He was born in Parker, Kansas and raised on a farm where his mother and father still live. He was a leader in high school, in Future Farmers of America as state president, as student body president at Kansas State University and president of his class at University of Kansas Law School.
Sam served as a White House Fellow in the first Bush Administration and was the youngest Secretary of Agriculture in Kansas history. When he was 38, he was elected to the House of Representatives with the Republican Revolution in 1994. In 1996, he was elected to the U.S. Senate seat held by Bob Dole.
In the U.S. Senate, Sam serves on the Appropriations, Judiciary, and Joint Economic Committees. He is the Ranking Member on the Joint Economic Committee on the Financial Services and General Government Appropriations Subcommittee as well as the subcommittee responsible for the Constitution. He also serves on the Helsinki Commission on Security and Cooperation in Europe, co-chairs the Senate Cancer Coalition and the Human Rights Caucus, chairs the Senate Values Action Team, and is a founding member of the Senate Fiscal Watch Team.
Over the years, Sam has been a radio broadcaster, attorney, teacher, administrator, congressman and senator. Senator Brownback and his wife Mary have five children and live in Topeka, Kansas.
