TOPEKA — Former Republican Gov. Jeff Colyer officially launched his campaign in the 2022 race for governor on Monday.
He made the announcement during a news conference in Topeka. Kansas Senator Roger Marshall attended the news conference and announced his support for Colyer's bid to win the GOP nomination to run against Democrat Governor Laura Kelly.
In March, GOP Kansas Attorney General Derek Schmidt announced his campaign for governor.
Colyer was governor for a little less than a year after serving seven years as GOP Gov. Sam Brownback’s lieutenant governor. He rose to the higher office in January 2018, when Brownback resigned to become U.S. ambassador for international religious freedom under President Donald Trump.
Colyer, a reconstructive plastic surgeon and former state legislator from Overland Park, was the architect of much of Brownback’s health policy. They opposed expanding the state’s Medicaid health coverage for the needy, which Kelly has advocated without success in the Legislature.