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Rep. Ron Estes

Representative for Kansas’s 4th District

pronounced ron // ess-TUSS

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Estes is the representative for Kansas’s 4th congressional district (view map) and is a Republican. He has served since Apr 25, 2017. Estes is next up for reelection in 2022 and serves until Jan 3, 2023.

Estes is among the Republican legislators whose attempt to disenfranchise Democratic states in the 2020 presidential election was a part of the months-long attempted coup that included the January 6, 2021 insurrection at the Capitol. Shortly after the 2020 election, Estes joined a case before the Supreme Court calling for all the votes for president in Georgia, Michigan, Pennsylvania, and Wisconsin — states that were narrowly won by Democrats — to be discounted based on lies, conspiracy theories, and a preposterous legal argument which the Supreme Court rejected. Following the rejection of several related cases before the Supreme Court, another legislator who joined the case called for violence. On January 6, 2021 in the hours after the attack on the Capitol, Estes voted for the exclusion of all of the votes in Arizona and/or Pennsylvania — states narrowly won by Democrats — from the Electoral College count that determined the next President of the United States. These legislators have generally changed their story after their vote, claiming it was merely a protest and not intended to change the outcome of the election as they clearly sought prior to the vote.
Photo of Rep. Ron Estes [R-KS4]

Analysis

Legislative Metrics

Read our 2020 Report Card for Estes.

Ideology–Leadership Chart

Estes is shown as a purple triangle ▲ in our ideology-leadership chart below. Each dot is a member of the House of Representatives positioned according to our ideology score (left to right) and our leadership score (leaders are toward the top).

The chart is based on the bills Estes has sponsored and cosponsored from Jan 3, 2017 to Jul 30, 2021. See full analysis methodology.

Ratings from Advocacy Organizations

United States Chamber of Commerce: 82% The Club for Growth: 77% League of Conservation Voters: 5% Human Rights Campaign: 0% Planned Parenthood Action Fund: 0%

Committee Membership

Ron Estes sits on the following committees:

Enacted Legislation

Estes was the primary sponsor of 1 bill that was enacted:

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Does 1 not sound like a lot? Very few bills are ever enacted — most legislators sponsor only a handful that are signed into law. But there are other legislative activities that we don’t track that are also important, including offering amendments, committee work and oversight of the other branches, and constituent services.

We consider a bill enacted if one of the following is true: a) it is enacted itself, b) it has a companion bill in the other chamber (as identified by Congress) which was enacted, or c) if at least about half of its provisions were incorporated into bills that were enacted (as determined by an automated text analysis, applicable beginning with bills in the 110th Congress).

Bills Sponsored

Issue Areas

Estes sponsors bills primarily in these issue areas:

Crime and Law Enforcement (21%) Taxation (21%) Public Lands and Natural Resources (16%) Water Resources Development (11%) Transportation and Public Works (11%) Labor and Employment (11%) Economics and Public Finance (11%)

Recent Bills

Some of Estes’s most recently sponsored bills include...

View All » | View Cosponsors »

Voting Record

Key Votes

Estes voted Yea

Passed 327/85 on Dec 21, 2020.
This bill became the vehicle for passage of the Consolidated Appropriations Act, 2021, a major government funding bill, which also included economic stimulus provisions due ...

Estes voted Yea

Estes voted Nay

Estes voted Nay

Passed 373/45 on Feb 5, 2020.

Estes voted Yea

Passed 361/61 on Sep 26, 2018.
H.R. 6157 provides $674.6 billion in total discretionary budget authority for the Department of Defense for fiscal year (FY) 2019. The bill provides $606.5 billion ...

Estes voted Yea

Passed 229/177 on May 19, 2017.
H.R. 1039 amends the federal criminal code to authorize a probation officer to arrest a person, without warrant, if there is probable cause to believe ...

Missed Votes

From Apr 2017 to Jul 2021, Estes missed 29 of 2,196 roll call votes, which is 1.3%. This is better than the median of 2.1% among the lifetime records of representatives currently serving. The chart below reports missed votes over time.

We don’t track why legislators miss votes, but it’s often due to medical absenses and major life events.

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Primary Sources

The information on this page is originally sourced from a variety of materials, including: