“It is my job to remind our electeds they should be referencing the Kansas Republican Party Constitution, Bylaws, and Platform and cast their votes accordingly. It is also my responsibility to share with them the positive and negative feedback I receive from the grassroots base,” Brown wrote.

“In that spirit and vein, and specifically for those who voted for the $1.2T spending package, please hear me loud and clear: the base is mad as hell.”

A former rising star

LaTurner was once seen as a rising star in the Republican Party.

“I think most people would think of him as a young, very energetic go-getter on behalf of Kansans,” Kuckelman said. “Every time you’d see LaTurner at a political event he was full of energy, and really wanted to do great things for our state and our country”

He became the youngest member of the Kansas Senate in 2012, when he defeated former state Sen. Bob Marshall at the age of 24.

Five years later, former Gov. Sam Brownback appointed LaTurner as the Kansas State Treasurer, making him the youngest statewide office holder in the country at the time.

But he quickly left the role to challenge Watkins, a scandal-plagued congressman who was facing criminal charges for voting in the wrong city council district in 2019.

LaTurner easily won the primary in Kansas’ 2nd Congressional District and won the general election by 15 percentage points.

Once in Congress, LaTurner appeared to be taking the traditional route of rising in the ranks of the Republican Party. By his second term, he was serving on the leadership team for the Republican conference. He had posts on both the House Appropriations Committee, which helps steer federal funds, and the House Oversight Committee, a committee often featured in high-profile House investigations.

In his first major vote, LaTurner voted against certifying the results of the 2020 election.

Over LaTurner’s four years in Congress, the dynamics of the Republican Party have shifted. Hard-line Republicans, empowered by a small majority, have made it difficult to pass the annual legislation needed to keep the government running.

After former House Speaker Kevin McCarthy was ousted by a group of Republican hard-liners for passing a deal to keep the government open, LaTurner appeared visibly frustrated during the weeks-long process to find a replacement.

“I thought we had reached rock bottom, but we hadn’t,” LaTurner said at the time.

His retirement announcement comes as, once again, conservative hardliners are threatening to oust a Speaker, this time over his decision to allow a vote to send military and humanitarian aid to Ukraine, Israel and Taiwan.

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