Mark Steffen

Steffen is an anesthesiologist and pain specialist who promoted medications deemed contraindicated for sufferers from COVID-19 by the United States Food and Drug Administration, including Ivermectin and Hydroxychloroquine. [3] On January 26, 2022, Steffen admitted his practice had been investigated by the Kansas Board of Healing Arts for the previous 18 months. He contended that Dr. Steve Stites, the chief medical officer at The University of Kansas Health System, who was critical of politicians who oppose vaccination and masking, was "the Kansas Dr. Fauci," accusing Stites of spreading "propaganda."[4]

On January 26, 2022, he appeared before a Kansas Senate committee to tout his purported COVID-19 remedies. He demanded that a "panel of physicians and scientists from both sides of this issue," be convened.[4] Steffen appeared to concede he traded his vote to overturn the legislature's Kansas congressional redistricting map in order to provide the minimum necessary margin for passage of a bill that would terminate a health board investigation into his medical practice.[5] He joined another Republican senator in switching their votes to provide the supermajority necessary to override Democratic Governor Laura Kelly's veto of the body's hyperpartisan redistricting after the Senate Public Health and Welfare Committee fast-tracked a COVID measure that protected unapproved off-label prescribing and forced pharmaceutical dispensing of the drugs in a "gut and go" bill. He refused to answer a reporter's inquiry regarding a possible quid pro quo that tethered the redistricting vote and his COVID bill, but he responded to the charge during a later interview with Pete Mundo, a conservative talk radio host.

"Well, I did that to make some progress on some other fronts." "Sometimes that's the way politics works."

Steffen had pushed for various public health policy changes. To that end, the existing content of House Bill 2280 that it had sent to the Senate was removed and wholly replaced by language from Senate Bill 381 by the committee, substituting the language Steffens sought. Mundo asked him:

"So there was a part of you that felt to get Senate Bill 381, which got out of committee yesterday, to get it there, you felt like you essentially had to hold up your vote on redistricting?"

"Well, I don't know if it was that blunt," said Steffen. "I was able to meet with the right folks to express all those concerns and we came to a mutual agreement,"

A spokesperson for the Senate's GOP leadership denied what had happened, saying:

"Discussions were had about issues that Senator Steffen cares about, as President Masterson confirmed yesterday." "However, any implication about a trade or a deal is inaccurate and nothing in his interview said differently."

Senate President Ty Masterson compared the talks to a negotiation, telling reporters:

"You can make what you will out of that. There was no quid pro quo, but it would be unfair to characterize it as some kind of insider deal."

Steffen had supported the map two weeks earlier, but following Kelly's veto of the gerrymandering, he switched to opposing the map Masterson favored, saying its effect was "dumping the Lawrence liberals" into the 1st Congressional District. He contended:

"...insidious redistricting will kill off the true conservative character of the Big First."

Steffen's bill forced pharmacists to fill prescriptions for ivermectin, hydroxychloroquine and other off-label drugs ostensibly for treatment and prevention of COVID-19, protecting prescribers from liability should their prescriptions harm patients. It would further stop the Kansas State Board of Healing Arts from disciplining healthcare workers for all and any reasons associated with the coronavirus pandemic and included anti-vax elements expanding comprehensive religious, moral, and ethical-belief exemptions from school and daycare mandates regarding childhood vaccination requirements. The committee voted on the provision avoiding any public testimony. Republican Senate leadership facilitated the bill's progress, with one member moving for a "gut and go," a procedural strategy in which legislators take a bill that has already been passed by one chamber, removing all of its original text, then replacing the deleted content with that of a different bill in order to facilitate its passage while avoiding an opportunity for testimony from the public. Hours later, Steffen switched to supporting the redistricting map along with Senator Alicia Straub, another endorser of fringe COVID-19 treatment protocols.

Two months after a group of young adults met with Steffen at his state senate office in March 2023, he told Republicans at Hutchinson's Riverside Baptist church, that they appeared "horrible," and "a mess." One of those March visitors, a Muslim woman who observed many bibles in his office asked how he might represent constituents of her religion and a Jewish woman who was with the group. “I would be happy to try and convert you,” he responded. He denied the substance of his response to a reporter who inquired about the exchange. He also claimed that “There was (sic) transgenders and, you know, they were proudly telling me they were homosexuals, lesbians." However, his visitors said there had been no such discussion about sexuality or gender, nor did the recording of the encounter reflect his account of the meeting. He complained to the church group that a staffer had, "let me down," when she allowed the group to enter his office. After the recording of the March meeting surfaced, however, he admitted he had lied about it.[6]

• Vote Smart Mark Steffen
• Mark Steffen at Ballotpedia