Susan Wagle

Susan Wagle (born September 27, 1953) is an American politician who served as a Republican member of the Kansas Senate, representing the 30th district from 2001 to 2021.

Wagle was born on September 27, 1953, in Allentown, Pennsylvania.

In 1979, she graduated with a B.A. from Wichita State University.

Wagle taught special education in Wichita public schools from 1979 to 1982 before becoming a businesswoman.

In 1990, Wagle was elected to the Kansas House of Representatives.

Four years later she was elected by her colleagues to the position of Speaker Pro Tem, the first female in Kansas to hold that position.

Wagle served in the House from 1991 to 2001.

During her first term in the House, she worked with Barbara Lawrence on legislation to lower property taxes.

The bills did not pass.

Wagle was elected to the Kansas Senate from the 30th Senate District in 2000, taking office in 2001.

Jim Barnett, who served in the Kansas state Senate from 2001–2009, ran in the 2006 Kansas gubernatorial election with Wagle as his running mate.

They won a crowded Republican primary by almost 10% of the votes.

Although a large majority of Kansans are Republicans, their ticket received only 40.44% of the votes in the general election, losing to incumbents, Governor Kathleen Sebelius and Lieutenant Governor Mark Parkinson.

During the campaign, Barnett opposed the eligibility for long-term Kansas resident non-citizen immigrants, graduates of Kansas schools, to qualify for in-state tuition.

However, Wagle had voted to allow such qualifications.

Kris Kobach and the anti-immigration organization, Federation for American Immigration Reform (FAIR), sued on behalf of out-of-state citizen students who were allegedly suffering from discrimination, to end the waiver., in a lawsuit against the state of Kansas, challenging a state law which grants in-state tuition to undocumented immigrants.

The suit was dismissed for lack of legal standing for the plaintiffs.

In 2003, Wagle drew national attention when she attempted to have a human sexuality class at the University of Kansas defunded due to the professor's alleged display of pornographic material.

Then-Governor Kathleen Sebelius "vetoed a budget proviso to withhold more than $3 million from KU if the class materials were found to be obscene, but signed a second one directing universities to draft policies on the use of explicit sexual materials".

Wagle was elected senate president on December 3, 2012, winning 23–9 over then-Senator Steve Abrams of Arkansas City.

Wagle's win was a victory of the conservative wing of the Kansas Senate over the Senate's moderate wing.

She is the first female Kansas senate president, and the first senate president from Wichita.

She was elected Kansas Senate President in 2013 and was reelected in 2017.

She is the first woman to hold this position.

She was re-elected to the post in 2016, defeating Ty Masterson by a vote of 23–7, becoming only the fourth senate president in Kansas history to serve a second term.

In July 2018, Wagle supported Kris Kobach in a Republican gubernatorial primary, saying that he was the "strongest candidate".

The endorsement was sent out by Wagle's staff spokeswoman on a state computer, thus violating Kansas ethics rules.

Wagle once "halted a controversial bill that would have enabled public and private employees to refuse service to same-sex couples on religious grounds".

Barnett ran for governor again in 2018., but lost the primary.

In 2018, when Wagle sought an appointment to a diplomatic post she listed Wichita native Phil Ruffin, a business partner of President Donald Trump, as a reference.

Wagle sought an ambassadorship to Ireland, Belize, or Belgium, or other State Department positions.

On May 29, 2019, nine protesters had been singing and chanting in the Senate chamber.

When they refused to stop, the Senate suspended its work; Wagle ordered that the Senate gallery be cleared.

Following Wagle's request, the protesters were detained and taken to another room.

The Wichita Eagle's Jonathan Shorman reported that journalists were "'prevented from witnessing the arrests'".

Calling Wagle's action "unprecedented" and "intolerable", the Kansas Sunshine Coalition for Open Government filed a complaint with Attorney General Derek Schmidt.

Wagle countered, "'[A]t no time was the press denied access to Senate proceedings. My staff was simply following instructions during a time of recess to ensure the safety of everyone in the chamber'".

Attorney General Derek Schmidt later determined the Senate was within its authority to clear the gallery and that an investigation did not indicate any business was conducted while members of the press were absent.

At the end of the Spring 2020 legislative session, Wagle held the senate in session for 24 straight hours, passing bills to curtail Governor Laura Kelly's ability to exercise emergency powers during the COVID-19 pandemic and blocking an attempt to pass the expansion of Medicaid.

The legality of the legislature's actions was disputed.