Jenkins, Lynn, 1963-

Lynn Haag Jenkins (born June 10, 1963) is an American politician and lobbyist. A member of the Republican Party, she served as the U.S. Representative for Kansas's 2nd congressional district from 2009 to 2019. She previously served as Kansas State Treasurer from 2003 to 2008, in the Kansas House of Representatives from 1999 to 2001 and the Kansas Senate from 2001 to 2003.

Born Lynn Haag in Holton, Kansas, she was raised on a dairy farm there, where she attended high school. Later she graduated from Kansas State University and Weber State College with an accounting major and an economics minor. While completing her studies, she married Scott Jenkins, who grew up on a farm down the road from her own. The couple settled in Topeka, where Jenkins, a licensed CPA, worked as an accountant. Jenkins and her husband divorced in 2009. In 1997, when her state representative resigned, Jenkins ran in the special election to fill the seat but lost by a single vote. Undiscouraged, she ran in the 1998 general election and won. After serving one term in the state house, she won a seat in the state senate. She resigned halfway through her state senate term to serve as Kansas state treasurer, where she worked to cut taxes, limit spending, and return millions of dollars in unclaimed property to state residents. In 2008, Jenkins was elected to Congress from Kansas's 2nd congressional district after defeating first-term Congresswoman Nancy Boyda.

From the start of her time in Congress, Jenkins decried what she considered excessive federal spending. After securing a spot on the Ways and Means Committee, Jenkins worked to pass tax cuts for families who invested in 529 college-savings plans, a program that she helped expand in Kansas as state treasurer. She also worked to end the federal inheritance tax by cosponsoring the Death Tax Repeal Act of 2015. From her seat on the Ways and Means Committee, Jenkins also helped pass the Tax Cuts and Jobs Act of 2017, a major tax overhaul that largely lowered income tax rates for businesses and individuals.

Towards the end of her second term, Jenkins was elected vice chair of the Republican Conference, the GOP’s organization in the House which sets the party’s agenda. She sought the leadership position after a discussion with Speaker John A. Boehner of Ohio about the party’s need to connect with women voters. She remained in the position until 2016. As a member of the Republican leadership, Jenkins tried to find a balance between the ideological wings of her party. In 2010 she was a founding member of the Tea Party Caucus, which advocated for deep spending cuts and smaller government. Three years later she also joined the Problem Solvers Caucus, made up of Republicans and Democrats, which sought bipartisan solutions to difficult legislative issues. In October 2013, during a two-week government shutdown over certain provisions in the Affordable Care Act, Jenkins repeatedly voted with Democrats to pass funding measures to open the government.

In January 2017, Jenkins announced that she would retire from public life and return to the private sector rather than seek re-election to another term in 2018. Two months before the end of her last session, she created her own political consulting firm, LJ Strategies, based in Topeka, Kansas.