ELLY GRIMM
• Leader & Times
One of the many offices up for grabs in this year’s election cycle is the Kansas Secretary of State, and Samuel Lane is one of the names in that hat.
As Lane tells it, he is not a typical politician.
“I currently work in construction materials testing, and for a long time, I worked in a wide variety of what some would consider 'low-end' jobs because I graduated college not too long before the 2008 economic situation happened and that whole 'go to college and you'll get a great job' didn't end up happening for me,” Lane said. “I got into politics because I've always been interested in activism and I've been rather politically-minded for a lot of my life, but I had to focus more on making ends meet and supporting myself, so I stayed out of that sector for the most part. But I ended up not being a fan of the direction the country was going, so I decided I wanted to do something about that. I did some research to learn about what offices would be up for election and what work would be entailed with those positions, and I ultimately decided on the secretary of state's office because protecting voting rights is really fundamental to everything else – if we don't have a proper democracy, we can't function the way we're supposed to.”
Like many other of this year’s candidates, Lane said recent events spurred him into running for political office.
“When Kris Kobach was secretary of state, he introduced a lot of Draconian voter security measures, and remembering that really convinced me the secretary of state is a really important job and needs to be taken seriously,” Lane said. “I was not a fan of his methods or the measures he introduced because while they're dressed up as 'voter security,' they're actually more about voter suppression when you dig deeper into the details. It's not right to make it harder for people to vote. It's possible to have secure elections without taking such harsh measures to keep people away from the polls, whether that's shutting down polling locations or cutting early voting, etc. I had considered running for the Kansas House or Senate, but the issues that come before them are way more complicated than I'm qualified for – especially with all economics, there's an affordability crisis going on, and I don't have the expertise that could help fix that. I decided to run for secretary of state because that office focuses a lot on voting rights, and I think I can help with that.”
Ultimately, Lane declared his candidacy last year.
“I actually declared my candidacy slightly more than a year ago when Trump was a short time into this current term, and everything going on in Washington DC was still rather fresh in my mind. At that time, I had no competition,” Lane said. “I'm new to politics, and I'm actually not involved with the Democratic Party – I actually switched from Independent to Democrat specifically so I could run without splitting the vote. At that time, I'd talked with some people with the Kansas Democratic Party, and they told me there were a couple other people kind of kicking around the idea of running for secretary of state but hadn't officially decided yet, so that was another factor that made me decide this would be my race to run in. The campaign trail has been rather a learning experience so far because I don't really have an established name or a lot of money to my name, but I have some great people working for me and I'm still learning a lot.”
Lane said his ultimate goal, should he be elected to the position, is to help Kansas elections be safe and secure and free.
“I want to help keep elections secure. Kansas actually has pretty good rules in place right now – I've talked to multiple county commissioners and election commissioners/officials in multiple parts of the state, and I'm really impressed by what I've seen and learned. I want to keep that up and make sure all the rules are being followed properly,” Lane said. “There are people claiming there's rigging and massive election fraud, and while I don't think that is happening at all, I do encourage those investigations to happen when necessary because this has gotten to be such a partisan issue and I do want people to feel secure when voting. I've also heard rumors the current secretary of state spends only one day a week in the office, so if there's not much of an office time commitment, I can spend a lot of time on the road and going throughout the state and visit every county in the state and check in with their election officials about how everything is going and make sure everyone has what they need. I would definitely want to spend my time actually working throughout the state and have boots on the ground, so to speak.”
While he is on the campaign trail, Lane said he would like to hear from constituents.
“I do have my Web site, samuellane.org, and people can find my contact information there as well as look at my views on the issues. People can also email me at
Overall, Lane said, he is ready to get to work for the people of Kansas.
“The secretary of state race is a down-ballot race that doesn't get a lot of attention, but it's extremely important because this is the person who can protect or attack voting rights, so I highly encourage people to take this race seriously,” Lane said.
