It wasn’t too long ago that the big question about Jake LaTurner’s political career was just how high he could go. He won a Kansas state Senate seat in his 20s, and then the treasurer’s race at 30, making him the nation’s youngest statewide elected official. He joined the House two years later, scored a coveted Appropriations Committee appointment and seemed to be on a glide path to the top.
Now LaTurner is heading for the exits, saying he’d rather spend time with his family than on “ridiculous” intraparty squabbling.
“I’m a very conservative Republican who understands that you can’t get 100 percent of what you want 100 percent of the time, and so that requires that you actually act as a legislator and build coalitions around ideas and get them passed and allow the normal process to work,” he said in an interview earlier this month as he served out his second and final term in the House.
