Barbara Goolsbee Bollier (born January 13, 1958) is an American physician and politician. From 2017 to 2021, she was a member of 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 ...

representing the 7th district, which includes

Mission Hills, Kansas Mission Hills is a city in Johnson County, Kansas, United States, and part of the Kansas City Metropolitan Area. As of the 2020 census, the population of the city was 3,594. The east city limits is the Kansas-Missouri state line at State Line ...

in Johnson County. Bollier is a member of 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 ...

, after having left the Republican Party in 2018. Bollier was the Democratic nominee in the

2020 United States Senate election in Kansas The 2020 United States Senate election in Kansas was held on November 3, 2020, to elect a member of the United States Senate to represent the State of Kansas, concurrently with the 2020 U.S. presidential election, as well as other elections ...

, losing in the general election to Republican congressman Roger Marshall.

Early life and education

Barbara Goolsbee was born in Galveston, Texas, on January 13, 1958, while her father, Robert L. Goolsbee (1931–2015), was in his medical residency, and her mother, Betty, was a nurse, whom Goolsbee had met during an internship in Kansas City, Missouri. She grew up in

Fairway, Kansas Fairway is a city in Johnson County, Kansas, United States, and is included in the Kansas City Metropolitan Area census designation and the Shawnee Mission postal services designation. As of the 2020 census, the population of the city was 4,1 ...

, and

. After receiving an undergraduate degree at the

University of Kansas The University of Kansas (KU) is a public research university with its main campus in Lawrence, Kansas, United States, and several satellite campuses, research and educational centers, medical centers, and classes across the state of Kansas. T ...

, Bollier earned a

Doctor of Medicine Doctor of Medicine (abbreviated M.D., from the Latin ''Medicinae Doctor'') is a medical degree, the meaning of which varies between different jurisdictions. In the United States, and some other countries, the M.D. denotes a professional degree. T ...

degree from the

University of Kansas School of Medicine The University of Kansas School of Medicine is a public medical school located on the University of Kansas Medical Center campuses in Kansas City, Kansas, and also Salina, Kansas, and Wichita, Kansas. The Kansas City campus is co-located with ...

. Her residency at

Baylor College of Medicine Baylor College of Medicine (BCM) is a medical school and research center in Houston, Texas, within the Texas Medical Center, the world's largest medical center. BCM is composed of four academic components: the School of Medicine, the Graduate S ...

was in anesthesiology; her father too had attended

Baylor University Baylor University is a private Baptist Christian research university in Waco, Texas. Baylor was chartered in 1845 by the last Congress of the Republic of Texas. Baylor is the oldest continuously operating university in Texas and one of the ...

Medical career

After earning her M.D., Bollier joined her father's practice at Surgicenter of Kansas City. Bollier retired from medicine in 1999. She then began to volunteer with the Center for Practical Bioethics and became active with the Shawnee Mission Education Foundation Board.

Political career

Kansas House of Representatives

Bollier’s legislative career began in 2010 when Republican precinct committee members appointed her to replace Terrie Huntington who had been appointed to the Kansas Senate. From 2010 to 2012 Bollier represented the 25th district as a Republican in the

Kansas House of Representatives The Kansas House of Representatives is the lower house of the legislature of the U.S. state of Kansas. Composed of 125 state representatives from districts with roughly equal populations of at least 19,000, its members are responsible for crafti ...

. She represented the 21st House district from 2013-2017. Bollier did not have a Republican primary challenger in 2010 or 2012. In 2014 she faced Neil Melton, who received support from the conservative groups. Bollier won, 59 percent to 41 percent.

Kansas State Senate

In May 2016, Bollier ran for the

7th district, after state Senator Kay Wolf announced that she was retiring. Bollier won the seat by defeating Democrat Megan England, with 22,439 votes (54.3%) to 18,884 votes (45.6%). In July 2018, Kansas Senate President Susan Wagle removed Bollier as the Vice Chair of the Senate Public Health and Welfare Committee after she endorsed Democrat Tom Niermann's campaign for Congress. In the November 2018 election, Bollier supported the Democratic candidate for governor

Laura Kelly Laura Jeanne Kelly (born January 24, 1950)"Laura Kelly,"
''Kansapedia,''

over the Republican candidate, Secretary of State Kris Kobach. On December 12, 2018, Bollier changed her party affiliation to the Democratic Party, saying: "Morally, the party is not going where my compass resides. I'm looking forward to being in a party that represents the ideals that I do, including

Medicaid expansion In the context of American public healthcare policy, Medicaid coverage gap refers to uninsured people who reside in states which have opted out of Medicaid expansion under the Affordable Care Act (ACA), who are both ineligible for Medicaid unde ...

and funding our K–12 schools." Bollier said that the "breaking point" had been the Kansas Republican Party's inclusion of anti-transgender language in its platform. Bollier was one of three Kansas legislators to switch from the Republican Party to the Democratic Party in December 2018; the other two were state Representative Stephanie Clayton and state Senator Dinah Sykes.

