Dr. Barbara Bollier is on track to become the U.S. Senate’s first female physician and break a 100-year streak of Kansan Republican Senators.  She was elected to public office as a state representative in 2010, and she successfully ran for the Kansas State Senate in 2016. When she announced her candidacy for the U.S. Senate in October 2019, the leading candidate dropped out to support her.

Prior to her career as a public servant, Bollier had a medical career in an anesthesia practice she shared with her father. She is active in her church community as an elder and a respite caregiver, and she is a lifelong supporter of quality public education. She received her undergraduate and medical degrees through the University of Kansas and continues to volunteer in the local public schools.

Competitive  Bollier has raised $7.1 million to date, outraising all her Republican challengers. According to recent polling, registered voters put Bollier within one point of her opponent, Rep. Roger Marshall.

Along with Democratic Gov. Laura Kelly, Bollier is changing Kansas’s image as a deep red state. Bollier is a pragmatic moderate who connects with Kansans over health care, education, and public decency.

Compatible Bollier was the first of three Kansas state senators to leave the GOP in December of 2018. Her reasons for doing so were two-fold: the Republicans' divisive attacks on LGBTQ Kansans, and the amoral presidency of Donald Trump. Politically, she wished to focus on her constituents’ needs for strong public school and healthcare systems.

As an advocate for the middle class, Bollier fought a regressive and ultimately devastating tax plan implemented by Republican Gov. Sam Brownback. The plan’s deep tax cuts did not spur economic growth as promised, instead they decimated school budgets and social services. As she built the bipartisan coalition that ended the “Brownback Experiment,” she gained a reputation as a pragmatic politician who would work with colleagues from either party.  

In response to the increasing number of gun massacres involving assault rifles, Bollier is joining with Mark & Gabby Giffords in calling for common-sense measures like universal background checks. And long before the first case of COVID-19, Bollier supported Medicaid expansion and dedicated herself to combating the closing of rural hospitals in her state; the pandemic has brought into sharp relief the need to do both.

Cost-Effective Bollier benefited from the Republicans’ divisive multi-candidate primary. Republican PACs spent millions to make sure that Kris Kobach was not the winning candidate, and in the process Kobach was able to land some blows on Marshall that weakened him as a candidate. 

While Trump is still above a 50% favorability rating in Kansas, it is notable that between January 2016 and July 2020 his net approval rating among registered voters dropped by 20 points. This makes Bollier’s race comparable to the landscape of Cal Cunningham’s race in North Carolina. And meanwhile Bollier was able to close the divide between herself and Marshall, from -10 in early March to -1 in early August.

Select Endorsements

• League of Conservation Voters

• End Citizens United

• Giffords PAC

• Stacey Abrams

• Democratic Senatorial Campaign Committee

• NARAL

• National Education Association

• Planned Parenthood

• Emily’s List