Cheryl Helmer is an American politician and educator who formerly served as a member of the

Kansas House of Representatives The Kansas House of Representatives is the lower house of the legislature of the U.S. state of Kansas. Composed of 125 state representatives from districts with roughly equal populations of at least 19,000, its members are responsible for craftin ...

as the representative from the 79th District. A former school counselor in

Wichita, Kansas Wichita ( ) is the largest city in the U.S. state of Kansas and the county seat of Sedgwick County, Kansas, Sedgwick County. As of the 2020 United States census, 2020 census, the population of the city was 397,532. The Wichita metro area had ...

, she defeated Democratic Rep.

Ed Trimmer Ed Trimmer (born January 12, 1952) was a Democratic member of the Kansas House of Representatives, representing the 79th district and had been the minority whip The positions of majority leader and minority leader are held by two United St ...

in the 2018 election. She was defeated by Webster Roth in the 2022 Republican primary. She is a resident of Mulvane, Kansas.

Kansas House of Representatives

2019-2020 Kansas House of Representatives Committee Assignments *General Government Budget *Education *Rural Revitalization

Controversy

Her career as a politician has been fraught with controversies. As an example, she blamed a break-in at her home on an influx of illegal immigrants, although her house is in a heavily trafficked area, near a casino in Mulvane, Kansas. She insisted without any evidence that the incident was due to nearby Wichita, Kansas being a "sanctuary city". She has also targeted the LGBTQ+ community. She once famously sponsored a bill that referenced same-sex marriage as "parody marriage" and offered support for conversion therapy and other anti-LGBTQ provisions. When called out on this, she claimed to not have read the bill that she was sponsoring. Helmer attracted national attention during the

COVID-19 pandemic The COVID-19 pandemic, also known as the coronavirus pandemic, is an ongoing global pandemic of coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) caused by severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2). The novel virus was first identif ...

when she requested that Kansas Governor (of the opposing party) produce information on the Governor's hairstyling. “I am respectfully requesting the name and Kansas license No. of the hairdresser who has touched, colored, cut, performed any service on or with Governor Laura Kelly’s hair since March 12,” Helmer said. Governor Kelly later shared that her husband has been cutting her hair during the suspension of services from professional hairstylists. In 2022, she again drew national controversy after writing in an email to a

Kansas University The University of Kansas (KU) is a public research university with its main campus in Lawrence, Kansas, United States, and several satellite campuses, research and educational centers, medical centers, and classes across the state of Kansas. Tw ...

student who identifies as transfeminine that she did not "appreciate the huge transgender female who is now in our restrooms in the Capitol," a comment aimed at Rep. Stephanie Byers, the first openly transgender person to serve in the state legislature. In the email, Helmer went on to falsely assert that "little girls have been raped, sodomized and beaten in the restrooms by these supposedly transgenders who may or may not be for real."

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Helmer, Cheryl Living people Republican Party members of the Kansas House of Representatives 21st-century American legislators 21st-century American women politicians Women state legislators in Kansas Educators from Kansas 21st-century American women educators 21st-century American educators People from Sedgwick County, Kansas Year of birth missing (living people)