Surgeon, former Kan. governor signals intention to run again for top spot

TOPEKA, Kan. (KWCH) - A Johnson County surgeon and well-known conservative Republican who led Kansas as the state’s 47th governor for about a year after serving as Sam Brownback’s lieutenant governor for seven years, signaled his intention to run again for the top spot.

Jeff Colyer, 64, moved closer to solidifying his run by announcing Kansas Rep. Kyle Hoffman, the state’s assistant majority leader, as his pick for campaign treasurer.

“We are incredibly grateful to Assistant Majority Leader Kyle Hoffman for agreeing to be our campaign treasurer. Kyle is a leading voice for rural Kansas and a great advocate for fiscal responsibility and conservative values. He’s going to be a huge asset as we carry our winning message to every county in Kansas,” Colyer said in a news release announcing the selection.

Colyer is seeking his first full term as governor and looking to win the post in an election for the first time. He served as Brownback’s lieutenant governor from January 2011 to January 2018 and was governor for about a year after Brownback stepped down to accept President Donald Trump’s appointment as the 5th United States Ambassador-at-Large for International Religious Freedom.

In 2018, Colyer ran for a full term as Kansas governor, but narrowly lost the Republican primary to Kris Kobach, Kansas’ current attorney general. Kelly defeated Kobach in the 2018 election and replaced Colyer in January 2019. Kelly, who was reelected in 2022, is not eligible for a third term and can’t run next year.

Colyer initially announced another run for governor in 2021 but backed out in August of that year, citing a prostate cancer diagnosis. In the 2022 gubernatorial election, Colyer endorsed fellow Republican and then Kansas Attorney General Derek Schmidt, who lost to Kelly but in 2024, went on to win a seat in the U.S. House of Representatives, serving Kansas’ 2nd congressional district.

The former governor has stayed politically active, recently serving as Donald Trump’s 2024 Kansas Chairman in the presidential election that saw the 45th president also become the 47th president.

Colyer joins a group of five other Republicans who’ve announced a run for governor in the November 2026 election. A primary next August will determine who will advance to November’s ballot.

The first to announce their intention to run for governor was Stacy Rogers, a business owner from Wichita who formally announced her candidacy for Kansas governor on Nov. 6. Rogers owns Eberly Far and Kid’s Closet Wichita, as well as a nationwide franchising company. Two other women are seeking the Republican nod: former state representative Charlotte O’Hara and Joy Eakins, a former Wichita school board member and founder of Cornerstone, a data analytics firm. If one of these three is ultimately elected, they would be the first female Republican governor of Kansas.

Following Rogers, Kansas Secretary of State Scott Schwab. Schwab announced his campaign in January, two years before the next governor will take over.

Last week, Doug Billings, a podcaster who calls himself a “MAGA conservative outsider,” threw his name in the ring and was the first to file for the Kansas Republican Party’s nomination in 2026.

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