Jeff Colyer

Early life and education

Colyer was raised in Hays, where his father worked as a dentist. He graduated from Thomas More Prep High School before enrolling at Georgetown University, where in 1981 he earned an undergraduate degree in economics and took pre-med courses. After receiving a master's degree in International Relations from Clare Hall, Cambridge in 1982, he obtained his Doctor of Medicine degree from the University of Kansas in 1986.

Colyer had residency training in general surgery at the Washington Hospital Center (1986–1988, 1989–1991); in plastic surgery at the University of Missouri–Kansas City (1991–1993); and in craniofacial/pediatric plastic surgery at the International Craniofacial Institute in Dallas, Texas (1993–1994).

Colyer was a White House Fellow under Presidents Ronald Reagan and George H.W. Bush, working in international affairs.

Medical career

In 1994, Colyer opened his own plastic/craniofacial surgeries in Overland Park, Kansas and Kansas City, Missouri. He volunteers with the International Medical Corps, providing care in such areas as Iraq, Rwanda, Kosovo, Sierra Leone, and Afghanistan where he performed both trauma and reconstructive surgery as well as training local doctors.

Political career

In the 2002 U.S. House of Representatives elections, Colyer was an unsuccessful candidate for the Republican nomination in Kansas's 3rd congressional district; he was defeated by Adam Taff, who lost the general election to incumbent Democrat Dennis Moore.

In 2006, Colyer was elected to the Kansas House of Representatives from the 48th district, receiving 62% in a three-way race. As a freshman legislator, he was selected to serve as chairman of the 2007 Legislative Health Reform Task Force. In 2008, he was elected to the Kansas Senate to represent the 37th district, receiving 63% in another three-way race.

Committee assignments

Colyer served on these legislative committees:

Source of funds

According to the National Institute on Money in State Politics:, Colyer financed $25,000 of his own campaign.

Gubernatorial campaigns

On June 1, 2010, U.S. Senator Sam Brownback announced that Jeff Colyer would be his running mate. Brownback and Colyer were elected on November 2, 2010, and assumed office in January 2011. Colyer resigned his state Senate seat on January 10, 2011, prior to taking the oath of office as lieutenant governor.

Birtherism

Despite numerous judges having rejected challenges to the natural born citizenship of Barack Obama, since before he was elected president in 2008, Kansas Secretary of State Kris Kobach persistently demanded proof of citizenship before allowing Obama's name to appear on the 2012 Kansas presidential ballot. In September 2012, while leading the State Objections Board, and supported by Colyer and Kansas Attorney General Derek Schmidt, Kobach requested additional evidence that Obama was born in the United States. According to the Topeka Capitol-Journal, the three said they did not have sufficient evidence to whether or not Obama was eligible to appear on the Kansas ballot as a candidate for the 2012 presidential election. They stated a need to review his birth certificate and other documents from Hawaii, Arizona, and Mississippi, before they could respond to a complaint alleging that the president was not a "natural born citizen." "Given the cursory response from President Obama, the Board is merely attempting to obtain additional information before making a decision," said Kobach's spokesperson. The New York Times editorialized that the actions of the Kansas authorities "reignited long-running conspiracy theories that the president was not born in the United States." CNN reported that "the Kansas ballot measure is one of several examples of the birther movement's still-persistent presence."

2014 gubernatorial election

In October 2013, Kansas state representative Paul Davis, the Democratic minority leader of the Kansas House of Representatives, announced he would challenge Brownback in the 2014 Kansas gubernatorial election.

In July 2014, more than 100 Kansas Republican officials endorsed his Democratic opponent Davis. These Kansas Republicans said their concern was related to deep cuts in education and other government services as well as the tax cuts that have left the state with a major deficit.

In late September 2014, Tim Keck, chief of staff for Colyer, Brownback's running mate, unearthed and publicized a 1998 police report that noted that Davis, 26 and unmarried at the time, had been briefly detained during a raid on a strip club. Davis claimed he had been taken there by his new boss at a law firm that represented the club. Davis was found to have no involvement in the cause for the raid and quickly allowed to leave. The incident and its publication were seen as particularly advantageous for Brownback, who until then had trailed badly in polling, as it could be expected to become the focus of a typical 30-second campaign ad used to characterize his opponent.

Responding to criticism of Keck's involvement in the campaign, Brownback spokesman Paul Milburn commented that it was legal to use taxpayer-paid staff to campaign, responding directly to the controversy, saying, "Paul Davis must have spent too much time in VIP rooms at strip clubs back in law school...[because he] should know full well that the law allows personal staff of the governor’s office to work on campaign issues." In Kansas, however, getting records about crimes that law enforcement has investigated is difficult. The Legislature closed those records to the public over three decades earlier: If members of the public desire incident reports and investigative files, they normally have to sue to obtain them, cases sometimes costing $25,000 or more. Media law experts were amazed after learning Montgomery County's sheriff released non-public investigative files from 1998 with just a records request. Mike Merriam, media lawyer for the Kansas Press Association called the incident "unusual" and added, “they have denied releasing records routinely over and over and over again.” Brownback's campaign capitalized on the 16-year-old incident and distracted the public from criticisms of his own controversial policies.

Brownback and Colyer were reelected, defeating the Davis ticket by a 3.69 percent margin. His appointment of Keck as Secretary of the Department of Aging and Disability was confirmed on January 18, 2017.

On July 26, 2017, Governor Sam Brownback was nominated by President Donald Trump to be U.S. Ambassador-at-Large for International Religious Freedom in Washington, DC. If confirmed by the Senate, Brownback's departure would make Colyer governor.