Tobias Schlingensiepen (D) – community leader and pastor of Topeka’s First Congregational Church – announced Tuesday he is forming a committee to run for the United States House of Representatives in Kansas’s 2nd Congressional District.
“After talking with many people around the 2nd Congressional District and thoughtful deliberation with my wife and children, I have decided to form a committee to run for the U.S. House of Representatives in the 2nd District.”
“We have important business here in Kansas and throughout our nation that requires a spirit of hard work and compromise that is currently absent in Washington. I have heard over and over again from the people of the 2nd District that they want a representative who believes it is more important to get people back to work, make sure our economy rewards innovation and a strong work ethic, and addresses our nation’s ever-expanding deficit than scoring short term political points.”
“Sadly, the politics of brinkmanship and gridlock rule in our nation’s capitol. Compromise and progress are losing out to partisan politics and personal agendas. Every day, American workers are struggling to get by, but those in Washington are too caught up in scoring partisan political points to notice or care. The people of the Second District deserve the opportunity to say enough is enough. I am running to give them that opportunity. In the weeks ahead I will be out talking and listening to the people of the 2nd district and asking them to join me in changing the way Washington works.”
Schlingensiepen has been serving the Shawnee County community for over 12 years. He has been pastor of Topeka’s First Congregational Church for 6 years and a police chaplain for 12 years. With the support of his congregation and church administrators, he will be taking a leave of absence from the duties of pastor for the balance of the campaign. Schlingensiepen is the proud father of four children and lives in Topeka with his wife Abigail.
Schlingensiepen plans to do a more formal announcement in the weeks ahead with a tour around the 2nd Congressional District.
(Photo Courtesy of Tom Harrington)
