 | |
| Donald Trump | 23.3% | 17,062 | 9 | |
| Marco Rubio | 16.7% | 12,189 | 6 | |
| John Kasich | 10.7% | 7,795 | 1 | |
| Other | 1.2% | 863 | 0 | |
| Totals | 73,116 | 40 | ||
| Source: The New York Times and CNN | ||||
Delegate allocation
Kansas had 40 delegates at the 2016 Republican National Convention. Of this total, 12 were district-level delegates (three for each of the state's four congressional districts). District-level delegates were allocated proportionally; a candidate had to win at least 10 percent of the district caucus vote in order to be eligible to receive any of the district's delegates.[17][18]
Of the remaining 28 delegates, 25 served at large. At-large delegates were allocated on a proportional basis; a candidate had to win at least 10 percent of the statewide caucus vote in order to be eligible to receive any at-large delegates. In addition, three national party leaders (identified on the chart below as RNC delegates) served as bound delegates to the Republican National Convention.[17][18]
Personal
Note: Please contact us if the personal information below requires an update.
Kahrs and his wife, Sherri, have three children.[5]
Recent news
This section links to a Google news search for the term "Mark + Kahrs + Kansas + House"
See also
- Kansas House of Representatives
- House Committees
- Joint Committees
- Kansas state legislative districts
- Kansas State Legislature
External links
- Rep. Kahrs' website
- Kahrs Law Offices
- Profile from Open States
- Biography from Project Vote Smart
- Legislative profile from Project Vote Smart
- Campaign Contributions: 2012
Footnotes
- ↑ 1.0 1.1 Lawrence Journal World, "Kansas Republicans elect delegates but struggle to unite behind Trump," May 14, 2016
- ↑ The Wichita Eagle, "Wichita Republican Mark Kahrs leaving Kansas Legislature," April 20, 2016
- ↑ Kahrs Law Offices, "Mark Kahrs," accessed May 23, 2016
- ↑ 4.0 4.1 Mark Kahrs Kansas House, "Meet Mark," accessed May 23, 2016
- ↑ 5.0 5.1 Cite error: Invalid
<ref>tag; no text was provided for refs namedwebsite - ↑ Kansas Secretary of State, "Candidate list," accessed August 23, 2016
- ↑ Kansas Secretary of State, "2016 General Election official results," accessed December 19, 2016
- ↑ 8.0 8.1 Kansas Secretary of State, "Candidate list," accessed June 3, 2016
- ↑ 9.0 9.1 Kansas Secretary of State, "2016 Official Kansas Primary Election Results," accessed September 12, 2016
- ↑ Kansas Secretary of State, "2014 Primary Election - Official Vote Totals," accessed September 15, 2014
- ↑ Kansas Secretary of State, "2014 General Election Official Vote Totals," accessed December 8, 2014
- ↑ Kansas Secretary of State, "2012 Primary Election - Official Vote Totals," accessed March 31, 2014
- ↑ Kansas Secretary of State, "2012 General Election - Official Vote Totals," accessed March 31, 2014
- ↑ Kansas Policy Institute, "Freedom Index," accessed March 31, 2014
- ↑ Ballotpedia, "2013 Kansas Policy Index," accessed March 10, 2015
- ↑ Montgomery County Republicans, "Electing Kansas Republicans," March 31, 2016
- ↑ 17.0 17.1 Republican National Committee, "2016 Presidential Nominating Process," accessed October 6, 2015
- ↑ 18.0 18.1 CNN.com, "Republican National Convention roll call vote," accessed July 20, 2016
| Political offices | ||
|---|---|---|
| Preceded by Joseph Scapa (R) |
Kansas House of Representatives District 87 2013-2017 |
Succeeded by Roger Elliott (R) |
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