By Adam Strunk
Women in politics is nothing new in Kansas.
The first female mayor was elected in 1887 in Argonia, Kan. Kansas was an early state to allow women to vote, eight years before the ratification of the 19th Amendment on Aug. 18, 1920. Kansas trails only Arizona in the number of female governors elected (three).
But in the state’s long history of equal voting, Kansas Senate District 31, which encompasses all of Harvey County, stands out.
It currently holds the record for longest consecutive female leadership at 39 years, according to information obtained from the State Library of Kansas. With Sen. Carolyn McGinn running unopposed in November, that record could expand to 43 years.
“I’ve never felt like there’s been a road block,” McGinn said of what it means to be a woman in Kansas politics. “I’ve never felt that. Maybe there were some road blocks out there; I didn’t know it. I just circled around a different direction.”
McGinn (R) of Sedgwick has served since 2005. She followed Christine Downey-Schmidt (D) of Newton who served from (1993-2004) and Norma Daniels (D) of Valley Center who served from 1981-1992.
Neither McGinn nor Downey-Schmidt had a specific answer about what makes Senate District 31 different than others in Kansas. McGinn attributed her continued re-elections to trying to listen and work with others.
“In order to continue that, you can’t be self-serving, and you need to be a servant of the people,” she said. “I’ve always valued learning so much from constituents that have helped guide me in Topeka.”
Downey-Schmidt said state voters do have tendencies that make it easier to get elected regardless of gender or, in her case, political party. Downey Schmidt noted she was elected as a Democrat at a time when 26 percent of her district was affiliated with the party.
“I still think it goes back to the Kansas experience,” she said. “The Kansas experience has been to look at the individual candidate. We elect Democrat governors with a Republican legislature. People look at those who are grounded, level headed and forth right and will listen, and I think Carolyn does this well, too, represent everyone in their district, not just those that voted for them.”
Norma Daniels started the streak in 1980. According to her obituary published in 2008, she became the first female state senator from Sedgwick County.
She also happened to be the neighbor of a young Carolyn (then) Peters, who went to school with the Daniels children and spent time at the household.
“I saw her a lot,” McGinn said. “I was over there doing a lot of things with her kids and all in sports together. It was kind of interesting the little things that kind of happened and surrounded me. Still, it wasn’t something that made me think I wanted to get involved in political science.”
When Daniels became Senator, she stepped away from the Valley Center City Council, where she served for six years. In her place, Carolyn McGinn’s mother, Charlotte Peters, was appointed.
McGinn said while she didn’t get involved in politics until later in life, people like Daniels as well as her family planted the seeds of public service in her mind. Her father, Charles Peters, sat on the school board in Valley Center. Her grandmother, Treva Wilson was a postmaster for the city for 26 years after her husband passed away. That stint was shortly interrupted when Wilson served during World War II, selling her farm and enlisting in the Army Air Corp organizing mail after her son joined the Marines.
“She was a woman very involved in politics,” McGinn said of Wilson. “When we were young, we were always taught it was your responsibility to vote, to be educated on the issues. People laid their life on the line for your ability to vote. I didn’t realize all those words were sinking in to the head of a teenager.”
McGinn eventually entered into politics, when she felt that rural people—she had married husband Mark and lived on their farm in Sedgwick—weren’t having their voices heard at a county level in terms of property rights and water quality issues.
McGinn has a masters in environmental studies from Kansas State University, focusing on water quality.
“I thought, I’m going to the same meetings, I’m offering input; I might just as well run,” she said.
She followed her time as Sedgwick County Commissioner with a run for Senate District 31.
Downey-Schmidt said she had made her decision to retire that year, a move that left the seat open.
Downey-Schmidt had similar reasons as McGinn for entering politics.
She worked as a sixth grade teacher at Santa Fe Middle School and noticed a disconnect between educators and policy makers.
“It seemed a lot of those decisions were being made by people who misunderstood what was going on,” she said.
“Norma had retired,” she said. “I had an opponent in every three of my races, no doubt. I felt in part, too, that Harvey County was a portion I could identify with.”
She said she had already been building up connections to the business community through the Newton Area Chamber. Downey-Schmidt said she had an agricultural background. She had taught at Bethel. She had a lot of support from educators. She eventually sat on the chamber board.
Eventually, she said she was approached by a number of residents, such as Sue and Ted Ice, asking her to run.
With her sister as campaign manager and a summer out of school, she attended workshops on campaigning and got to work.
“We knew it would be a long shot. There were 24 to 26 percent registered Democrats. No one told us we couldn’t do it,” she said. “ I had a lot of teachers that came with me after school. I never missed a day in the classroom.”
She said she went door to door and narrowly won the election, losing the Sedgwick County part of the district but winning Harvey County. It was a similar map years later in McGinn’s last close primary contest, where she won Harvey but lost Sedgwick on the way to defeating Renee Erickson in a the Republican Primary during an election cycle that featured all female candidates, with Michelle Vann running as a Democrat.
Erickson moved away shortly after and now holds a House of Representatives seat in Wichita.
For Downey-Schmidt, she said her time in office may have been difficult, but she never thought much about her gender as a challenge.
“I just made the case I was an educator and concerned about decision making,” she said. “I’m pretty forth right. I think people believed me. I’m sure I had detractors. There were tough issues—gays, gambling, guns—but I continued to be elected.”
She said in 2004 she had had colleagues retire and didn’t care for her grandchildren labeling her “the grandmother from Topeka.”
“Before I announced my retirement, she announced she was going to run,” Downey said of McGinn.
She said the two met.
McGinn won her election and has been in office since. On the 100th anniversary of the 19th amendment, McGinn offered her thoughts on the work done by suffragettes and others who made her service possible.
“I admire the determination 100 years ago of the women who fought to earn their right to vote,” she said. “We take some of those things for granted. These must have been strong women. It would be great to interview them. They’re the ones that did the hard work to give women the vote but also the opportunity to serve the public. Women bring a special asset to the table.”