Kansas Senate minority leader challenges GOP House speaker for state insurance commissioner

TOPEKA — Kansas Senate Minority Leader Dinah Sykes will run for state insurance commissioner, vowing to decline any campaign contributions from the insurance industry.

Sykes, a Lenexa Democrat, announced her intention Thursday to challenge House Speaker Dan Hawkins, a previously uncontested Republican from Wichita with decades of experience in insurance.

She described a platform focused on lowering costs, consumer protection and holding "big insurance companies accountable."

"It's simple: The cost of health insurance in Kansas is simply out of control," Sykes said in the announcement. "Families and consumers can't afford to keep up with the rise in premiums — on health care, auto, property or any other kind of insurance for that matter."

She said she will not "take a single dime from the insurance industry."

Sykes was elected to the Senate in 2016 as a Republican, switching parties during her first term. She was elected minority leader in 2020 and has held the position since. Before her tenure in the Legislature, Sykes ran her own business as a personal chef and a PTA president. She is a mother to two boys and married.

Hawkins announced his candidacy in May, rooting it in conservative values and deregulating the state's insurance marketplace, which he speculated could lower costs and make insurance easier to navigate.

The insurance commissioner oversees the Kansas Insurance Department, which regulates insurance companies operating in the state. The current commissioner, Vicki Schmidt, is running for the Republican nomination for governor.

Hawkins said in a statement he and Sykes have a good working relationship, and he welcomed a spirited campaign. But, he said, "we arrive at things from a very different perspective politically and quite frankly, fiscally." He said his focus is on increasing competition, easing marketplace navigation issues and ensuring people are not wrongly denied coverage.

He liked Sykes' policy focus to "Zohran Mamdani-like woke politics," referencing the newly elected Democratic mayor of New York City.

Former insurance commissioner and Democratic Gov. Kathleen Sebelius and former insurance commissioner Sandy Praeger, a Republican, threw their support behind Sykes.

"As long as I've known Dinah, she's stood up for what's right and fought for Kansas families," Sebelius said in the announcement.

Praeger said Sykes is a practical leader, focused on garnering results over partisanship.

"Kansans want leaders who will listen to them and fight against unfair and discriminatory practices by the industry," she said.