Senator Dennis Pyle Contact information

Dennis D. Pyle, born on February 4, 1961, in Hiawatha, Kansas, is an independent member of the Kansas Senate, representing the 1st district since 2005. He ran for governor of Kansas in the 2022 election.

Pyle’s professional experience includes working as a grain and cattle farmer. He was a member of the Kansas House of Representatives for the 49th district from 2001 to 2003. He lost a race for reelection to Republican Scott Schwab, who later became the Kansas Secretary of State, but was elected to his Kansas Senate seat in 2004.

In 2020, he won his third reelection to his first district position in northeast Kansas with over 70% of the vote. Pyle served on several legislative committees, but was removed by Senate President Ty Masterson from some of those assignments during the 2022 legislative session when he refused to vote for the Kansas Republican Party’s congressional redistricting map.

Pyle’s sponsored bills have included a bill promoting trade between Kansas and Taiwan and a bill regarding income tax credit for some property taxes. The top contributors to Pyle’s 2008 campaign, according to OpenSecrets, were the Kansas Republican Senatorial Committee, State of Kansas Department of Administration, Kansas Medical Society, Brown County Republican Central Committee, Kansas Republican Senatorial Committee Party.

In 2010, Pyle challenged incumbent Representative Lynn Jenkins in the Republican primary for Kansas’s 2nd congressional district. He received 43% of the vote. He ran again for the seat in a crowded field in 2018, as Jenkins was retiring, but the race was won by self-financed, one-term Republican Steve Watkins.

On June 5, 2010, it was made public that a formal ethics complaint had been filed against Pyle, alleging improper expenditures from his Senate campaign account on a trip to Washington, D.C., to evaluate support for his challenge of U.S. Rep. Lynn Jenkins. The complaint specifically alleged Pyle violated state campaign finance laws by using money raised for a state campaign for activities related to possible federal campaign. On June 28, 2010, Pyle was cleared of any wrongdoing.