The Kansas State Chamber and the Kansas Republican Party

Ah, such a tale of intertwined agendas which include the Democrat party.  I shall begin when I was a freshman legislator in 2011. All gung-ho to attend a Koch Industries’ luncheon believing this conglomerate was a bastion of conservatism, I was shocked when I sat down with my sandwich and listened to the speaker lauding the wonders of illegal immigration providing cheap labor in Kansas!!!

What???? Well, I got up, threw my sandwich into the trash and left.  Naturally no other Republican legislator followed me since Koch Industries has direct ties to the Kansas State Chamber which runs and funds parallel campaigns for the Republicans they endorse. Ah, the tangles we are bought into.  Yes, bought into.

However, this story goes much deeper and is very interesting in that the Democrat Party follows and supports the State Chamber’s/Koch Industries’ two favorite policy positions: tax incentives and illegal immigration.

The tax incentive collaboration is openly celebrated as BIPARTISANSHIP with photo ops of Republican Senate President Ty Masterson and Speaker of the House Dan Hawkins standing alongside Governor Laura Kelly on the Chiefs’ Stadium $6 billion, Panasonic’s $1 billion and passage of SB 98 giving 20-year sales tax exemptions to data centers with a yet to be determined price tag. Yes, indeed, Kansans sold down the river of billionaire special interests through tax incentives. And the list of special deals for special people is stunning.

But, what about illegal immigration?  That is hidden from the public’s view as this dirty little secret is best kept under wraps. But, as I reported in the first part of this article it does emerge occasionally and did in 2012 as a group of 8 Kansas House conservatives, of which I was one, were proponents of an E-Verify bill. That shouldn’t have been a lift in a Republican controlled Kansas House and Senate, right?  However, there was no way for us to proceed through the committee structure since Republican leadership vehemently opposed ANY E-Verify.

So, we hid in the weeds with an amendment ready to spring into action should a germane bill come onto the floor for a vote. Even though leadership was quite aware of our amendment, they missed one bill. Miraculously our E-Verify amendment was found germane. Mike O’Neal, Speaker of the House, called for a voice vote and declared that it failed. We requested division and a recorded vote and amazingly when the light was on the rats (also known as RINOs) the amendment passed!!

Our celebration was short lived as Speaker O’Neal in conference committee made sure the amendment was stripped out of the final bill.  All of our hard work laid on the floor of dead bills and amendments of the Kansas Legislature. However, there is one other interesting turn in this story as Speaker O’Neal was hired as the State Chamber’s CEO in September 2012, a few short months after the massacre of the E-Verify amendment.  Yes, indeed, Mike O’Neal was both the Republican Speaker of the Kansas House and CEO of the Kansas Chamber until January of 2013.

In 2026, our Kansas Legislature failed to pass SB 254 which would have banned all state money providing services for illegal aliens at a cost of $600 million annually. It did pass both the Kansas House and Senate, but was vetoed by Governor Kelly.  However, both Senate President Ty Masterson and Speaker of the House Dan Hawkins refused to bring the bill up for a veto override in our Republican SUPER MAJORITY House and Senate. What a convenient way to carry water for the Kansas State Chamber.

One more little twist. I was the ONLY Republican gubernatorial candidate who qualified for the Republican State Party’s debates not invited to the June 25th Kansas State Chamber’s gubernatorial forum, though all three of the Democrat gubernatorial candidates were invited. Gee, I wonder why?

Note: My op-ed with the Star’s edits was posted 7/22/2026 and can be found here https://www.kansascity.com/opinion/article316611533.html

Tim McCabe granted permission for the accompanying cartoon to be used by the Kansas City Star.

Also, corrected a mistake and changed “corroboration” to “collaboration”.  OOPS!!!

God Bless,

Charlotte O’Hara
Republican for Kansas Governor, 2026