Lynn Wayne Rogers (born September 11, 1958) is an American politician and businessman who served as the 41st
Kansas State Treasurer
The State Treasurer of Kansas is the chief custodian of Kansas’s cash deposits, monies from bond sales, and other securities and collateral and directs the investments of those assets. The Treasurer provides for the safe and efficient operation ...
from 2021 to 2023. He previously served as the 51st
lieutenant governor of Kansas
The lieutenant governor of Kansas is the second-ranking member of the executive branch of Kansas state government. The lieutenant governor is elected on a ticket with the governor for a four-year term. The lieutenant governor succeeds to the off ...
from 2019 to 2021. A
Democrat
Democrat, Democrats, or Democratic may refer to:
Politics
*A proponent of democracy, or democratic government; a form of government involving rule by the people.
*A member of a Democratic Party:
**Democratic Party (United States) (D)
**Democratic ...
, he had previously served on the board of Wichita Public Schools from 2001 to 2017, and in the
Kansas Senate
The Kansas Senate is the upper house of the Kansas Legislature, the state legislature of the U.S. State of Kansas. It is composed of 40 senators elected from single-member districts, each with a population of at least 60,000 inhabitants. Members ...
Fremont, Nebraska
Fremont is a city and county seat of Dodge County in the eastern portion of the state of Nebraska in the Midwestern United States. The population was 27,141 at the 2020 census. Fremont is the home of Midland University.
History
From the 1830 ...
. Raised by
Republican
Republican can refer to:
Political ideology
* An advocate of a republic, a type of government that is not a monarchy or dictatorship, and is usually associated with the rule of law.
** Republicanism, the ideology in support of republics or agains ...
parents, he grew up on a large hog farm in rural Nebraska. His grandfather was a
county commissioner
A county commission (or a board of county commissioners) is a group of elected officials (county commissioners) collectively charged with administering the county government in some states of the United States; such commissions usually comprise ...
KPTS-TV
KPTS (channel 8) is a PBS member television station licensed to Hutchinson, Kansas, United States, serving the Wichita, Kansas, Wichita area. It is owned by Kansas Public Telecommunications Service, Inc., a non-profit organization, non-profit ...
, retrieved from KPTS.org website July 3, 2020.
Rogers earned a
Bachelor of Arts
Bachelor of arts (BA or AB; from the Latin ', ', or ') is a bachelor's degree awarded for an undergraduate program in the arts, or, in some cases, other disciplines. A Bachelor of Arts degree course is generally completed in three or four year ...
University of Nebraska–Lincoln
The University of Nebraska–Lincoln (Nebraska, NU, or UNL) is a public land-grant research university in Lincoln, Nebraska. Chartered in 1869 by the Nebraska Legislature as part of the Morrill Act of 1862, the school was known as the Univers ...
in 1980.
Career
After graduating from college, Rogers began working as a marketing specialist for Citibank Savings. After working for Citibank in
Chicago
(''City in a Garden''); I Will
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, he moved with his wife to
Wichita, Kansas
Wichita ( ) is the largest city in the U.S. state of Kansas and the county seat of Sedgwick County. As of the 2020 census, the population of the city was 397,532. The Wichita metro area had a population of 647,610 in 2020. It is located in ...
in 1985, where he accepted a marketing position with the Farm Credit Bank of Wichita.Smith, Barbara S. and Patricia J. Rettig "Guide to the Federal Land Bank of Wichita Collection," 2002/2013, Colorado State University Water Resources Archive, and the Colorado Water Resources Research Institute, retrieved July 3, 2020 In 1993, Rogers became a vice president with CoBank Farm Credit Leasing, where he would remain until his election to the
Kansas Senate
The Kansas Senate is the upper house of the Kansas Legislature, the state legislature of the U.S. State of Kansas. It is composed of 40 senators elected from single-member districts, each with a population of at least 60,000 inhabitants. Members ...
in 2016.
