(Updated to reflect second candidate)
A member of the Kansas Farm Bureau board and the mayor of Yates Center are seeking the House District 13 seat recently held by Larry Hibbard.
Farm Bureau board member Joe Newland and Yates Center Mayor Ben Weber on Tuesday confirmed they would seek the seat that Hibbard recently resigned from because of an illness.
Newland, who described himself as a conservative, was elected in 2011 to represent the Farm Bureau’s 3rd district made up of Allen, Bourbon, Cherokee, Crawford, Labette, Linn, Montgomery, Neosho, Wilson and Woodson counties.
“I want a conservative to maintain that seat,” Newland said.
“I’ve always said to younger people within the Farm Bureau organization that there’s life beyond Farm Bureau and that we need to be involved,” he said.
“I just feel it’s time that maybe I get involved at this level and see what we can do to help the state.”
Newland and his wife, Dana, farm 2,800 acres of wheat, corn, soybeans and hay. They also manage a 300 head cow-calf herd.
The Newland’s have four children: Justin, Wade, Tyler and Jackie.
Weber has been mayor of Yates Center for about 6 1/2 years and served on the city council previously. He estimates that he’s been involved in city government for about 10 years.
Weber is an entrepreneur who sells crop insurance and is involved in a number of business enterprises.
He initially attended Washburn University to play football as a wide receiver. His playing days were shortened by a severe shoulder injury.
He later finished his college education with a bachelor’s degree in education from Fort Hays State. He returned to Yates Center to help his hometown grow.
He said he became involved in city government to help foster growth and business development in rural Kansas. Going to the Legislature would give him a platform to help rural Kansas.
“I have five children and I wanted to get involved to make sure that if and when they graduate and go away to school that there is something to come back to,” Weber said in explaining why he became involved in city politics.
“This is an opportunity that would allow me to do that on a larger scale,” he said.
Precinct committee members will meet Saturday to pick Hibbard’s replacement in District 13, which covers Elk, Greenwood, Wilson and Woodson counties in the southeastern area of the state. There are 91 precinct members.
The district is decidedly conservative, going for President Donald Trump in 2016, former Gov. Sam Brownback in 2014 and Mitt Romey in 2012.
