Rick Wilborn

Incumbent 35th District Senator Rick Wilborn of McPherson is running for a second term.

Wilborn worked for Farmers Alliance Mutual Insurance Co. for 40 years, 25 on the executive management team, and now has his own consulting firm. He spent 12 years as McPherson County Republican Party chairman. He and his wife, Pamela, have two sons and five grandchildren.

Wilborn disagrees that he has followed Brownback’s lead.

“Politics is so often is a shell game,” he said. “People often hear the first point, and its hard to discount what you hear after.”

Wilborn pointed out that Brownback’s tax cuts were implemented three years before he came to the Senate. Wilborn also voted to fully fund K-12 education and voted against restrictions on Kansas National Educators Association.

Wilborn expects to see many new faces in Topeka, and said he’s prepared to re-evaluate issues while representing issues important to his district constituents.

“The first thing is to have the mindset that there are no sacred cows and everything is on the table,” Wilborn said. “We are going to have a large number of new legislators. I think that’s why people should have hope we’re going to move Kansas forward and get something done.”