Sam Brownback (R)

In 1994, the Republican Revolution swept Brownback into the House of Representatives. He had targeted the second district seat after Democrat Jim Slattery stepped down to run for governor. In his campaign, Brownback promised to fight "a welfare system that discourages the work ethic and encourages the disintegration of families and a government that can't say no to spending or yes to reform." He won the primary by 48 to 35 percent and defeated former Kansas governor John Carlin by 66 to 34 percent in the general election.

But after taking office he refused to sign Newt Gingrich's (R-Ga.) Contract with America because he said the funding behind it was unclear. In 1995, he and other GOP freshmen fought unsuccessfully to abolish four cabinet-level positions: the Departments of Commerce, Energy, Education and Housing and Urban Development.

Just two years after he entered the House, Brownback announced plans to run in the special election for the final two years of the U.S. Senate seat being vacated by Republican presidential nominee Sen. Robert S. Dole (R-Kan.). In the primary Brownback beat Lt. Gov. Sheila Frahm, 55 to 42 percent. He then faced Wichita stockbroker Jill Docking in the general election. Brownback campaigned on three Rs: "Reduce, reform and return. Reduce the size and scope of the federal government. Reform the Congress. Return to the basic values that built the country: Work and family and the recognition of a higher moral authority." He pledged to serve only two terms and won the election with 54 percent of the vote.

Against weak competition, Brownback won re-election and his first full term in 1998 with 65 percent of the vote. There weren't strong Democratic candidates again in 2004 (Gov. Kathleen Sebelius declined to run) and Brownback won reelection with 69 percent of the vote.

2008 Presidential Race

In January 2007, Brownback announced that he was running for president and some pundits looked to him to promote more socially conservative values than such Republican candidates as former New York City Mayor Rudy Giuliani and Sen. John McCain (R-Ariz.). "I could be the right person with the right message at the right moment. And I could be completely wrong and I'll still be happy about it," Brownback said shortly before announcing his candidacy. After peaking in the polls with the support of three percent of Republicans, and struggling to raise money, Brownback dropped out in October 2007.

Outside of Kansas, Brownback may be best known for raising his hand during the first Republican presidential debate when the candidates were asked who did not believe in evolution.

He later clarified his position by saying, "One of the problems we have with our society today is that we've put faith and science at odds with each other. They aren't at odds with each other. If they are, check your faith, or check your science."

In an op-ed in the New York Times soon after, Brownback wrote, "I am wary of any theory that seeks to undermine man's essential dignity and unique and intended place in the cosmos. I firmly believe that each human person, regardless of circumstance, was willed into being and made for a purpose."

2010 Gubernatorial Race

Brownback announced in December 2008 that he would honor his pledge to serve just two terms and would not run for reelection to the Senate in 2010. But that doesn't mean he wants to leave public office. In January 2009 he filed paperwork to run for Kansas governor in 2010. His competition in the Republican primary was Kansas Secretary of State Ron Thornburgh. They ran to replace departing Kansas Gov. Kathleen Sebelius (D), who was chosen to be Obama's health and human services secretary.

In the Senate, Brownback sits on the Committee on Appropriations; the Committee on Commerce, Science and Transportation; the Committee on Energy and Natural Resources; the Joint Economic Committee, and the Helsinki Commission on Security and Cooperation in Europe. He is also chairman of the Senate Values Action Team, co-chairman of the Senate Cancer Coalition and the Human Rights Caucus, and he helped found the Senate Fiscal Watch Team.

Brownback has become increasingly committed to humanitarian causes, which he explains is a result of his experience with a melanoma that was removed in 1995. "With the cancer, I did a lot of internal examination. My conclusion was that if this were to be terminal, at that point in time I would not be satisfied with how I had lived life. I had tried to be a Christian, but I had failed," he later explained.

Brownback is known for his religious conservatism, but he has been a Roman Catholic only since he converted in 2002. He had been raised Methodist and later attended a nondenominational evangelical church.

Brownback and his wife Mary Stauffer Brownback have five children, including one adopted from Guatemala and one adopted from China.

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