A Republican dental hygienist from Leavenworth has filed to run for the House seat that will come open with Pat Proctor’s decision to run for secretary of state.
Ann Reinhart is running for the House District 41 seat that Proctor has held since 2021. Former Democratic lawmaker Jeff Pittman also is looking at running for the seat.
“I want to bridge the gap between Rep. Proctor as he seeks his candidacy for secretary of state,” Reinhart said in a statement.
“I firmly believe I have sustainable goals to propel Leavenworth forward into a prosperous economy and a better future,” she said.
Reinhart said she has lived in Leavenworth for five years after living in Seattle most of her life. She also lived for two years in Minnesota before moving to Kansas.
Reinhart said she was drawn to run for office by her great-grandfather, who served in the North Dakota House of Representatives.
“I have always been inspired by his work, his love for history as an ND historian, serving his community also as sheriff and lieutenant colonel in the Army,” she said in an email.
Reinhart said she grew up in an atmosphere where many of her friends’ parents were involved in politics.
“My true interest began in high school. I was a class officer and became a registered voter as a senior. My teachers had a big influence on my interest in politics,” she said.
“I began attending political meetings and found myself highly motivated,” she said.
“From a young adult age, I would interview my friends who had been a page at the state capital. I had friends who were great debaters and I would often help them prep for tournaments.”
Reinhart could face opposition from Pittman, who served two terms representing Kansas House District 41 from 2017 to 2020 before he was elected to the Kansas Senate.
He has formed an exploratory committee to look at running for the Legislature again.
Pittman lost his reelection bid to the Senate last year by 31 votes to Republican businessman Jeff Klemp, something he attributed to drawing new election boundaries that gave him new territory in the Basehor area that he said hurt his reelection effort.
The party composition of House District 41 is about 35% Republican, 38% unaffiliated and about 25% Democratic.
During the 2024 election, President Donald Trump carried the district with 57% of the vote compared to about 40% for Democrat Kamala Harris.
Four years earlier before redistricting, Trump received 55% of the vote here compared to about 42% for Democrat Joe Biden.
In 2022, Gov. Laura Kelly won the district with 50% of the vote to 45% for Derek Schmidt and 3% for Dennis Pyle.
Pittman said the new House District 41 lost parts of the city of Leavenworth during the last redistricting in 2022 in exchange for more rural areas of the county.
He said he wants to reach out to those new voters in the new precincts in the district and gauge whether he wants run again for the Kansas House.
Pittman was first elected to the House in 2016 and served two terms there before running for the Senate in 2020.
Pittman was elected to the House in 2016, when he defeated conservative Republican state Rep. Tony Barton with about 55% of the vote.
Pittman won a second term in the House in 2018 when he turned back Barton’s attempt at a comeback. He defeated Barton with 57% of the vote in 2018.