2020 U.S. Senate election

On October 16, 2019, Bollier announced that she would run in the 2020 election for the

United States Senate The United States Senate is the upper chamber of the United States Congress, with the House of Representatives being the lower chamber. Together they compose the national bicameral legislature of the United States. The composition and pow ...

seat being vacated by the retiring

Pat Roberts Charles Patrick Roberts (born April 20, 1936) is a retired American politician and journalist who served as a United States senator from Kansas from 1997 to 2021. A member of the Republican Party, Roberts served 8 terms in the U.S. House of Rep ...

. The next day, former

United States Attorney United States attorneys are officials of the U.S. Department of Justice who serve as the chief federal law enforcement officers in each of the 94 U.S. federal judicial districts. Each U.S. attorney serves as the United States' chief federal ...

for Kansas

Barry Grissom Barry Ray Grissom (born April 12, 1954) is an American attorney who served as the United States Attorney for the District of Kansas from 2010 to 2016. On July 1, 2019, Barry Grissom officially launched his campaign for the Democratic Party nomi ...

dropped out of the race and endorsed Bollier. Grissom's withdrawal from the race came despite his having raised almost half a million dollars in contributions during the previous quarter. His departure left Bollier as the party's clear frontrunner in the primary. She won the Democratic primary on August 4, 2020, with 87.5% of the vote. In the general election, she faced the Republican nominee, congressman Roger Marshall, the congressman for Kansas's 1st congressional district, who defeated

Kansas Secretary of State The secretary of state of Kansas is one of the constitutional officers of the U.S. state of Kansas. The current secretary of state is the former speaker ''pro tempore'' of the Kansas House of Representatives, Scott Schwab, who was sworn in on Ja ...

Kris Kobach in the Republican primary. Bollier's senate candidacy was endorsed by former Democratic Governor

Kathleen Sebelius Kathleen Sebelius (; née Gilligan, born May 15, 1948) is an American businesswoman and politician who served as the 21st United States secretary of Health and Human Services from 2009 until 2014. As Secretary of Health and Human Services, Sebeli ...

. The Sebelius endorsement came after Sebelius referenced Bollier's history of almost a decade of consistent support for fully funding schools,

Medicaid Expansion In the context of American public healthcare policy, Medicaid coverage gap refers to uninsured people who reside in states which have opted out of Medicaid expansion under the Affordable Care Act (ACA), who are both ineligible for Medicaid unde ...

, and the repeal of what she called former Governor

Sam Brownback Samuel Dale Brownback (born September 12, 1956) is an American attorney, politician, diplomat, and member of the Republican Party (United States), Republican Party who served as the United States Ambassador-at-Large for International Religious Fr ...

's " devastating tax experiment." On September 1, 2020, she published a list of 75 Republican current and former Kansas officeholders who supported her campaign. Bollier was also endorsed by

Nancy Kassebaum Nancy Jo Kassebaum Baker (née Landon; born July 29, 1932) is an American politician who represented the State of Kansas in the United States Senate from 1978 to 1997. She is the daughter of Alf Landon, who was Governor of Kansas from 1933 to 1 ...

, a Republican former U.S. senator. During her 2020 campaign, Bollier called for defending and expanding the Affordable Care Act. She does not support

Medicare for All Single-payer healthcare is a type of universal healthcare in which the costs of essential healthcare for all residents are covered by a single public system (hence "single-payer"). Single-payer systems may contract for healthcare services from ...

. Bollier lost to Marshall by a 12 point margin.

Personal life

While in medical school, Bollier met her husband Rene Bollier, a family medicine physician in Kansas City. Their son Bobby Bollier is an American professional swimmer who was a 14-time NCAA All-American while at Stanford University before attending George Washington University Law School.

Electoral history

2020

2016

References

External links

Campaign website

Senator Barbara Bollier
state legislature website * , - , - , - {{DEFAULTSORT:Bollier, Barbara 1958 births 20th-century American women physicians 20th-century American physicians 21st-century American women physicians 21st-century American physicians 21st-century American politicians 21st-century American women politicians American anesthesiologists Kansas Democrats Kansas Republicans Kansas state senators Living people People from Galveston, Texas People from Mission Hills, Kansas Physicians from Kansas Physicians from Texas University of Kansas alumni Women state legislators in Kansas Candidates in the 2020 United States Senate elections Women anesthesiologists