Republican National Committeeman Mike Pompeo has filed to run for the congressional seat being vacated by Rep. Todd Tiahrt, R-Goddard.
Pompeo is the second candidate to formally enter the race for the Kansas 4th District seat. State Sen. Dick Kelsey filed last month. Both are members of the party’s conservative wing.
A West Point graduate and former Army officer, Pompeo is president of Sentry International, an oilfield and industrial machinery company. He is a founding partner of the aviation subcontracting firm Thayer Aerospace.
A self-described “pro-life Republican,” Pompeo vowed in a statement announcing his candidacy to fight the Obama Administration, which he said “is promoting central planning and a larger government at the expense of future generations.”
Pompeo’s filing in the race was not unexpected. He signaled his intentions at the Republican Kansas Day event on Jan. 31, the same day that Tiahrt announced he would give up his House seat to run against 1st District Rep. Jerry Moran, R-Hays, for the U.S. Senate seat being vacated by Sen. Sam Brownback, R-Topeka.
Pompeo and Kelsey are the first two in what is expected to be a crowded Republican primary for the rare vacant House seat.
Other names that have surfaced as potentially in play include state Rep. Steve Brunk, R-Bel Aire; former Bush Administration political aide Matt Schlapp; Schlapp’s mother, Wichita City Council member Sue Schlapp; state Sen. Susan Wagle, R-Wichita; state Sen. Carolyn McGinn, R-Sedgwick; state Senate Majority Leader Derek Schmidt, R-Independence and Wichita businessman and entrepreneur Wink Hartman.
On the Democratic side, state Rep. Raj Goyle of Wichita has been mentioned as a possible candidate, although he has made no announcements of his intentions.