TOPEKA, Kan. (AP) A conservative Wichita City Council member has unseated the Kansas Senate Education Committee’s chairwoman in the state’s Republican primary.
Michael O’Donnell defeated Sen. Jean Schodorf, a veteran moderate Republican, receiving 59 percent of the vote Tuesday in the 25th District.
Schodorf has held the seat since 2001 and served 12 years on the Wichita school board. But O’Donnell had the backing of the Kansas Chamber of Commerce and benefited from independent advertising by the anti-tax, small-government group Americans for Prosperity.
O’Donnell was elected to the city council in 2011, and he also works as communications director for companies operated by Wichita businessman Wink Hartman, who ran unsuccessfully for Congress in 2010.
On the Democratic side, Timothy Snow, a former small business owner from Wichita, led in final, unofficial results.
