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. She was elected Kansas Senate President in 2013 and was reelected in 2017. She is the first woman to hold this position.
Early life and education Wagle graduated cum laude from Wichita State University in 1979 with a degree in elementary education. She taught special education in Wichita public schools from 1979 until 1982. While teaching, she developed a program called “Jogging out the Jitters” after discovering that intense physical activity helped hyperactive special-needs students improve academic performance and reduce mood swings. The program received local attention in the Wichita Eagle-Beacon.
In 1982 she left teaching to help her husband, Tom, with his real estate business.
Wagle's interest in politics "evolved over time" and was not initially present; she "never, ever thought about running for office." Personal experiences shaped her decision: during her first marriage she received pregnancy counseling at a clinic associated with third-trimester abortions, which troubled her as staff "really tried to talk [her] into an abortion." In the late 1980s, changes to property-tax classification and reappraisal led to "mammoth" increases (e.g., tripling annual bills for small real-estate investments from $5,000 to $15,000), making it difficult to pass costs to clients. Additionally, new bingo legislation reduced operating days from seven to three per week, negatively affecting a bingo hall they owned. These events, combined with constituent frustration, highlighted "the impact that government could have on a family, on a business," prompting friends and her husband Tom to encourage her run.
Kansas House of Representatives (1991–2001) In 1989 the Kansas Legislature changed the method of property-tax assessment, resulting in drastic increases in property-tax bills for many Kansans. Friends and business colleagues urged Wagle to run for the Kansas House of Representatives to address the issue.
She received the endorsement of the Wichita Eagle, which described her as a former teacher who supported merit pay and workplace-skill improvements and noted that as a real-estate investor she was “well aware” of the property-tax problems facing Kansans. Wagle won the election and was sworn into office in January 1991.
In 1993 First Lady Hillary Clinton proposed a national health-care plan that became known as “HillaryCare.” The plan faced strong opposition from conservatives and the health-care industry. Wagle worked with high-profile health-care leaders and former Vice President Dan Quayle to oppose the plan in Kansas, hoping to demonstrate its unpopularity to Senate Majority Leader Bob Dole. For her efforts promoting tax-free health-care savings accounts as a solution to the affordability crisis, the American Legislative Exchange Council (ALEC) named her “Outstanding Legislator of the Year” in 1994 and nominated her to serve on its board of directors.
In 1994 Wagle was elected Speaker Pro Tem of the Kansas House, becoming the first woman to hold that position.
Cancer diagnosis On April 24, 1996, at age 42, Wagle told her colleagues on the House floor that she had been diagnosed with end-stage non-Hodgkin lymphoma by three institutions, including the Mayo Clinic. Doctors advised her to delay treatment until the tumors pressed on her nerves, as the disease was considered incurable at the time. In her speech she drew comfort from Psalm 139, stating that God had created her and would care for her and her children. She told her colleagues, “Cancer will not take me one day earlier, or one moment earlier, than that time he has planned for me,” and announced that she would run for re-election because she “believed in miracles.”
After the announcement she received messages from churches and individuals across Kansas saying she was on their prayer lists. She changed her diet, eating less meat and more vegetables and fruits. Five months later she announced she was in unexpected remission. At the time, life expectancy for stage-4 non-Hodgkin lymphoma patients was eight to ten years.
Wagle won re-election in her district and was re-elected to her leadership position in the House in 1996. In January 1998, after being ranked on a list of the state’s top “earthmovers” in a political poll, she announced she would run for Speaker of the House. She narrowly lost the leadership election and was appointed chair of the House Tax Committee by the new Speaker.
As tax committee chair, Wagle launched an investigation into Kansas Attorney General Carla Stovall’s decision to hire her former two-person law firm to represent the state in the national Big Tobacco lawsuit, which was expected to bring the small firm $27 million. The committee sent the issue to the House floor to challenge the contract, but the Speaker chose not to bring the bill to a vote.
Wagle served on committees including Taxation (which she chaired after her Speaker Pro Tem role and described as her favorite), Public Health and Welfare, Economic Development, and others. She co-sponsored early efforts with Representative Barbara Lawrence to reduce property taxes and eliminate the state sales tax on groceries, responding to "tremendous anger" from constituents over reappraisal impacts.
Following the deadly 1991 Andover tornado (which affected her district, destroying schools, a church, and trailer parks), she sponsored legislation requiring storm shelters in mobile home parks to support community recovery and safety.
In 1997 she authored Kansas's first major pro-life legislation, the Woman's Right to Know Act, which required a 24-hour waiting period and provision of fetal development information. Despite a pro-choice legislative majority, she negotiated its passage with pro-choice Senator Sandy Praeger, describing it as "an example of passing a bill where pro-lifers would have wanted more, and the pro-choice community didn’t want it at all, but we did what was right for the community." The bill remains law.
