Dennis McKinney

Dennis McKinney (born July 24, 1960) is a former Kansas State Treasurer. He was a member of the Kansas House of Representatives where he represented the 116th House District for ten terms, the last six as the Democratic Party's leader (Minority Leader) in the Kansas House. In January 2017, he was a Democratic candidate for the party's nomination as the 4th District of Kansas nominee in the U.S. House of Representatives. At the Democrats' 4th District nominating convention February 10, 2017, he narrowly lost to James Thompson.

Early life, education & career McKinney, the youngest in a fourth-generation family of settlers was born in the Coldwater, Kansas hospital. He was raised on a farm astride the Comanche and Kiowa county line, south of Greensburg, Kansas, which is the county seat of Kiowa County.

He graduated with a B.A. from Wichita State University, where he also earned a master's degree in Public Administration (MPA). He and his wife Jean (a public school paraprofessional), reside on the south side of Greensburg, where they raised daughters Kelly and Lindy.

Political & public service career

Kansas Development Finance Authority In 1991, McKinney was a member of the Board of the Kansas Development Finance Authority

Kiowa County Commission From January 1989 through May 1992, prior to serving in the Kansas Legislature, McKinney was a Kiowa County Commissioner. His 116th Kansas House District covers a large portion of rural south central Kansas, including Kiowa county, Barber County, Comanche County, Kingman County, northern Harper County, and southeastern Ford County.

During his tenure, McKinney was noted largely for promoting public education, and pushing to preserve funding for education and health services, particularly for the elderly and disabled.

Kansas Racing and Gaming Commission McKinney was appointed to the Kansas Racing and Gaming Commission in March 2011, by Governor Sam Brownback, and was listed, in January 2017, as the Vice Chair of the Commission, which oversees and regulates gambling and animal-racing in Kansas.

U.S. House of Representatives candidate District opening & history McKinney announced his candidacy to seek the Democratic party's nomination for in the 2017 special election to fill the vacancy left by the departure of new CIA Director Mike Pompeo. The seat, in a strongly Republican district, had not been won by a Democrat since popular moderate Dan Glickman narrowly lost his re-election bid for a 10th term in 1994. In the 2016 General Election, the Republican nominees for President (Trump) and Congress (Pompeo) overwhelmingly defeated the Democratic nominees (Clinton and Giroux), by two-to-one margins in the 4th District. Western Kansas.

Endorsements McKinney secured endorsements for Congress from former Kansas Governor John Carlin, State Senator Oletha Faust-Goudeau, and State Representatives Ed Trimmer and Tim Hodge.

He also had support from labor unions representing over 40,000 workers—particularly the Wichita/Hutchinson Labor Federation of the AFL-CIO, a coalition of 30 local unions representing over 30,000 union members, in South-Central Kansas, including teachers, aviation industry workers, operating engineers, construction workers, electricians, firefighters, state employees, janitors, train operators and other occupations. Another AFL-CIO affiliate, the Building and Construction Trades Council of Central and Western Kansas—a coalition of 13 Kansas building-trades unions, representing over 10,000 members—also endorsed McKinney for Congress.

The general election was held on April 11, 2017, with Thompson facing Kansas State Treasurer Ron Estes, the Republican nominee. The National Republican Congressional Committee substantially outspent the Democrat, James Thompson. The NRCC contributed $92,000, in part for last minute "venomous" ads supporting Estes, which without any basis, characterized Thompson as an advocate of taxpayer funded, late term abortions, and those based on gender selection. Prior to the election, it was reported that Estes had raised $459,000 to Thompson's $292,000. Late in the race, the Kansas Democratic party finally contributed $3,000 to the Thompson campaign, but new Democratic National Committee Chair Tom Perez said his organization would not be transferring any funds to the election. Thompson lost to State Treasurer Ron Estes, McKinney's successor, but by 6.2% in a district where the incumbent, Mike Pompeo, and presidential candidate Donald Trump, won by 31% the previous November.

After 2017 Congressional race

In 2017, McKinney was elected to the board of the Kiowa County Memorial Hospital.

McKinney was appointed to the state government's Pooled Money Investment Board, from 2021 to 2022.

In 2022, President Joe Biden appointed McKinney as Kansas's State Executive Director for the Farm Service Agency (FSA) of the U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA).

Tornado and recovery

On the evening of May 4, 2007, the first of a series of powerful storms and one of the strongest tornadoes of the century, an EF5 tornado with a 1.7-mile-swath, and winds exceeding , flattened 95% of McKinney's hometown of Greensburg, Kansas. plus two more in neighboring smaller towns. The destruction caused more than half the now-homeless and traumatized population to depart; a third of the population—500 people—moved away permanently.

Elected officials from President George W. Bush, Governor Sebelius and U.S. Senator Pat Roberts, soon visited the recovering municipality.

Utilizing state of the art technology, marshalling public, and corporate/private funding, Greensburg was transformed into one of the "greenest" cities in America.