Brandon Whipple

Brandon Whipple (born July 13, 1982) is an American politician currently serving as Mayorof Wichita, Kansas. He previously served a Democratic member of the Kansas House of Representatives representing the 96th district, which included part of south Wichita and was the Ranking Minority member on the Higher Education Budget committee.

When the Kansas Legislature was not in session, Whipple served as an adjunct professor of American politics at Wichita State University, his alma mater.

Whipple defeated incumbent Jeff Longwell in the 2019 Wichita mayoral election.

Whipple was raised in Dover, New Hampshire.

Whipple earned his Associate of Arts in liberal studies from New Hampshire's Hesser College in 2003. He moved to Wichita, Kansas, at age 21 in a year-long education-service mission with AmeriCorps, working with at-risk youth at Wichita South High School. While there, he discovered he could afford to attend Wichita State University (WSU). Whipple graduated from WSU with a bachelor’s degree in sociology and a minor in psychology; later at WSU, he earned a master’s degree in liberal studies, with an emphasis on cross-cultural studies and public administration.While at Wichita State, Whipple was a student senator in WSU's Student Government Association—an experience he credits as decisive in his later entry into the Kansas legislature (particularly a trip to the state capitol to lobby for student issues).

Whipple later acquired a doctorate in leadership studies from Franklin Pierce University, a private college in New Hampshire.

Subsequently, while serving in the Kansas Legislature, Whipple also served as an adjunct instructor for various Wichita-area colleges and universities, including Wichita State University, Southwestern College and some commercial colleges—particularly teaching political science, history and sociology.

Kansas legislative races and Democratic party activism

Whipple first ran for the Kansas House in 2010 against Phil Hermanson.Whipple lost, but shortly afterward the Sedgwick County Democratic Party elected him its vice chair. In 2012, he was elected the county party's chair.

That same year, in a run for the Kansas House 96th District seat (in south Wichita), he was criticized by Tea Party Republican Craig Gable for not having children. Whipple defeated Republican Rick Lindsey. Whipple was re-elected to the seat in 2014, 2016 and 2018., in a district that voted for Donald Trump for president in 2016.

In 2016, Whipple was elected Agenda Chair for the Democrats in the Kansas House of Representatives—the #6 position in House Democratic party leadership. In 2018, Whipple co-founded the bipartisan Kansas Future Caucus, a group of under-45 Kansas legislators, to focus attention on issues of concern to young people.

Among his principal efforts in office was increased funding for education, particularly restoration of funding cuts made during the administration of Kansas governor Sam Brownback.

In the 2019 Kansas Legislature, Whipple was Ranking minority member on the Joint Committee on Information Technology, and the Higher Education Budget Committee. He was also assigned to the Committee on Elections and the Joint Committee on Corrections and Juvenile Justice Oversight.

Kansas House of Representative Committee Assignments

2019-2020 Session

• Ranking Minority Member of Higher Education Budget
• Ranking Minority Member of Joint Information Technology
• Elections
• Joint Corrections and Juvenile Justice

2017-2018 Session

• Ranking Minority Member of Commerce, Labor and Economic Development
• Financial Institutions and Pensions
• Higher Education Budget
• Joint Information Technology

2015-2016 Session

• Utilities and Telecommications
• Commerce, Labor and Economic Development
• Taxation
• House Select Investigating Committee
• Telecommunications Study Committee
• Joint Information Technology

2013-2014 Session

• Children and Seniors
• Judiciary
• Utilities and Telecommications
• Commerce, Labor and Economic Development
• Telecommunications Study Committee
• Joint Information Technology

2019 Wichita mayoral race

Whipple ran in the 2019 election for mayor of Wichita. In the nonpartisan primary election, preliminary results put Whipple (with 5,729 votes; 25.9% of the total) second only to Republican Mayor Longwell (who had 7,136 votes; 32.3%).Candidate Lyndy Wells, also a Republican, had only 160 votes fewer in initial returns: 5,569 votes; 25.2%, so delayed acceptance of the result in hopes that a review of 1,000 yet-uncounted ballots (including 500 provisional ballots) might turn the election to his favor. The final count nearly doubled Whipple's lead over Wells. advancing Whipple and Longwell to the ballot for the November 5 runoff election. Wells mounted a write-in campaign. In October, Whipple found himself the victim of an elaborate, covert smear campaign in which Republican state Representative Michael Capps was implicated. After Sedgwick County, Kansas Republican party chair Dalton Glasscock called for Capps to resign, Capps claimed that Glasscock had actually approved the production of the ad, which Glasscock denied.

On election day, November 5, 2019, Longwell conceded the election to Whipple, who won with 46% of the ballots versus 36% for Longwell, with the balance cast for write-in candidates which remained to be counted. The results were to be certified on November 15, 2019.

Whipple is married to Chelsea (Grady) Whipple, also a Wichita State University graduate. The two are members of the Episcopal Church. She directs programs for St. James Episcopal Church in Wichita and is the Treasurer of his mayoral campaign. The couple have three boys (allunder the age of 6 as of September 2019).