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Brian Matlock is a candidate in Kansas for United States Senate seat that current Senator Pat Roberts will be vacating at the end of his current term. The Primary Election will take place on August 4th, 2020, and the General Election will occur on November 3rd, 2020.

Biography

Brian’s devotion to caring for those in need can be traced to his devoutly religious childhood. As a child, he helped teach Sunday school for younger kids, read his Bible, journaled, and led family devotions. Since before elementary school, he aspired to become a missionary, and it wasn’t long before those aspirations became a reality. Still in his youth, Brian traveled to Mexico for a mission trip, where he helped with a summer children’s program. He went on trips to inner-city churches and helped at soup kitchens. When at home, Brian stayed involved in the community and devoted himself to volunteering. As a teen, he liked to spend time at the senior citizens’ center. Sometimes he would engage people one-on-one with a lengthy game of Chess, while other times he would provide group entertainment by playing the piano.

By high school, Brian’s interest in community investment led him to become heavily involved in school activities. He made all-state in choir and played the leading role in several plays for the school’s drama department. His outgoing nature allowed him to easily move between different social groups, and he took the opportunity to further develop his community organizing skills, working to co-mingle and integrate the different groups to make sure nobody fell behind or felt left out. When Brian managed to find a free moment, he enjoyed going to his Grandma Dell’s house to play Pinochle with her friends.

After high school, Brian continued to pursue his interest in missionary work, and traveled to Croatia for 6 months right after graduation. When he returned to the United States, he took a part-time Ministry Internship at a predominantly Native American church, where he preached, taught Sunday School, played music, served food, and helped with non-profit work.

Brian continued to study seminary, and his missionary work took him to places like South Africa and Venezuela. As he saw more of the world, met more people from differing backgrounds, and experienced more poverty and injustice, Brian began to see the need for systemic solutions for people who are chronically left out of our economy. This led him to pursue a PhD in Economics at the University of Missouri – Kansas City (UMKC), where he is still enrolled and teaches an Economics course.

Brian grew up in a family of 5. His sister now lives nearby in Kansas City, MO and works for a non-profit. His brother lives in Rhode Island, owns his own business, and spent several years in the military, including two tours to Afghanistan. His mom has recently retired after working multiple jobs for many years to make sure the family’s needs were met. Brian confides that his mom was responsible for running the entire show at her main job, but was never recognized or compensated for doing so. His dad was a State police officer for over 35 years. During that time, he received an MA in Communications where he focused on White Supremacy groups and how the rhetorically use Christian imagery and other similar symbols to build their narrative. After years of patrol, he ended up supervising the Training Academy, where he taught officers about de-escalation tactics. He now teaches Criminal Justice at Northwest Nazarene University, where he focuses on Restorative Justice.

Brian learned his ‘good neighbor’ values from his Republican parents who constantly opened their home and pitched in to help their neighbors. Throughout his adult life, he has held on to those values and tries to live them every day. His involvement in theater as a teenager helped to bring out his weird, artistic, performative side, which is very much on display if you follow his Instagram. He isn’t afraid to be different. He isn’t afraid to try something different. The co-mingling of groups that he did in his youth taught him the importance of redefining the rules when they benefit the few instead of the many. Right now, this is a trait that is needed more than ever in our country’s recent history, and Brian is devoted to forming a new coalition of local average working people across communities that are struggling.