Rob Hodgkinson is a 5th generation Kansan, Realtor, Safety trainer, CPR instructor, Brittany breeder,
Candidate for Kansas House of Representatives District 4
& a Kansas libertarian leader I have served as the Libertarian Party of Kansas Chair for a record total of 8 years. First elected in 2005 and served two, 2-year terms back-to-back. Elected again in 2013 to replace a chair who needed to
resign for personal reasons. After serving that year, I was reelected for two more years. I was again elected chair when another chair quit in 2021 for a one year term. A little detailed background:
I have voted in every Presidential election since turning 18 and have yet to vote for a R or D for that position. I have always instinctively known the two-party system is broken, it was later in life that I began to understand the reasons why. In college (K-State 1977 - 1981) I was always considered an oddball republican by my peers, I have always been fiscally responsible and yet I wrote English comp papers on the plight of the Palestinian people and their conflict with Israel making me seem like a democrat. My first run for public office happened as I had watched a State Representative run unopposed in the district I lived in and I decided enough of that – I would run against her to at the very least give a protest vote to the people. This was my first experience with Kansas election rules. I wanted to run as an Independent and went to Topeka to file for office as such. Found out that running as an independent was not easy to do – you can only run as an independent in Kansas with getting many signatures, and as I had showed up to file the day before the deadline (June 1992), no way that was going to happen. Since the incumbent was a Democrat – I re-registered from “unaffiliated” to republican and filed the paperwork to run as an R. Unbeknownst to me the local R party had recruited another candidate to run so I was involved in a primary competition. IN this competition I learned a ton, very quickly realizing that the R party had their agenda, and I was perceived as an odd outsider. I was invited to several R candidate events, however, was mostly shunned the times I attended. I lost that primary – however did much better that I thought I would when spending no money and still getting 34% of the vote. In 1996 I started my every 4-year looking for information on POTUS candidates outside the R & D’s when I found Harry Browne running. I was intrigued – however, at that time I was enamored of the possibility that Ross Perot (who I was not overly thrilled about) could pull off an upset; and I voted for Perot that year. Learned my lesson the hard way that a protest vote was not good enough. I moved to my present home in Stilwell KS the fall of 2000. It just happens to be roughly a quarter mile from the Missouri and Kansas state line. That Missouri / Kansas connection became important because at the time the Kansas LP was basically centered around Wichita, very, very little LP was happening on the KS side of the KC area then. In 1999 I saw Harry running again and started reading about him and the libertarian party. I realized I WAS LIBERTARIAN and wanted to get active to tell others. I got lucky in some ways, there was a local Missouri LP group active, and they welcomed me to get involved. After a short time learning from the Mo group, I contacted the LPKS to try and find out what I could do to help. I then decided to run for office *as that is what a political party is for after all…. I ran the first of two times for the Kansas House – just so happened that I was running against one of the most powerful Kansas Republicans at that time (Speaker of the House). What a way to get thrown into the deep end of politics. Again, I got lucky as the local Johnson County (JoCo) League of Women voters was highly active in trying to get all races visibility. They welcomed me into politics even though all of them were R or D. I received several invitations to candidate events thanks to their efforts. I did attend them and met a ton of people, learning although politics can get ugly, good people are generally involved. I also learned the underside of politics existed as I was recruited heavily by R opposition to the current Speaker to run in a primary rather than the general. I met with them, they were offering a ton of donations and other help. I just could not go that route and politely declined to keep running as a Libertarian. I also receive my first invitation to be part of a televised (recorded) forum/debate in 2002 and I jumped at the chance. My first public debate was against the then current Speaker of the House. He did not do any real work to get ready, thinking I was just some oddball and would not be coherent. I surprised him and everyone that saw that debate said I made him look bad, just by being informed and talking issues, solutions to those issue & not about him as a person. I ran again in 2004 for the same race – I raised more money, was more active and participated in more candidate events. The televised forum with the Speaker of the House was different this time as he came loaded for bear after what I did to him the previous election. I still held my own and prevailing thought was that the debate was a tossup. This year was a bit different because of my increased activities, I received the endorsement of a local newspaper (The Johnson County Sun) over the Republican and the Kansas City Star stayed neutral endorsing no-one. I received 2,280 votes 17.7% that election. While the above was happening I was actively learning more and more about libertarian thought and teaching methods. I went to Atlanta to attend a 2.5-day training from the Advocates for Self-Government called “the secrets of libertarian persuasion” A wonderful class that was taught by mainly by Harry Browne with help from Michael Cloud, Carla Howell & Sharon Harris. I returned to Atlanta 2004 to attend my first of many LP National conventions. January of 2005, I attended my first “State Chairs” convention **now known as the Libertarian State Leadership Alliance (LSLA) in St. I attended then as an officer for the LPKS *I was the Secretary to the state party then. Spring 2005 – the LPKS met for their state convention in Topeka, at a park shelter house. I was elected Chair for the first time. We had a lot of growing to do. I had a lot of learning to do – I immersed myself into KS election law and became THE Kansas expert in major/minor party regulations. At that time, I had to help the KSGEC (the state equivalent to the FEC) understand the differences in the rules, and not surprisingly they are quite different for a qualified minor party. Today there are maybe 2 other people in the state that know these regs as well as I do. To this day, when Richard Winger is having problems getting the KSSoS office to supply him with voter statistics, he calls me first to help him out. Most of the libertarian activity for Kansas at that time was based in the Wichita area, I was very aware we needed to be much more available/accessible across the state, and focused on getting other areas up and running, A Topeka local group got rolling as did a Johnson County group. Thanks to this small growth we were able to recruit more candidates for the 2006 election and I ran statewide for the first time for Kansas Secretary of State (KSSoS). I received 2.6% of the vote in a 4-way race and was one of 3 statewide libertarian candidates helping us keep our qualified “minor” party status by getting at least 1% of the vote. As a side effect of this 2006 statewide election for KSSoS - I started the initiative to intentionally increase the voter registration of L’s. Since then, the LPKS has increased voter registration **as Libertarian** every single year. We are one of a few states with more than 1% of voters registered as Libertarian today. in 2008 I ran for the State Senate against both an R & D getting 5.7% of the vote. This year was also fun as I had the chance to debate *again thanks to the LWV, Jeff Colyer who won that senate seat and who later became Governor of Kansas.
2008 was a good year for LPKS candidates, we ran a lot of candidates, all six federal candidate spots were filled (Potus, US Senate and 4 US House) My brother was the US Senate candidate and helped us keep ballot access by getting 2.1% of the vote in a 4-way race. We also had a first for the LPKS in that we ran more candidates in JoCo for the state house than did the D’s. And many those candidates were women. We are just ahead of our time. I helped the local LPKS group here in JoCo, in minor ways from 2009 to 2013. I also was part of the ExCom as an officer both as a 3rd district coordinator and as Vice-Chair. In 2013 our chair needed to resign for personal reasons and at that 2013 convention I was elected as State Chair to finish that term (1 yr) in 2014 I was elected to a full 2-year term serving to the spring of 2016. In 2018 I again ran statewide for Kansas Secretary of State. Helping the party again keep minor party status by receiving 3.53% of the vote. I also had a live forum televised by Washburn University in Topeka. This was the only time all 3 candidates were at the same event. All the feedback I received said I was easily the best that night, having knowledge of the issues discussed and presenting positive solutions to those issues that presented challenges for the state of Kansas. Over these last 20+ years I have testified in Topeka at many KS House and KS Senate hearings on issues/bills important to the LPKS. I am on a first name basis with almost all the current statewide office holders and know many members and leadership for both major parties in the State House and State Senate.
