Mike Thompson spent thirty years as a trusted on-air meteorologist in the Kansas City metro area. But his five years as a Kansas state senator have made Republican Shawnee a decidedly more polarizing figure than in his TV days.
Thompson is running for re-election in one of Johnson County’s hotly contested swing districts that could determine whether Republicans retain their ability to override Democratic Gov. Laura Kelly’s veto on a party-line vote. His opponent is Shawnee real estate agent Andrew Mall.
The race to represent Senate District 10, which includes most of Shawnee, parts of Lenexa, Olathe, Lake Quivira and Bonner Springs, will test whether Johnson County voters feel that one of the state’s leading social conservatives is still always represents their values.
In 2020, when Thompson defeated Democrat Lindsey Constance by less than 4 percentage points, Johnson County favored Joe Biden over Donald Trump for president by 53% to 45%.
When Thompson championed a proposal in 2022 that would have given state lawmakers the power to restrict or ban abortion, 69% of Johnson County voters rejected it.
“He can be very charming, but he is incredibly extreme. He is much more extreme than people give him credit for,” former Shawnee Democratic City Council member Lisa Larson-Bunnell said of Thompson. “He has spent a lot of time bashing our local schools, publicly spreading false, bad information about them on performance standards.”
During his first full term, Thompson selected election fraud conspiracy theorists to appeal to lawmakers, pushed for new restrictions on renewable energy developments that would have made it harder for property owners to participate in projects, and he introduced a bill that made it a crime to perform drag in the presence of children.
“He’s very supportive of traditional family values,” said Megan Warner, a commercial real estate appraiser from Shawnee who is supporting Thompson. “He will work to protect my daughters from participating in sports against biological males, so I really like that.”
Thompson also drafted a bill, which Kelly vetoed, that would have banned gender-affirming care for teens and adults in Kansas between the ages of 18 and 21.
The affable 67-year-old describes himself as an “independent voice” in the legislature. Some of his supporters like that he is willing to challenge experts on issues such as the reality of man-made climate change – Thompson disputes that excess carbon dioxide is bad for the environment – and other topics on which there is broad scientific consensus , including the safety of COVID -19 vaccines and masking.
“I do my own research. I always have,” said Thompson, who has no background in medicine or public health.
He studied meteorology while serving in the US Navy, but his climate denialism runs counter to the official position of the American Meteorological Society and the vast majority of climate scientists.
“It’s really irresponsible for someone who clearly has a science background to misrepresent science in that way,” said Keith Seitter, chief policy officer at the American Meteorological Society.
Education
Thompson’s opponent, Mall, said he is running because he feels there is a rift between his neighbors and their senator.
“He’s done everything he can during his time in office to take away rights, whether it’s women’s reproductive rights or voting rights,” said Mall, 47. “It seems like he’s more focused is on limiting us rather than protecting us.”
Mall also pushes back against Thompson’s claim that the Legislature is now fully funding public schools because the Kansas Supreme Court relinquished oversight of the school financing plan earlier this year.
As a real estate agent, Mall said the most important thing he hears from families considering locating in Johnson County is their desire for strong public schools. According to U.S. News & World Report, Johnson County has seven of the top eight high schools in terms of college readiness, test scores, curriculum breadth and graduation rate.
“He can claim that he has fully funded public education, but the problem is that there is always a gap in special education. And it’s a shell game,” Mall said. “What happens is those districts have to fill that gap on the special education side. And where do they get it from? From the general education side.”
He said Thompson has “consistently damaged the strength of our public schools” and moved Kansas closer to a school choice voucher system.
At a candidate forum hosted by The Johnson County Post earlier this month, Thompson drew laughter from the audience when he explained that private schools serve as safe havens for parents who want to “keep their kids out of the waking agendas of these public schools.” .”
Last session, Thompson co-sponsored a bill that would establish an income tax credit for parents who choose to homeschool their children or send them to private or parochial schools. But after talking to parents and private school principals, he said he’s hesitant to revisit that idea.
“If you put in public resources, eventually the requirements are going to apply to these private schools as well, and so you’re going to change the nature of private schools — including home schools,” said Thompson, whose own school-age grandchildren and great-grandchildren attend the school. schools out of state.
Tax cuts and the economy
The Republican incumbent says when he knocks on doors in his district, residents say they want lower property taxes and relief from inflation.
“This is back to the old Clinton era. It’s the economy, stupid,” Thompson said. “And anyone who ignores that is ignoring the pain that people are going through.”
At the candidates forum, Thompson criticized Governor Kelly for vetoing Republicans’ efforts to create a flat income tax for Kansans across all income brackets. He said passing flat tax reform will be one of his top priorities if voters return him to Topeka.
“In Johnson County, we are losing a lot of the higher incomes because they had the means to move and get away from this high tax structure and move to another state that is friendlier to them – places like Tennessee or Texas. or Florida,” Thompson said at the candidate forum.
He said the tax notes for tax assessments never contained one key piece of information.
“We always look at how much it will cost the government to levy this tax, okay. We never look at the economic benefits of allowing people to keep more of their own money,” Thompson said. “They can’t calculate that. The more they do that, the more the economy grows.”
Mall says Thompson’s favored tax proposal is unfair to working-class Kansans and is reminiscent of the Brownback-era tax cuts that wreaked havoc on the state budget and were ultimately repealed by bipartisan supermajorities in the House of Representatives and the Senate.
“Regardless of him trying to rewrite history right now, he has been anti-growth,” Mall said, pointing to Thompson’s vote against the Panasonic battery plant in De Soto, the largest economic development project in the state’s history.
Thompson said he voted against Panasonic’s mega-project in part because he doesn’t believe electric vehicles are popular enough to justify the battery factory. He is also skeptical of the state Commerce Department’s economic stimulus programs in general, arguing that they pick winners and losers and fail to pay for themselves.
MaKenzi Smith, an attorney based in Olathe, said the anti-LGBTQ+ legislation that Thompson is advocating does nothing more than discourage companies from moving to Kansas.
“When we introduce this kind of legislation, we are telling those companies that you are not welcome here. Your policies are not welcome here. Your employees are not welcome here,” said Smith, a Republican.
What is at stake?
The Senate District 10 race is one of 10 contests in Kansas that the national Democratic Party is eyeing to dismantle Republican supermajorities in the Legislature.
The Democrats are aiming for at least two seats in the House of Representatives and three in the Senate. Achieving both would eliminate Republicans’ veto-proof supermajorities and strengthen Kelly’s hand as she negotiates key policy priorities, including Medicaid expansion, which Mall supports and Thompson says would be “a very bad thing for the state.”
It will be up to an increasingly moderate electorate in Johnson County to decide what they want in their next senator.
Ben Terrill, a retired Shawnee resident who volunteered for Thompson’s campaign in 2020 and is doing so again this year, praised the former weather forecaster’s honesty and integrity.
“Mike is articulate, but not abrasive. He is enthusiastic about what he is working towards, without being divisive,” said Terrill.
“What wins hearts and minds is: Do I trust this person? Do I find grounds for agreement and do I want this person to represent me? I like him. I trust him and I think he is promoting good things.”
Dawn Tubbesing, who identifies as a moderate Republican, voted against Thompson in 2020 after he began posting misinformation about COVID-19 on social media. She plans to vote against him again next month.
“I think all voters want someone who represents them and the well-being of their community. And I don’t think we got that,” said Tubbesing, who owns a commercial real estate company in Shawnee with her husband, and that Thompson spends too much time practicing “fear politics.”
“He is doing everything he can to translate his personal beliefs into bills that result in government invading our bedrooms, doctors’ offices and our private property. That is not Republican by any definition.”
