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Dinah Sykes
2017 - Present
2029
8
Dinah Sykes (Democratic Party) is a member of the Kansas State Senate, representing District 21. She assumed office on January 9, 2017. Her current term ends on January 8, 2029.
Sykes (Democratic Party) ran for re-election to the Kansas State Senate to represent District 21. She won in the general election on November 5, 2024.
On December 19, 2018, Sykes announced she switched her party affiliation from Republican to Democratic. Sykes said, "I ran for the Kansas Senate to protect the Kansas quality of life and to bring common sense to Topeka. At this time, I feel like I can either fight to change the Republican Party or fight for the state I love and the people I serve. I think I can better serve my state and constituents as a member of the Democratic Party."[1]
In 2020, Sykes was elected state Senate minority leader.[2]
Biography
Dinah Sykes, as of February 2020, lived in Lenexa, Kansas. She earned a bachelor of arts in business administration from Trevecca Nazarene University in 1999. Sykes has been a member of the Lenexa Chamber of Commerce.[3]
Committee assignments
2025-2026
Sykes was assigned to the following committees:
- Confirmation Oversight Committee, Vice Chair
- Senate Education Committee, Ranking Minority Member
- Legislative Coordinating Council Committee
2023-2024
Sykes was assigned to the following committees:
- Confirmation Oversight Committee, Vice Chair
- Senate Education Committee
- Legislative Coordinating Council Committee
2021-2022
Sykes was assigned to the following committees:
- Legislative Coordinating Council Committee
- Confirmation Oversight Committee, Vice chair
- Senate Education Committee, Ranking minority member
2019-2020
Sykes was assigned to the following committees:
- Information Technology Committee
- Legislative Post Audit Committee
- Commerce Committee
- Senate Education Committee, Ranking minority member
- Ethics, Elections, and Local Government Committee
- Financial Institutions and Insurance Committee
2017 legislative session
At the beginning of the 2017 legislative session, this legislator served on the following committees:
| Kansas committee assignments, 2017 |
|---|
| • Commerce |
| • Education |
| • Ethics, Elections, and Local Government |
| • Information Technology |
Sponsored legislation
The following table lists bills this person sponsored as a legislator, according to BillTrack50 and sorted by action history. Bills are sorted by the date of their last action. The following list may not be comprehensive. To see all bills this legislator sponsored, click on the legislator's name in the title of the table.
Elections
2024
See also: Kansas State Senate elections, 2024
General election
General election for Kansas State Senate District 21
Incumbent Dinah Sykes won election in the general election for Kansas State Senate District 21 on November 5, 2024.
Candidate | % | Votes | ||
| ✔ |  | Dinah Sykes (D) | 100.0 | 25,979 |
| Total votes: 25,979 | |||
 = candidate completed the Ballotpedia Candidate Connection survey. | ||||
| If you are a candidate and would like to tell readers and voters more about why they should vote for you, complete the Ballotpedia Candidate Connection Survey. | ||||
Do you want a spreadsheet of this type of data? Contact our sales team. | ||||
Democratic primary election
Democratic primary for Kansas State Senate District 21
Incumbent Dinah Sykes advanced from the Democratic primary for Kansas State Senate District 21 on August 6, 2024.
Candidate | % | Votes | ||
| ✔ | | Dinah Sykes | 100.0 | 4,483 |
| Total votes: 4,483 | |||
| = candidate completed the Ballotpedia Candidate Connection survey. | ||||
| If you are a candidate and would like to tell readers and voters more about why they should vote for you, complete the Ballotpedia Candidate Connection Survey. | ||||
Do you want a spreadsheet of this type of data? Contact our sales team. | ||||
Endorsements
Ballotpedia did not identify endorsements for Sykes in this election.
2020
See also: Kansas State Senate elections, 2020
General election
General election for Kansas State Senate District 21
Incumbent Dinah Sykes defeated Tom Bickimer in the general election for Kansas State Senate District 21 on November 3, 2020.
