Frank McCollum

Frank McCollum was born in Wichita, Kansas. His career experience includes working as a farmer and rancher.[1]

Who are you? Tell us about yourself.

I am a fourth generation farmer and a retired nurse. I was born in Wichita, KS and grew up in Greenwood County, KS on my family's farm. I worked as a nurse for 20 years while also running my family's farm. We operated the last Grade A Dairy in Greenwood County. The dairy was part of our farming operation for 56 years and ended in 2019. Three generations of my family helped milk cows in our milk barn including my parents, myself and my siblings, and my nieces. The later years also saw my great niece and great nephews in the milk barn with us. Today my brother and I run our herd of commercial beef cattle and farm corn, soybeans, milo, and hay.

Please list below 3 key messages of your campaign. What are the main points you want voters to remember about your goals for your time in office?

Affordability

We have all felt the effects of inflation due to the war and the other various factors. I want to help de escalate the situations that are causing everyone to hurt financially.Data Centers

I believe we need a moratorium on data centers. There has to be a better way to build them that doesn't use all of our resources or cause so much damage to the surrounding areas. I also don't agree with all of the tax breaks that are being given to data centers.Prices of Medical and Pharmaceutical costs

I experienced a lot of changes within the medical industry during my years as a nurse. The one thing that seems to continue is an increase in price. I believe there should be more price controls to help people pay less for their healthcare.

What areas of public policy are you personally passionate about?

Agriculture

I have decades of first hand experience as a farmer and rancher. I've farmed through some of the worst economic times and some of the best. I want to see changes to support farmers and encourage younger generations to stay in farming or be able to start farming.

Data Centers and Solar Farms

I don't believe either of these are sustainable for our environment. I want to see better options that don't harm our environment or us.

Medical Costs

Another area where I want to see improvement for everyone. People shouldn't be worried about the cost for them to go see a doctor or to take their kid to the Emergency Room.

Campaign websiteMcCollum's campaign website stated the following:Fuel CostsThe war in Iran is causing U.S. gasoline prices at the pump to average more than $4 a gallon for the first time in almost four years – even though the United States doesn’t import any oil from Iran.Global oil prices have surged because traders fear supply shortages.Some Gulf producers are reducing output because they cannot easily export their oil.Emergency releases from strategic petroleum reserves can help temporarily but are too small to fully offset a prolonged disruption.What’s the solution?In short, de-escalation in geopolitical conflicts. Wars and international disputes—particularly in major oil-producing regions like the Middle East—drive up crude costs due to supply fears (such as disruptions in the Strait of Hormuz). Successful peace negotiations and ceasefires directly stabilize and lower oil prices.Medical CostsMedical expenses are so out of control in the U.S. because of a combination of higher prices for services and a heavily fragmented multi-payer system. The U.S. pays significantly more for care and prescription drugs than other developed nations, even though Americans actually use fewer medical services.The high costs in the United States are driven by several key factors:Lack of Price Controls & Market PowerAdministrative ComplexityHigher Drug PricesHigher Wages and Equipment CostsMedical Malpractice LawsuitsHow we can start to tackle this problem:To substantially lower medical expenses in the United States, systemic changes must be implemented across both the delivery and financing of care. Since U.S. health care spending is the highest among high-income countries but yields worse health outcomes, reform would need to target four main pillars:Payment Models: Shifting away from “fee-for-service” models (which incentivize ordering more tests and procedures) toward value-based care and global hospital budgets.Price Regulation: Expanding the federal government’s authority to negotiate prescription drug prices and implementing “all-payer” rate settings that cap what hospitals can charge.Administrative Simplification: Reducing the heavy administrative and insurance-related costs that burden medical providers.Preventative Care: Investing heavily in primary care and holistic disease prevention to reduce costly, late-stage hospitalizations.Agricultural CostsIf you farm then you already know how much costs have risen over the past 6 years. Machinery, seed, fertilizer, it’s all increased in price. Renting ground and purchasing ground has also increased.Food CostsSupermarket food costs remain high due to a combination of corporate consolidation, rising energy expenses, and tariffs. To decrease costs, we have to enforce antitrust laws, adjust trade policies, and change domestic agricultural subsidies.Why Food Costs are So HighCorporate Consolidation: A lack of competition among major food producers and supermarket chains—such as in the meat-packing industry—allows large conglomerates to maintain higher profit margins. Input and Energy Costs: Everything from growing crops to refrigerating and trucking food relies heavily on fuel and labor. Spikes in diesel costs and higher wages increase the baseline price of delivering goods. Tariffs and Trade: Tariffs levied on imported food products and agricultural supplies (like fertilizer) make inputs more expensive for farmers and increase the final cost of items like coffee and produce.How do we fix it?Increasing Antitrust Enforcement: We have to target market concentration by passing legislation to break up dominant agricultural monopolies and strictly ban unfair business practices among large conglomerates. Revising Tariff Policies: Rolling back current tariffs on imported foods would lower production and supply costs. Deregulating Agricultural Sectors: Policymakers could seek to end restrictive sugar quotas and other specialized crop programs that artificially inflate domestic prices against global averages. Boosting Energy Production: Broader policies aimed at maximizing domestic oil and gas production are often touted by political leaders as a way to systematically lower transportation costs throughout the food supply chain.Data CentersI believe that we need a moratorium on Data Centers across the country. There’s no reason to be putting data centers in areas that are already in droughts. There should be a better way to build data centers that doesn’t require using massive amounts of water. Why would we put up massive data centers that use more water than entire cities? And why would we want these data centers on our farm ground that is more valuable than any data center?Farmers and ranchers have been told for decades that they need to reduce their water usage and they’ve done it. Across the board, Agriculture uses less water than it did 50 years ago. They didn’t do all of that work to conserve water for us to have data centers move in and use up everyone’s water.PBMs/PharmaciesPharmacy Benefit Managers (PBMs) drive up drug costs at pharmacies by extracting massive rebates, implementing “spread pricing” that inflates the cost of generics, and steering patients to PBM-owned mail-order pharmacies. Ultimately, their complex middleman tactics often force patients to pay significantly higher out-of-pocket prices at the counter.Both Tennessee and Arkansas are combatting Pharmacy Benefit Managers by banning them from simultaneously owning pharmacies. This vertical integration allows PBMs to act as “price setters” and “price takers,” which supporters argue drives up drug costs. This monopoly practice has to stop and I’ll be working hard to make sure Kansas have the lowest possible drug costs by limiting the power PBMs have over your pocketbook.Solar FarmsI am not against solar power. What I am against is covering up farm ground or pasture ground with solar panels. When you do that you make the land unusable for anything other than those solar panels. I believe solar panels should be utilized on top of buildings, parking garages. Places where there is space that is already there and can be used without taking away from anything.RedistrictingRedistricting is inherently harmful when manipulated into “gerrymandering”—where politicians redraw boundaries to choose their voters rather than the other way around. This practice distorts democracy by reducing competitive elections, locking incumbents into power, diluting minority votes, and splitting local communities.— Frank McCollum's campaign website (July 29, 2026)Note: This text is quoted verbatim from the original source. Any inconsistencies are attributable to the original source.