Incumbent State Rep. Broderick Henderson, D-35th Dist., who has served in the Kansas House since 1995, faces a primary challenge from Kimberly Lampkin.
The primary election is Tuesday, Aug. 2.
Rep. Henderson, 59, serves on the House Health and Human Services Committee, the House Insurance and Financial Institutions Committee and the House Federal and State Affairs Committee.
In his campaign announcement, Rep. Henderson stated his reason in running for re-election: “My goal is to overcome the partisanship in Topeka and work to solve the problems that affect all Kansans and work to create opportunity and growth in Wyandotte County.”
Rep. Henderson, who works in parking control with the Unified Government, attended the University of Kansas and Donnelly College, and has been re-elected every two years since 1994. He has been a member of the Kansas Mentor Program and Democracy Inc.
“Insuring all Kansans have equal and fair access to quality health care and health insurance is something I work for each day in committee,” Rep. Henderson said in his campaign statement.
During his time in the Legislature, Rep. Henderson has worked tirelessly for protecting public schools and teachers, he stated. During the past legislative session Rep. Henderson has sponsored legislation to ensure due process rights for public school teachers. He has been recommended by the political action committee of the Kansas National Education Association.
“I am honored to have served the 35th District for the past 20 years and I will continue my support for economic growth, neighborhood safety, senior citizen programs and for adequate funding to schools so that all Wyandotte County children receive a quality education,” he stated.
Lampkin, 35, said she is running for office partly because the northeast area of Kansas City, Kan., continues to fall to the bottom of the list of priorities. She said she would like to see more development in the northeast area.
Lampkin graduated from Sumner Academy, Kansas City Kansas Community College and Park University. Her degree from Park this May was in international business.
Her occupation is an information technology professional at Grantham University in Lenexa, where she runs the IT team.
Lampkin said she believes it is her obligation to bring her skills and knowledge back home to help the community.
She said her top issue is redevelopment of the northeast area. “Redevelopment needs to happen at all levels of our political structure,” she said.
She said she believed if the Legislature would allow grocery stores to sell liquor, it would spur the development of a grocery store in the northeast area of Kansas City, Kan. The area has needed a full-service grocery store for about 20 years, she added.
On the subject of the state budget, she said she believes a problem with the state Legislature is there are too many lawyers and doctors making decisions about everyday people. In the long term, the state needs to help increase and maintain income. In the short term, it needs to address shortfalls, and most importantly, it needs to be more transparent, she added.
Lampkin said she is not accepeting any contributions from businesses or political action committees.
Neither Rep. Henderson nor Lampkin appeared at a candidate forum July 12 at Kansas City Kansas Community College.
For more information on Rep. Henderson, see http://www.kslegislature.org/li/b2015_16/members/rep_henderson_broderick_1/.
For more information about Lampkin, see https://www.facebook.com/www.KimForKansasHouse35.org/ or Kimforkansashouse.wordpress.com.