Moran, Jerry, 1954-

Gerald Wesley Moran (/mʌˈræn/ mur-RAN; born May 29, 1954) is an American lawyer and politician serving as the senior United States senator from Kansas, a seat he has held since 2011. A member of the Republican Party, he served as chair of the National Republican Senatorial Committee for the 113th U.S. Congress, during which he led successful Republican efforts in the 2014 election, producing the first Republican Senate majority since 2006. Previously, he served as a member of the United States House of Representatives, representing Kansas's 1st congressional district.

Raised in Plainville, Kansas, Moran graduated from the University of Kansas and the University of Kansas School of Law. He worked in private law and served as the state special assistant attorney general (1982–85) and deputy attorney of Rooks County (1987–95). He served in the Kansas Senate from 1989 to 1997 and was majority leader for his last two years. He was elected to the House of Representatives in 1996 and served seven terms with little electoral opposition. He was elected to the U.S. Senate in 2010 after defeating fellow U.S. Representative Todd Tiahrt in a contentious primary. He was reelected to the Senate in 2016.

Moran became the senior senator and dean of the Kansas congressional delegation in 2021 when Pat Roberts retired from the Senate.

Moran was born in Great Bend, Kansas, the son of Madeline Eleanor (née Fletcher) and Raymond Edwin "Ray" Moran. He was raised in Plainville. He attended Fort Hays State University before enrolling at the University of Kansas in Lawrence, where he earned a Bachelor of Science degree in economics in 1976. While attending the University of Kansas, he worked as a summer intern for U.S. Representative Keith Sebelius in 1974, when impeachment proceedings were being prepared against President Richard Nixon.

Moran worked as a banker before receiving his Juris Doctor from the University of Kansas School of Law in 1982. He practiced law at Stinson, Mag & Fizzell in Kansas City, and later joined Jeter & Larson Law Firm in Hays, where he practiced for 15 years.[6] In addition to his law practice, he served as the state special assistant attorney general (1982–85) and deputy county attorney of Rooks County (1987–95). He also served as an adjunct professor of political science at Fort Hays State University.