Kansas Senate President Ty Masterson Leads by Building Coalitions.

• Author: Huhn, Taylor

Ty Masterson's grandmother always said, "Don't complain if you're not willing to do something." So, when he became frustrated with his local government, he followed her advice.

"I was building housing at the time, and it became cost prohibitive," Masterson said of his run for city council. "I decided I'd better do something about it. I naively printed black-and-white signs and knocked on doors, but I didn't realize it was a bit of a good old boys' club at the time, and politicians didn't go out and do that."

Masterson won handily--"because I was out in the neighborhood knocking"--and was recruited within the year to fill the seat of his state representative, who had resigned.

"I thought I was only going to fill the back half of a term," Masterson says. "That was 16 years ago."

Masterson has spent the last 13 years in the Kansas Senate and became its president a year ago. He sat down with the NCSL Leaders' Center to reflect on his path to legislative leadership and his first year as Senate president and to look ahead to the new session.

Once you got to the Legislature, what made you want to take the next step and move into a leadership role?

It became apparent that I had some ability to build consensus with people. I was policy-focused, so I built coalitions around policy. Eventually, that naturally developed into being pursued for leadership and ultimately throwing my hat in the ring.

Two years before I became president, I started a group called the Truth Caucus. It was a bipartisan group, but center-right in its policy. Almost 70 members of the Legislature joined it, and when power transitioned in the Senate, I was kind of the heir apparent. I actually became president by acclamation.

Looking back, I had no idea I was laying the groundwork for becoming president through that caucus. I'd like to tell you it was all strategic, but it was really God putting things in place.

In 2021, the Kansas Legislature held a historic special session to address COVID-19 vaccination requirements. This was the first time the Legislature itself gathered the signatures to request the session, rather than the governor calling the session. Can you tell us more about that unusual process?

It was highly unusual. It's been attempted by the Legislature several times, but it never actually was accomplished.

It was also historic in that it was the shortest special session in Kansas history. We accomplished everything in 13 hours and were able to achieve the governor's...