Republican precinct leaders on Wednesday night elected a former top aide to the state Senate president to serve in the Senate.
Precinct committee leaders from Senate District 27 picked Chase Blasi to replace Gene Suellentrop over former Sedgwick County Commissioner Karl Peterjohn. The vote was 51-14.
“I’m grateful to the voters and humbled to be elected tonight to the Kansas Senate, an institution I greatly admire and respect,” Blasi said in an email.
“I am ready to get to work representing our conservative west Sedgwick county values,” he said.
“My campaign message was about the future – a future that leaves our state better than we found it.
“I look forward to joining the Republican supermajority to lead the fight to make Kansas a great place to raise a family and grow a small business.“
Sullentrop is resigning from the Senate after the first of the year.
First elected to the Senate in 2016, Suellentrop had risen to the rank of majority leader in his second term, but was forced out of the position in 2021 after he was arrested on a drunk-driving charge.
A native of Colwich and now a resident of Wichita, Blasi joined the Senate president’s office in June 2017.
He joined then-Senate President Susan Wagle’s office as her legislative director.
Blasi became her chief of staff in October 2019.
He continued on when Senate President Ty Masterson succeeded her in January 2021. He worked as chief of operations for Masterson.
Before joining the Senate president’s office, he worked for the Department of Revenue as its legislative liaison. He is a graduate of Newman University.
He now works for Evergy in community relations.
Peterjohn, 72, had served on the Sedgwick County Commission from 2009 to 2017.
Peterjohn also had been executive director of the Kansas Taxpayers Network up until he was elected to the county commission.
He headed that group for about 15 years before it later merged with Americans for Prosperity.
Blasi had the support of his old boss, Senate President Ty Masterson.
“If elected, Chase will be a force for our conservative values in the Senate,” Masterson said in a letter supporting Blasi.
“He will work to secure our elections, keep men out of girls’ sports, balance the budget, and keep our streets safe by putting criminals in prison where they belong,” Masterson wrote.
