Congressional candidate wants to build a better Democratic base in rural Kansas
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Who is Colin McRoberts and what motivated him to run for Kansas’ 1st Congressional District?
So the primary is shifting into high gear as candidates for state and federal office strive to connect with voters before the August 4th election. Welcome to the Kansas Reflector podcast. I'm Tim Carpenter. Joining us today is Colin McRoberts, a Lawrence attorney seeking the Democratic Party's nomination in the first district of the U.S. House. It's the seat held by Republican Congressman Tracy Mann. Welcome. Hi. Well, a huge pleasure to be here. Thank you for taking the time to join us. One of the things we'd like to do when we're talking about candidates for public office is to have you tell a little bit about yourself, your background, where you come from, a little bit about what makes you tick.
Absolutely. So the first thing every Kansas politician likes to say is they're a fifth generation Kansan. And I can't because I'm not. I was born in Texas. I got out as soon as I could. Went to law school and then practiced for a little bit in Chicago and got incredibly lucky and met a young geneticist and Golden Gloves boxer. And we eventually got married. And we had to move around the country a bit for her career. And so I left my law practice, which was good for me personally. I was suing big banks and hedge funds for family businesses and having a lot of fun and making a ton of money. But once I met Jenny, I realized, you know, if I went with her, I would never be a law partner and never be wealthy.
But if I didn't go with her, I would never be happy. And that was not a hard choice to make at the end of the day. So we left and I left my law practice behind and I became a negotiation expert. And I spent the next 10 years or so as a consultant, just traveling the world and advising businesses in two dozen countries on how to do better deals in hard circumstances. And had a ton of fun, again, just traveling the world and talking about negotiation to all kinds of people doing interesting work. And then eventually we got extremely lucky again. And Jenny is a superstar in her field. And we had a choice of kind of where we wanted to move when it was time for her to start her professor jobs full time and for us to start a family.
We were looking at offers everywhere from Texas to Alaska. And we went to Lawrence to take a look at KU and just driving down Massachusetts Street in Lawrence. It was pretty obvious this is where we wanted to start our family. And that's exactly what we did. I stayed in the negotiation field for a little bit, but got kind of tired of commuting to Copenhagen and Singapore and wanted to spend more time with the kid and with Kansas, frankly. So when KU opened a position in the business school, I joined it. And you described me as an attorney, but I tell people I'm a teacher because today I'm a teaching professor at the University of Kansas School of Business where I teach business law and negotiation.
Mm-hmm. Oh, first of all, what's Jennifer? Is it Jenny or Jennifer, your wife? Oh, she goes by both. So what is her academic specialty? Does she work at KU also? She does. She's a professor of bioanthropology. Okay. Interesting. And then your classes you teach at the business
school? Business law and negotiation and occasionally a class on conspiracy theories. And I must ask,
you know, what is your favorite conspiracy theory?
So I got to say I'm a little bit of an egotist. My favorite conspiracy theory is one about myself. A long time ago, I did some research for a book project and I went on a cruise ship for conspiracy theorists. It was a conference at sea called the Conspiracy Cruise. And they screened an anti-vaccine documentary on the ship. And I wrote some articles that were pretty critical and insulting of the people, liars and nutjobs behind this particular documentary. And some of the liars and nutjobs took it very personally and started to take a hard look at the consulting company I was working for as a negotiation advisor. Oh, and I can't even describe the full process they did. They found out that another woman who used to work for the company was married to a guy who had carried the nuclear codes for Obama as part of his military career.
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Chapters
5 chapters
1
Who is Colin McRoberts and what motivated him to run for Kansas’ 1st Congressional District?
0:01–5:10
2
How did McRoberts’ career as a negotiation consultant shape his political outlook?
5:10–11:20
3
What is the bizarre conspiracy theory McRoberts encountered on the Conspiracy Cruise?
11:20–18:59
4
Why does McRoberts believe the 1st District needs a stronger Democratic base?
18:59–31:51
5
How does gerrymandering create a ‘safe’ Republican seat and affect Kansas Democrats?
31:51–33:39
Speakers
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