WASHINGTON _ Susan Pompeo, the wife of Secretary of State Mike Pompeo, has waded into a Kansas congressional race with an endorsement and an upcoming fundraiser in Washington for candidate Amanda Adkins.
Adkins' campaign announced Tuesday that Susan Pompeo had endorsed her campaign for Kansas' 3rd Congressional District.
The release touted Pompeo's status as a philanthropist and the former senior vice president of Emprise Bank, but it did not mention her husband's role as the nation's top diplomat.
The secretary of state would be restricted from making an endorsement himself under the Hatch Act, a 1939 law that regulates political activities by federal employees, including Cabinet secretaries.
"There's a wink and a nod here, of course," said Burdett Loomis, a political scientist at the University of Kansas.
"A Pompeo is endorsing Adkins_yeah, I think that makes news and it makes news because her name is Pompeo."
Adkins, a Cerner executive on unpaid leave during the campaign, served as Kansas Republican chairwoman when Mike Pompeo was first elected to the U.S. House in 2010.
But Adkins' relationship with Susan Pompeo goes back for nearly 20 years through their involvement in the Dwight D. Eisenhower Excellence in Public Service Series, a program that promotes leadership roles for Republican women.
"It is an honor to have Susan's support for my run for Congress, and it has been an inspiration to work with her to promote Republican Women and conservative causes in Kansas all these years," Adkins said in a statement.
Loomis said the Wichita Republican's endorsement likely means little for voters in the Kansas City area district, but it could serve as a signal to elite Republican donors to get behind Adkins.
Susan Pompeo will appear as a special guest at a fundraiser for Adkins in Washington on Feb. 25, according to an invitation obtained by The Star.
The fundraising invitation also lists as a special guest Rep. Sam Graves, a Missouri Republican whose Kansas City area district neighbors the Kansas 3rd District. Graves serves on the House Transportation Committee with Rep. Sharice Davids, the incumbent Democrat in the 3rd District.
Adkins' campaign confirmed the upcoming fundraiser.
The Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee, the main campaign wing for Democrats, noted Adkins' ties to former Gov. Sam Brownback and called her "an insider in Kansas' deeply unpopular, education-gutting Republican establishment" when asked about Susan Pompeo's decision to wade into the race.
Susan Pompeo regularly accompanies her husband on diplomatic trips. She has not made endorsements in other federal races since her husband joined President Donald Trump's administration in 2017.
Her decision to make an endorsement in the U.S. House race raises the question of whether she'll make a similar endorsement in the U.S. Senate race.
Mike Pompeo had been the preferred candidate of Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell, but the secretary of state told McConnell in January that he did not plan to run after months of speculation.
Loomis said an endorsement by his wife in the Senate would finally put to bed the notion of a Pompeo candidacy and help GOP establishment support coalesce around another candidate.
