Brandon Whipple facts for kids
Quick facts for kids
Brandon Whipple
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| 102nd Mayor of Wichita | |
| Assumed office January 13, 2020 |
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| Preceded by | Jeff Longwell |
| Member of the Kansas House of Representatives from the 96th district |
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| In office January 14, 2013 – January 13, 2020 |
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| Preceded by | Phil Hermanson |
| Succeeded by | Stephanie Yeager |
| Personal details | |
| Born |
Brandon James Whipple
July 13, 1982 Rochester, New Hampshire, U.S. |
| Political party | Democratic |
| Education | Mount Washington College Wichita State University (BA, MA) Franklin Pierce University (DArts) University of the People (MBA) |
Brandon Whipple (born July 13, 1982) is an American politician and academic serving as mayor of Wichita, Kansas. He previously served as 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. He ran for a second term as mayor in the 2023 Wichita mayoral election, but lost to Lily Wu.
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Early life and education
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). He 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 Doctor of Arts in leadership studies from Franklin Pierce University, a private college in New Hampshire.
Career
As a member of Wichita's Southwest Neighborhood Association, Whipple served on its executive board.
Whipple first ran for the Kansas House of Representatives 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.
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 House of Representatives
In 2012, 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, he 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.
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
Wichita Mayor
Whipple ran in the 2019 election for mayor of Wichita. On election day, November 5, 2019, Whipple won with 46% of the ballots. The results were certified on November 15, 2019.
During his tenure, Whipple pushed for a City Council Code of Ethics -- which forbid Council members to vote on matters which had a material benefit to them personally or to a member of their immediate family, and restricted Council members from accepting gifts that represented a conflict-of-interest. The Code had further provisions as well. It was adopted by the City Council in May, 2021.
Whipple also approved the controversial bargain sale and subsequent development of city land on the West Bank of the Arkansas River, opposite downtown, into apartment and hotel buildings, adjacent to the city's new ballpark, saying it was needed to improve the city's quantity of housing and to offset the costs of the costly new ballpark, which had been a financial failure for the city. However, Whipple expressed reluctance to fully trust the same developers with the new project.
2023 mayoral election
Wichita's 2023 Wichita mayoral election was the most intense in years.
Whipple was opposed by several candidates in the non-partisan Mayoral primary, particularly including strong opposition from:
- City Council Member Bryan Frye (widely backed by the developer community)
- Celese Racette (a community activist who led a campaign to save Century II convention center from demolition); and
- Lily Wu, a former TV reporter, and political newcomer (backed by local Libertarian billionaire Charles Koch, and extensive, unreported PAC spending -- particularly from the Koch-funded Americans for Prosperity (AFP).
Wu (with 30% of the vote) and Whipple (with 24% of the vote, narrowly defeating Bryan Frye) were the two top vote-getters, and proceeded to the 2023 Wichita City General Election.
The campaign was bitterly contested, and heavily covered in local media, with multiple head-to-head candidate debates and joint appearances at various public forums. But most public contact was through extensive advertising campaigns by the candidates and their supporters.
Whipple (42%) lost to Wu (58%), who will replace him in January, 2024.
Personal life
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.