School district politics
In the 1990s, as a parent of a public school student, Rogers was active in a Wichita-area Parent-teacher organization (PTO), and aided fundraising for the Wichita Public Schools, including the district's bond drive in 2000. Rogers' first elected office was as a member of the Wichita School Board, where he served from 2001 to 2018.
During his tenure on the school board, Rogers switched his affiliation from the Republican Party to the
Democratic Party Democratic Party most often refers to:
*Democratic Party (United States)
Democratic Party and similar terms may also refer to:
Active parties Africa
*Botswana Democratic Party
*Democratic Party of Equatorial Guinea
*Gabonese Democratic Party
*Demo ...
, citing frustration with Republicans in attempts to gut support for the public schools.
Kansas Senate
In 2016, he was elected to the
Kansas Senate
The Kansas Senate is the upper house of the Kansas Legislature, the state legislature of the U.S. State of Kansas. It is composed of 40 senators elected from single-member districts, each with a population of at least 60,000 inhabitants. Members ...
's 25th district, replacing outgoing Republican Senator Michael O'Donnell, who vacated the seat to run for Sedgwick County Commissioner. In his time as a senator, Rogers worked to "reverse the Brownback- Colyer tax experiment and invest more in our schools." Rogers focused primarily on education, agricultural and banking issues.
In the Kansas Senate, senator
Laura Kelly
Laura Jeanne Kelly (born January 24, 1950)"Laura Kelly," ''Kansapedia,'' sat at the desk next to his, and became his mentor.
Lieutenant Governor
On May 24, 2018, Senator Kelly announced that she had selected Rogers as her running mate in the 2018 Kansas gubernatorial election. On November 6, 2018, Kelly and Rogers defeated the Republican gubernatorial ticket of Kris Kobach and
Wink Hartman
A wink is a facial expression made by briefly closing one eye. A wink is an informal mode of non-verbal communication usually signaling shared hidden knowledge or intent. However, it is ambiguous by itself and highly dependent upon additional ...
, as well as the independent ticket of
Greg Orman
Gregory John Orman (born December 2, 1968) is an American politician, businessman, and entrepreneur. He ran as an independent to represent Kansas in the United States Senate in the 2014 election, earning 42.5 percent of the vote and losing to i ...
and John Doll. Rogers became the first lieutenant governor from Wichita since fellow Democrat Thomas Docking served in the 1980s.
In addition to representing Kansas in official visits to other states, Rogers has spent much of his tenure traveling extensively throughout the state, engaging in political outreach, and visiting over half of the state's 105 counties.
Kansas Treasurer
In December 2020, Governor
Laura Kelly
Laura Jeanne Kelly (born January 24, 1950)"Laura Kelly," ''Kansapedia,'' announced that she had selected Rogers to replace Jake LaTurner as
Kansas State Treasurer
The State Treasurer of Kansas is the chief custodian of Kansas’s cash deposits, monies from bond sales, and other securities and collateral and directs the investments of those assets. The Treasurer provides for the safe and efficient operation ...
after LaTurner was elected to the
United States House of Representatives
The United States House of Representatives, often referred to as the House of Representatives, the U.S. House, or simply the House, is the lower chamber of the United States Congress, with the Senate being the upper chamber. Together they ...
. Rogers assumed office on January 2, 2021, with
David Toland
David C. Toland (born May 27, 1977) is an American politician and businessman concurrently serving as the 52nd lieutenant governor of Kansas and Kansas secretary of commerce.
Early life and education
A seventh-generation Kansas native, Toland w ...
succeeding him as Lieutenant Governor. He ran for a full term in
2022
File:2022 collage V1.png, Clockwise, from top left: Road junction at Yamato-Saidaiji Station several hours after the assassination of Shinzo Abe; Anti-government protest in Sri Lanka in front of the Presidential Secretariat; The global monkeypo ...
Rogers is married to Kris Rogers. They have grown children, including a son who serves as a staff attorney for the Oklahoma Supreme Court. They have a daughter who teaches in the Kansas City area, and another son "involved in ichita'sarts community."