She co-sponsored restrictions on corporate hog farming, mandating county commission approval and protections against groundwater seepage. Wagle also opposed a proposed landfill near Furley in her district, helping relocate it.
As Public Health and Welfare Committee chair, she exposed oversight failures at the Kansas Board of Healing Arts related to an opioid "pill mill" (linked to 67 deaths in Haysville). Her efforts led to a unanimous resolution (125–0 in the House, 40–0 in the Senate) resulting in the firing of the board's director and attorney to improve public protection.
Kansas Senate (2001–2021) In 2000 Wagle ran for the Kansas Senate and defeated high-profile opponents in both the primary and general election.
In September 2001 her youngest son, Paul, was diagnosed with acute lymphocytic leukemia. She and her family prioritized supporting him through two and a half years of chemotherapy. In 2004 Paul relapsed and was transferred to Cook Children’s Hospital in Fort Worth, Texas, for an experimental umbilical-cord stem-cell transplant trial. He remained in Texas for nine months. The Kansas Senate accommodated her by holding votes only one day a week so she could travel back for sessions while caring for her son. She was re-elected to the Senate in 2005.
In 2006 ALEC appointed Wagle its national chairwoman. In that capacity she led a delegation to London to present former British Prime Minister Margaret Thatcher with ALEC’s International Pioneer Award, recognizing Thatcher’s legacy of lowering taxes and embracing privatization that propelled Britain’s economic prosperity.
As chair of the Senate Health Care Strategies Committee in 2008, Wagle invited former Kansas Attorney General Bob Stephan, a cancer survivor, to testify in support of the Medical Marijuana Defense Act, which would have allowed legitimate medical-marijuana patients to raise their medical use as a defense to prosecution. The committee did not have the votes to advance the bill, and no further action was taken.
In February 2011, as chair of the Senate Commerce Committee, Wagle held hearings on the Kansas Bioscience Authority, a state-funded public-private partnership intended to bring biotech jobs to Kansas. She expressed concern about high executive salaries and bonuses (the CEO earned four times the governor’s salary) and poor outcomes. She requested an independent audit. After the audit revealed misspent taxpayer funds, and after the agency had spent $232 million, Governor Sam Brownback and legislative leaders sold the authority’s investment portfolio to a Chicago firm for $14 million. Wagle stated, “I think when you give taxpayer money to a group of people with no oversight, oftentimes the group can get carried away because there’s no accountability.”
Wagle was treated for non-Hodgkin lymphoma a third time in spring 2012. By fall she was again in complete remission. In December 2012 she became the first woman and first Wichitan elected Senate President. After her election she stated, “I know there are an awful lot of people who are looking for a reason to live right now, a reason to go that extra step. Do what you have to do, and fight for life.” She was re-elected Senate President in November 2016.
In October 2017, after The Hill and local outlets reported complaints of sexual harassment by staffers in the Kansas Statehouse, Senate President Wagle requested that the Women’s Foundation of Greater Kansas City provide recommendations to the Legislative Leaders Council. The recommendations were adopted, resulting in mandatory harassment training for legislators and expanded reporting options for all employees and visitors in the State Capitol.
Elected Senate President in December 2012, Wagle became the first woman to hold the position and the first from Wichita; she served two terms until 2020. She emphasized inclusive leadership: "Everyone has a voice. Don’t ever cut off debate. Always work across the aisle... make the tent bigger, not smaller." She viewed compromise positively: "Compromise is not a dirty word. Compromise is the way you accomplish things for people."
She pushed ethics reforms requiring lobbyist-style registration, disclosure for those seeking state contracts, and competitive bidding/transparency in processes like tobacco litigation contracts.
Wagle credited her longevity (30 years total in the legislature) to listening to constituents on taxation, quality of life, and education, and bringing transparency to government processes.
2020 U.S. Senate campaign and retirement In July 2019 Wagle announced her candidacy for the U.S. Senate seat being vacated by retiring Senator Pat Roberts.
In August 2019, after touring border and immigration facilities, she wrote an editorial advocating that Congress pass a funding package for a border wall and enhanced border security to stop cartels, while also implementing a legal work-visa program.
Wagle made affordable, quality health care a centerpiece of her campaign, citing her own cancer experiences and those of three of her children.
In January 2020 a public-health emergency was declared due to COVID-19. As Senate President, Wagle worked to keep Governor Laura Kelly’s emergency shutdown orders balanced so that Kansans who needed to continue earning a living and paying bills could do so.