State Senator Dennis Pyle launches bid for governor as independent

TOPEKA, Kan. (WIBW) - State Senator Dennis Pyle will run for Kansas Governor as an independent and has officially named his running mate, but the pair needs petition signatures in order to appear on the ballot.

Senator Pyle made the announcement on Tuesday, June 7, that he is running for governor, but the former republican recently changed his party to unaffiliated in order to pursue the office.

Pyle is a Hiawatha resident who served one term in the Kansas House and currently serves in the Kansas Senate, District 1 which covers five counties in NE Kansas.

Pyle has also selected his running-mate for Lt. Governor as Kathleen E. Garrison from Haysville, Kansas. Garrison also changed her party affiliation to Unaffiliated to pursue the office of Lt. Governor. Since Pyle and Garrison missed the deadline to file for the Governor’s race, they must gather 5,000 qualified voters’ signatures by August 1 in order to appear on the November ballot.

Garrison has been a business owner for more than 25 years. She earned her Bachelor’s of Science in Political Science, with a 4.0-grade point average (GPA), back in 2019. Then in 2020, she continued to earn her Executive MS in Diplomacy and International Relations from Seton Hall University.

Following Pyle’s announcement, C.J. Grover, spokesperson for presumed Republican nominee Derek Schmidt’s campaign, released the following statement:

“Dennis Pyle is a fake conservative who just wants attention. He stood with pro-abortion legislators to nearly derail the Value them Both amendment. He sided with Laura Kelly, Hillary Clinton’s lawyers, and the ACLU against our Republican majority in the Legislature on redistricting maps. Now, he’s trying to help Laura Kelly and Joe Biden again with a vanity run for governor.”

Emma O’Brien, spokesperson for the Kansas Democratic Party said Pyle’s filing is a sign Schmidt lacks support from his own party:

“As Republicans flock to support Governor Laura Kelly because of her track record as a fiscally responsible and unifying leader, Schmidt continues to have problems with his own party. First, he was forced to pick an unknown political operative as his running mate on the last day of filing despite being the presumptive nominee for almost a year, and now a Republican legislator who served with Schmidt launched a third party campaign – starting with an attack on Schmidt. It’s clear there’s no confidence in Schmidt’s ability to be Kansas’ next Governor.”

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