Candidate | % | Votes | ||
| ✔ | | Dinah Sykes (D) | 54.8 | 24,203 |
| Tom Bickimer (R) | 45.2 | 19,970 | ||
| Total votes: 44,173 | |||
| = candidate completed the Ballotpedia Candidate Connection survey. | ||||
| If you are a candidate and would like to tell readers and voters more about why they should vote for you, complete the Ballotpedia Candidate Connection Survey. | ||||
Do you want a spreadsheet of this type of data? Contact our sales team. | ||||
Democratic primary election
Democratic primary for Kansas State Senate District 21
Incumbent Dinah Sykes advanced from the Democratic primary for Kansas State Senate District 21 on August 4, 2020.
Candidate | % | Votes | ||
| ✔ | | Dinah Sykes | 100.0 | 8,040 |
| Total votes: 8,040 | |||
| = candidate completed the Ballotpedia Candidate Connection survey. | ||||
| If you are a candidate and would like to tell readers and voters more about why they should vote for you, complete the Ballotpedia Candidate Connection Survey. | ||||
Do you want a spreadsheet of this type of data? Contact our sales team. | ||||
Republican primary election
Republican primary for Kansas State Senate District 21
Tom Bickimer advanced from the Republican primary for Kansas State Senate District 21 on August 4, 2020.
Candidate | % | Votes | ||
| ✔ | Tom Bickimer | 100.0 | 9,301 | |
| Total votes: 9,301 | |||
| = candidate completed the Ballotpedia Candidate Connection survey. | ||||
| If you are a candidate and would like to tell readers and voters more about why they should vote for you, complete the Ballotpedia Candidate Connection Survey. | ||||
Do you want a spreadsheet of this type of data? Contact our sales team. | ||||
2016
- See also: Kansas State Senate elections, 2016
Elections for the Kansas State Senate took place in 2016. The primary election was held on August 2, 2016, and the general election was held on November 8, 2016. The candidate filing deadline was June 1, 2016.
Dinah Sykes defeated Logan Heley and Michael Kerner in the Kansas State Senate District 21 general election.[4][5]
| Kansas State Senate, District 21 General Election, 2016 | ||||
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Party | Candidate | Vote % | Votes | |
| Republican |  Dinah Sykes |
50.34% | 18,149 | |
| Democratic | Logan Heley | 42.40% | 15,287 | |
| Libertarian | Michael Kerner | 7.26% | 2,617 | |
| Total Votes | 36,053 | |||
| Source: Kansas Secretary of State | ||||
Logan Heley defeated Michael Czerniewski in the Kansas State Senate District 21 Democratic primary.[6][7]
| Kansas State Senate, District 21 Democratic Primary, 2016 | ||||
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Party | Candidate | Vote % | Votes | |
| Democratic | Logan Heley |
81.68% | 2,956 | |
| Democratic | Michael Czerniewski | 18.32% | 663 | |
| Total Votes | 3,619 | |||
Dinah Sykes defeated incumbent Greg Smith in the Kansas State Senate District 21 Republican primary.[6][7]
| Kansas State Senate, District 21 Republican Primary, 2016 | ||||
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Party | Candidate | Vote % | Votes | |
| Republican | Dinah Sykes |
57.93% | 4,442 | |
| Republican | Greg Smith Incumbent | 42.07% | 3,226 | |
| Total Votes | 7,668 | |||
Primary election
In the primary elections held on August 2, 2016, six incumbents were defeated in the state Senate, while nine incumbents were defeated in the state House. Outside of the one incumbent Democrat who was defeated in the House, moderates defeated 14 conservative Republican incumbents in the primary. Before the 2016 primary, moderate Republicans had been losing ground in the state legislature since the 2010 election of Gov. Sam Brownback (R), shifting from a more moderate Republican-controlled state legislature to a more conservative one after the 2012 elections. Eighteen Republican incumbents were defeated in the conservative wave in 2012. Greg Smith was one of 14 Republican incumbents who were defeated in the 2016 primary.
Campaign themes
2024
Ballotpedia survey responses
See also: Ballotpedia's Candidate Connection
Dinah Sykes did not complete Ballotpedia's 2024 Candidate Connection survey.
