Chad VanHouden, candidate for the Republican nomination for state representative, takes umbrage at a recent mailing by his opponent, incumbent Kent Thompson.
“I wouldn’t know the Koch Brothers if we passed in the street. And they wouldn’t know me,” VanHouden said, in reference to Thompson’s accusation that VanHouden is in the hands of “billionaires.”
Not that he doesn’t have big guns behind his candidacy. VanHouden said he has the support of both the Kansas Chamber of Commerce and the NRA in his race for the District 9 position.
At age 31, VanHouden can hardly be criticized for not having a resume of public service.
“This is my first try,” the Chanute native said, in a stop by the Register Monday afternoon.
VanHouden’s platform is “pro-gun, pro-life and pro-education.”
In reference to the legislature’s removing teacher tenure this past session, VanHouden said he is sympathetic to the plight of public school teachers.
“Teachers need a safety net,” he said.
“In Chanute schools, teachers haven’t had to worry about their job security because they have a good board of education and good administrators. But that may not always be the case, and they’re worried about that,” he said.
“We need to put as much into public schools as possible,” he said.
VanHouden is a staunch supporter of anti-abortion measures. “I believe every child is a child of God and deserves life,” he said.
When asked about what a woman’s decision should be if her life is endangered by a pregnancy, he said, “Then the parents can talk, pray, and decide the outcome.”
VanHouden and his wife, Dr. Kari Hamlin, are members of St. Patrick Catholic Church in Chanute.
VanHouden comes from a family of medical professionals. His dad, Charles VanHouden, is a Chanute surgeon; his wife is an obstetrician/gynecologist; his sister is a nurse and teaches nursing and his brother is a radiologist.
“When you grow up in a circle of doctors you have insight to their views,” he said. The physicians in his family oppose what he calls too much government interference in the health care industry, including the mandate that hospitals and practices implement electronic medical records.
“It robs the patients of a doctor’s time,” he said.
