Jeremy Ryan Claeys (born February 13, 1978) is a member of the Kansas Senate and a former member of the Kansas House of Representatives. Claeys was raised in Salina, Kansas. He graduated from Kansas State University where he studied media and George Washington University where he studied public administration. Career J.R. Claeys is the State Senator for the 24th District including all of Saline County and most of Dickinson County and the former State Representative for West Salina and Northwest Saline County, and was elected to the 69th District. He has worked as the president and CEO of the National Association of Government Contractors and as communications director of the National Small Business Association. He was the campaign manager for the 2018 campaign of Kris Kobach for Kansas governor and Wink Hartman for Kansas lieutenant governor. Kobach defeated Gov. Jeff Colyer in the Republican primary and lost to Democratic state Sen. Laura Kelly in the general election. 2010 Kansas Secretary of State campaign He unsuccessfully sought the Republican nomination for Secretary of State of Kansas in 2010. Claeys finished third in the primary behind former Kansas Republican Party Chairman Kris Kobach and Shawnee County Elections Commissioner Libby Ensley. Results Kris Kobach: 156,462 Libby Ensley: 83,275 J.R. Claeys: 64,493 2020 Kansas Senate campaign On June 1, 2020, Representative Claeys announced that he was running for the Kansas Senate in the 24th district, challenging Sen. Randall Hardy in the Republican primary. Representative Claeys dropped his bid for a fifth term in the House of Representatives in order to run for the Senate. Claeys defeated Senator Hardy in the Aug. 4, 2020 Republican primary. No Democrat has filed to run in the 2020 general election. Results J.R. Claeys: 7,728 Randall Hardy: 4,350 Kansas Legislature As a state legislator, he has been focused on issues relating to unmanned aerial systems and aviation, including pushing for the state to adopt rules to allow for UAS integration into commercial airspace and the creation of a state UAS director post. This included pushing the Kansas House of Representatives to pass a resolution supporting the state of Kansas' work on UAS issues. He also pushed for a 2013 drone privacy bill to be drafted in a way to protect the Kansas drone economy. In March 2019, he amended the state budget to include funds for Kansas State Polytechnic University to receive $500,000 to hire more instructors for the