2020
Dinah Sykes did not complete Ballotpedia's 2020 Candidate Connection survey.
Campaign finance summary
Note: The finance data shown here comes from the disclosures required of candidates and parties. Depending on the election or state, this may represent only a portion of all the funds spent on their behalf. Satellite spending groups may or may not have expended funds related to the candidate or politician on whose page you are reading this disclaimer. Campaign finance data from elections may be incomplete. For elections to federal offices, complete data can be found at the FEC website. Click here for more on federal campaign finance law and here for more on state campaign finance law.
Scorecards
A scorecard evaluates a legislator’s voting record. Its purpose is to inform voters about the legislator’s political positions. Because scorecards have varying purposes and methodologies, each report should be considered on its own merits. For example, an advocacy group’s scorecard may assess a legislator’s voting record on one issue while a state newspaper’s scorecard may evaluate the voting record in its entirety.
Ballotpedia is in the process of developing an encyclopedic list of published scorecards. Some states have a limited number of available scorecards or scorecards produced only by select groups. It is Ballotpedia’s goal to incorporate all available scorecards regardless of ideology or number.
Click here for an overview of legislative scorecards in all 50 states. To contribute to the list of Kansas scorecards, email suggestions to editor@ballotpedia.org.
2024
| To view all the scorecards we found for this legislator in 2024, click [show]. |
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In 2024, the Kansas State Legislature was in session from January 8 to April 30.
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2023
| To view all the scorecards we found for this legislator in 2023, click [show]. |
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In 2023, the Kansas State Legislature was in session from January 9 to April 28.
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2022
| To view all the scorecards we found for this legislator in 2022, click [show]. |
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In 2022, the Kansas State Legislature was in session from January 10 to May 23.
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2021
| To view all the scorecards we found for this legislator in 2021, click [show]. |
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In 2021, the Kansas State Legislature was in session from January 11 to May 26.
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2020
| To view all the scorecards we found for this legislator in 2020, click [show]. |
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In 2020, the Kansas State Legislature was in session from January 13 to May 21. A special session convened from June 3 to June 4.
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2019
| To view all the scorecards we found for this legislator in 2019, click [show]. |
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In 2019, the Kansas State Legislature was in session from January 14 through May 29.
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2018
| To view all the scorecards we found for this legislator in 2018, click [show]. |
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In 2018, the Kansas State Legislature was in session from January 8 through April 7.
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2017
| To view all the scorecards we found for this legislator in 2017, click [show]. |
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In 2017, the Kansas State Legislature was in session from January 9 through June 26.
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See also
2024 Elections
External links
|
Candidate Kansas State Senate District 21 |
Officeholder Kansas State Senate District 21 |
Personal |
Footnotes
- ↑ The Topeka Capital-Journal, "Kansas Sen. Dinah Sykes, Rep. Stephanie Clayton flip from Republican to Democrat," December 19, 2018
- ↑ [https://governor.kansas.gov/governor-laura-kellys-statement-on-house-and-senate-leadership-election-results/#:
- text=%E2%80%9CI%20send%20my%20congratulations%20to,Majority%20Whip%2Delect%20Richard%20Hilderbrand Kansas Office of the Governor, "Governor Laura Kelly’s Statement on House and Senate Leadership Election Results," December 7, 2020]
- ↑ Vote Smart, "Dinah Sykes' Biography," accessed February 27, 2020
- ↑ Kansas Secretary of State, "Candidate list," accessed August 23, 2016
- ↑ Kansas Secretary of State, "2016 General Election official results," accessed December 19, 2016
- ↑ 6.0 6.1 Kansas Secretary of State, "Candidate list," accessed June 3, 2016
- ↑ 7.0 7.1 Kansas Secretary of State, "2016 Official Kansas Primary Election Results," accessed September 12, 2016
| Political offices | ||
|---|---|---|
| Preceded by - |
Kansas State Senate District 21 2017-Present |
Succeeded by - |
