Ron Estes

Ronald Gene Estes (born July 19, 1956) is an American politician, engineer, and farmer who has been the U.S. Representative for Kansas's 4th congressional district 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 United States Secretary of State, Estes won the special election for the seat and was sworn in on April 25, 2017.

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.

Estes ran for Kansas State Treasurer in the 2010 election, against incumbent Democrat Dennis 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.

Elections

2017 special election

Mike Pompeo, who represented Kansas's 4th congressional district in the United States House of Representatives, resigned on January 23, 2017, to become Director of the Central Intelligence Agency. On February 9, Estes won the Republican nomination to run in the special election to determine Pompeo's successor. Estes won with 66 of 126 votes in a special nominating convention held at Friends University.

Estes' Democratic opponent in the special election was James Thompson, a Wichita lawyer and veteran. Estes' special election candidacy was endorsed by many Republicans, including President Donald Trump, Vice President Mike Pence, Senator Ted Cruz, House Speaker Paul Ryan, and Governor Sam Brownback. He was endorsed by the editorial board of the local newspaper, The Wichita Eagle.

The National Republican Congressional Committee contributed $92,000, in part for "inflammatory and false" advertisements supporting Estes, which characterized his opponent as an advocate of taxpayer-funded, late-term abortions, and also as an advocate for gender selection abortion. According to April 10, 2017 fundraising reports, Estes had raised $459,000 to Thompson's $292,000.

Estes won the special election on April 11, 2017 by a margin of 52.2% to 46%.

2018 regular election

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 State Kris 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.

Committee assignments

• Committee on Ways and Means
  • Subcommittee on Social Security
  • Subcommittee on Worker and Family Support

Caucus memberships

• Congressional Western Caucus
• Republican Study Committee

Abortion

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.

Health care

Estes during the 2017 special election campaign stated that he believes that the American Health Care Act of 2017 did not go far enough to uproot and eliminate Obamacare, seeking a complete repeal of the Affordable Care Act.

Ron and his wife, Susan, have three children. His family operates a farm in Osage County, Kansas.

Kansas State Treasurer