By BRENT MARTIN
St. Joseph Post
What a difference two years makes.
Eastern Kansas Congressman Jake LaTurner easily won re-election this year, his first re-election bid. LaTurner, a Republican who left the Kansas state Treasurer’s Office to run for Congress two years ago, says this year’s campaign differed from his first.
“The biggest difference is just knowing the district better than you did to start with,” LaTurner tells KFEQ/St. Joseph Post. “Obviously you campaign hard the first time and get to know folks and get to know the district, but when you’ve represented the area for a couple of years you really have a good sense of where people are on the issues. You understand what unique challenges different parts of the district face.”
Redistricting changed the district a bit, but LaTurner continues to represent northeast Kansas, as well as all of eastern Kansas outside the Kansas City, Kansas metro area.
LaTurner hopes to land a spot on the House Appropriations Committee. He points out a member of the Kansas Congressional delegation served on the Appropriations Committee for more than 20 years, until 2018.
LaTurner won 55% of the vote two years ago in a hotly contested contest that drew a lot of national money. LaTurner, though, found himself in a difficult position when he took office.
“I was a freshman in the minority. And a freshman in the minority, you’re not able to get a ton of legislative wins, because the majority controls the schedule, they control the calendar, they control what bills come to the floor,” according to LaTurner. “And so we were able to pass legislation, being in the minority, but it’s very difficult to do.”
LaTurner says finding himself in the minority party in the United States House forced a shift in priorities in which his office concentrated on providing constituent services.
“Making sure that if you’re a veteran out there, if you have an issue with Social Security, if you have an issue with your passport, whatever the case may be when the federal government’s not treating you quite right, we have been able to really work with our staff making sure that we are doing that part really well and I think that’s important,” LaTurner says.
LaTurner says constituent services will remain a priority in his second term. But, now in the majority, LaTurner hopes to have more say on spending issues as well as agricultural policy.