Chris Rockhold

Chris Rockhold

Libertarian Party

Contact

Personal website

Chris Rockhold was a 2017 Libertarian special election candidate who sought election to the 4th Congressional District of Kansas. He was defeated in the general election on April 11, 2017.

Rockhold was a 2014 Libertarian candidate for District 17b of the Washington House of Representatives.

Elections

2017

See also: Kansas' 4th Congressional District special election, 2017

This election was widely regarded in the initial stages as a "safe Republican" seat. With a week to go, however, it was downgraded by some election analysts such as Inside Elections/Roll Call from "solid Republican" to "likely Republican". Ballotpedia changed its ranking in the days leading up to the election to a "Lean R" seat. Ron Estes (R) defeated James Thompson (D), and Chris Rockhold (L) in the general election on April 11, 2017. No primary elections were held in the race; the candidates were chosen at their respective party nominating conventions in February. The election replaced Mike Pompeo (R), who was selected as director of the CIA. According to Kansas' voter affiliation records, Thompson was a registered Republican until March 2016.

The election was the first congressional election to take place since Donald Trump's election to the presidency in November 2016. Trump's initial popularity in the District was evident. The President won the 4th District in 2016 by 27 percentage points. Pompeo pulled a margin of victory of 31.1 points in his final re-election bid. However, Governor Sam Brownback's (R) unpopularity across the state and an internal Republican poll in the final few days showing Estes ahead by one point signaled to Democrats and Republicans across the country that this race was closer than expected. Ultimately the race was closer than initially expected, with Estes winning by a margin of roughly seven percent. The last time a Democrat was elected from Kansas' 4th Congressional District was in 1992.

U.S. House, Kansas District 4 Special Election, 2017
Party		Candidate	Vote %	Votes
	Republican	Ron Estes	52.2%	64,044
	Democratic	James Thompson	46%	56,435
	Libertarian	Chris Rockhold	1.7%	2,115
Total Votes				122,594
Source: Kansas Secretary of State

2014

See also: Washington House of Representatives elections, 2014

Elections for the Washington House of Representatives took place in 2014. A blanket primary election took place on August 5, 2014. The general election was held on November 4, 2014. The signature filing deadline for candidates wishing to run in this election was May 17, 2014. Incumbent Paul Harris (R) and Richard McCluskey (D) defeated Chris Rockhold (L) in the primary. McCluskey was defeated by Harris in the general election.

Washington House of Representatives, District 17-Position 2 General Election, 2014

Party		Candidate	Vote %	Votes
	Republican	Paul Harris Incumbent	61.6%	22,212
	Democratic	Richard McCluskey	38.4%	13,840
Total Votes				36,052

Washington House of Representatives, District 17-Position 2 Top Two Primary, 2014

Party		Candidate	Vote %	Votes
	Republican	Paul Harris Incumbent	50.8%	10,551
	Democratic	Richard McCluskey	39.1%	8,130
	Libertarian	Chris Rockhold	10.1%	2,100
Total Votes				20,781

Campaign themes

2017

The following issues were listed on Rockhold's campaign website. For a full list of campaign themes, click here.

“	Better Government: It’s imperative that our government is completely and totally transparent. That includes the Federal reserve. It will by my mission to ensure the Fed is audited and its daily operations are no longer behind closed doors. The government also has a mountain of regulations and far too many redundant agencies. It’s time we reduce the size of government spending and balance the federal budget. Lastly, we lock way too many people up for victimless crimes. I believe in the presumption of innocence. It is the burden of the state to prove harm was caused by your actions, or inaction. Budget Reform: Privatizing or abolishing a majority of the federal agencies will allow us to easily balance the budget, reduce federal overreach and ensure a prosperous future for Kansans. We must also begin to reduce the out of control and completely unstable national debt, but balancing the budget is only the first step. We must act now to ensure we have a prosperous future. Tax Simplification: To put it into perspective, the IRS has such a complicated tax code that H&R Block felt it was necessary to use IBM’s Watson, the supercomputer, to help its clients complete their taxes. It will be my mission to not just simplify the tax code, but also abolish the IRS. Kansans shouldn’t feel like they are forced to pay for things they don’t believe in. The most powerful tool our citizens have against a corrupt government is taking away its funding.	”
—Chris Rockhold's campaign website

2014

Rockhold's campaign website highlighted the following issues:

Job Creation & Economic Growth

• Excerpt: "The key to long-lasting job-creation, economic growth, and rising incomes is open and competitive markets that reward value-creation and operate under the rule of law."

School Choice and Education

• Excerpt: "Parents, not politicians or bureaucrats, should be in charge of the education dollars spent on their children."

• Excerpt: "Teachers need to be liberated from the politicized, bureaucratic status quo and rewarded for the educational value (i.e., student learning) they create."

Transportation

• Excerpt: "Decision-making needs to be less centralized."

Drug Reform

• Excerpt: "I propose truly legalizing marijuana in Washington, decriminalizing harder drugs, and adopting a rational, evidence-based regulatory policy."

Healthcare

• Excerpt: "First, we need to fight any further federalization of health-care policy. Second, we need to recognize that the federal government is not the only source of bad laws that undermine a well-functioning health-care economy. There are numerous examples of state laws and regulations that are designed to insulate market incumbents from competition and protect their profits."

See also

• Kansas' 4th Congressional District special election, 2017
• Kansas' 4th Congressional District
• Washington House of Representatives elections, 2014

External links

Suggest a link

• Campaign Facebook page
• Washington State Legislature
• Profile by Vote-USA

Footnotes

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Kansas' current delegation to the United States Congress

Senators

Roger Marshall (R)

Jerry Moran (R)

Representatives

District 1

Tracey Mann (R)

District 2

Derek Schmidt (R)

District 3

Sharice Davids (D)

District 4

Ron Estes (R)

Republican Party (5)

Democratic Party (1)