Kelly Arnold is an American politician serving as the Sedgwick County

Clerk A clerk is a white-collar worker who conducts record keeping as well as general office tasks, or a worker who performs similar sales-related tasks in a retail environment. The responsibilities of clerical workers commonly include Records managem ...

. He is in his third term, having first been elected in 2008. From January 2013 to February 2019, Kelly served as the chairman of the

Kansas Republican Party The Kansas Republican Party is the state affiliate political party in Kansas of the United States Republican Party. The Kansas Republican Party was organized in May 1859. At the state level, the party is largely split between its moderate and co ...

Early life and education

Kelly Arnold was born and raised in

McPherson McPherson is a Scottish surname. It is an Anglicised form of the Gaelic ''Mac a' Phearsain'' and ''Mac a Phearsoin'', meaning "son of the parson". Notable people with the surname include: In sports *Adrian McPherson, American football player ...

Kansas Kansas ( ) is a landlocked U.S. state, state in the Midwestern United States, Midwestern region of the United States. It borders Nebraska to the north; Missouri to the east; Oklahoma to the south; and Colorado to the west. Kansas is named a ...

. After he graduated from McPherson High School, he earned

bachelor A bachelor is a man who is not and never has been married.Bachelors are, in Pitt & al.'s phrasing, "men who live independently, outside of their parents' home and other institutional settings, who are neither married nor cohabitating". (). Etymo ...

degrees in Business Management and Finance from Tabor College in Hillsboro. He later graduated from

Wichita State University Wichita State University (WSU) is a public research university in Wichita, Kansas, United States. It is governed by the Kansas Board of Regents. The university offers more than 60 undergraduate degree programs in more than 200 areas of study in ...

's Hugo Wall School of Public Affairs as Certified

Master Master, master's or masters may refer to: Ranks or titles In education: *Master (college), head of a college *Master's degree, a postgraduate or sometimes undergraduate degree in the specified discipline *Schoolmaster or master, presiding office ...

County Clerk.

Career

Arnold worked in the finance industry before his 2008 election to the office of Sedgwick County Clerk. He ran unopposed in 2012 and 2016. He is responsible for private and commercial filings. He is a member of the Executive Committee for South Central Kansas of the County Clerks & Election Officials. Arnold is former chairman of the board of trustees of the Kansas Public Employee Retirement System and the Board of Directors at Hillsboro State Bank.

Political career

From January 2013 to February 2019, Arnold served as Chairman of the Kansas Republican Party (KSGOP). In February 2017, Arnold won a third term to chair the KSGOP. Previously, Arnold had been state vice chairman and Finance Director of the KSGOP. Prior to that he had chaired the Sedgwick County Republican Party between 2006 and 2010. Arnold served for over ten years in the

Young Republican National Federation The Young Republican National Federation, commonly referred to as the Young Republicans or YRNF, is a 527 organization for members of the Republican Party of the United States between the ages of 18 and 40. It has both a national organization ...

, two years of which as treasurer of the Federation and is also a co-founder of the Republican Men's Leadership Series. In 2016, Arnold was part of the Convention Rules Committee and the Committee on Arrangements for the

2016 Republican National Convention The 2016 Republican National Convention, in which delegates of the United States Republican Party (United States), Republican Party chose the party's nominees for President of the United States, president and Vice President of the United Sta ...

. Later in the year, he was also one of the state's

presidential electors In the United States, the Electoral College is the group of presidential electors that is formed every four years for the sole purpose of voting for the president and vice president in the presidential election. This process is described in ...

receiving over 20,000 emails from anti-Trump activists. In June 2017, Arnold weighed a run for the office of

Secretary of State of Kansas The secretary of state of Kansas is one of the constitutional officers of the U.S. state of Kansas. The current secretary of state is the former speaker ''pro tempore'' of the Kansas House of Representatives, Scott Schwab, who was sworn in on Ja ...

. In early 2018, opted to focus on his role as party chairman and did not launch a primary campaign.

Personal life

Arnold lives in

Wichita, Kansas Wichita ( ) is the List of cities in Kansas, most populous 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, ...

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Arnold, Kelly 1978 births Kansas Republicans Living people National Republican Convention politicians People from McPherson, Kansas Politicians from Wichita, Kansas Wichita State University alumni