Kansas political battles await after 5 Republicans decline to seek reelection to Board of Education

TOPEKA — In an extraordinary turn of events, five Republican incumbents on the Kansas Board of Education due to stand for reelection this year decided to step aside.

Fourteen candidates filed by the June 1 deadline to campaign for state Board of Education seats up for grabs in 2026. Every two years, five of 10 state board positions appear on Kansas ballots. While Republicans prepare for contested primaries Aug. 4 in three of five district races, Democrats fielded a single candidate in all five districts.

The openings were created by pending departure of three-term incumbent Jim Porter of Fredonia and two-term member Michelle Dombrosky of Olathe, who accepted an offer to be lieutenant governor running mate for GOP gubernatorial candidate Charlotte O’Hara. The one-term incumbents declining to seek reelection were Danny Zeck of Leavenworth, Cathy Hopkins of Hays and Dennis Hershberger of Hutchinson.

Three of the five state Board of Education members not up for reelection until 2028 are Democrats, so this election cycle could reset the partisan balance for the next two years. A current GOP majority on the board oversees the Kansas Department of Education and maintains constitutional supervision of K-12 education policy and standards applicable to 475,000 public school students.

In the Third District in Johnson County, the GOP primary features former state board member Steve Roberts, who is rebounding from an unsuccessful political career pivot. Roberts lost a 2020 bid for U.S. Senate and a November campaign for the Blue Valley school board.

His rival in the Third District primary is Jim McMullen, who was ousted from the Blue Valley school board by voters in 2025. In 2022, McMullen was stripped of his vice presidency of the Blue Valley school board after posting to social media that it was imperative society stand against transgender advocacy because it invited “kids to hate their God-given bodies.” He said students were victims of ideological poisoning, and he compared trans health care to child abuse.

The winner of the McMullen and Roberts contest would take on Democrat Amy Diediker, a former Olathe music teacher. She said every Kansas student deserved access to a “high-quality school, safe and supportive learning environments and opportunities that prepare them for college, careers and life.”

Reading, graduation rate

In central Kansas’ Seventh District, Salina school board member Ann Zimmerman, a Democrat, and Abilene home-school cooperative founder Alana McWilliams, a Republican, will run unopposed in the primary.

McWilliams, who has two children with dyslexia, started a business, Designed to Learn, to provide tutoring for students struggling with reading and writing. She said her campaign would concentrate on advancing reading proficiency among public school students.

“Three of four Kansas students are not reading at grade level,” she said. “We cannot keep telling families to wait while children fall further behind.”

She alleged the state Board of Education responded to low reading assessment scores by implementing a “softer test” in an attempt to quickly boost outcomes in Kansas.

Zimmerman, a graduate of Kansas State University and the Harvard law school, was elected to the Salina school board in 2023. In Salina, she has worked as a professional mediator. Her priorities for the state Board of Education included improving on the state’s 90.5% high school graduation rate.

“To get there,” Zimmerman said, “we need to increase the sense of belonging for students across the board from preschool to seniors, low-income to high, light skinned to dark, girls and boys and every variation.”

The Fifth District campaign involves one Democrat and two Republicans, including a former member of the state Board of Education.

Jean Clifford, a Garden City resident who ran for reelection to the state board in 2022 but lost the GOP primary to Hopkins, is attempting a comeback. Clifford, spouse of Republican state Sen. Bill Clifford, is a retired U.S. Air Force attorney who served on the Garden City school board.

In the past, Clifford emphasized expansion of broadband to support rural schools and objected to instruction informed by the existence of systematic racism. She said critical race theory had no place in K-12 curriculum and “should not be taught explicitly, implicitly or in the organizations, clubs or activities of Kansas public schools.”

Kelly Ancar, a Hays Republican operating Amazing Grace Home Care and the Horseshoe Bar & Grill, filed to oppose Clifford in the Fifth District primary. Ancar was unsuccessful in a campaign for Hays school board but filed in anticipation of applying business principles to operation of the state board.

“I understand policies and understand the economics of running a business, and the school board can be looked at that way,” she told the Hays Post.

The winner of that primary would appear on the November ballot against Lorie Wood, a Democrat from Dresden with 30 years of experience in education.

‘Focused on education’

The First District contest matches Republican Amy Cawvey of Lansing against Democrat Jennifer Lloyd of Ozawkie. Lloyd is an elementary school librarian at Jefferson West. Cawvey served one term on the Lansing school board before departing in 2025. She leads the Kansas chapter of the National School Boards Coalition, which strives to promote school choice, transparency and accountability.

“Grateful that I will not have a primary and now heading to the general election. So much needs to change with Kansas education,” Cawley said.

In the Ninth District, a three-way Republican primary must determine which candidate opposes Democrat Heather Guernsey of Chanute in November. Guernsey earned an education degree at Emporia State University and taught school in Olathe before moving to Chanute. In 2021, she won a seat on Chanute’s school board.

“I’m running because I believe every child deserves an excellent education,” she said. “It shouldn’t matter where you live or what your parents can afford. Kansas students and parents deserve leaders who will listen, stay focused on education and work collaboratively to support strong schools in every community.”

The district’s Republican primary features Fort Scott Superintendent Destry Brown, Paola school board member Kristian Gerken and Parker resident Renee Slinkard, who was unsuccessful in a bid for a seat on the Prairie View School District’s board.