Kansas Republican secretary of state candidate Pat Proctor is facing a wave of angry local reaction after details resurfaced of a federal labor case involving more than $93,000 in wages allegedly owed to restaurant employees.
Proctor, a state representative and retired Army colonel, told KMAN radio that the U.S. Department of Labor accused his restaurant business in 2016 of failing to properly record employee hours and pay required overtime and minimum wages.
Federal officials said Baan Thai Restaurant Inc., co-owned by Proctor and his wife, owed 31 employees $93,008 for work performed between 2014 and 2016, including $79,133 in overtime and $13,875 connected to minimum wage violations. Proctor said he had not understood the requirements.
“Here comes this bureaucrat into the restaurant with some regulations that we didn’t know about, and it cost us,” he said.
That explanation didn’t sit well with many Kansas Reddit users discussing the story. One commenter argued that Proctor’s handling of labor law raised obvious questions about his bid to oversee an office responsible for elections and business filings.
“If he is the best candidate the Republicans can field, Kansas is in a lot of trouble,” the commenter wrote.
‘Law and order’ meets a furious Kansas reaction
Another user described the case as a particularly serious failure for someone seeking statewide office, writing: “Of all the white collar crimes, committing wage theft against one’s own employees is reserved for the lowest of the low.”
Others focused less on the original violations than on Proctor’s response.
“So he claims ignorance is an excuse,” one commenter wrote.
Another mocked the contrast between Republican rhetoric and the allegations, posting: “The ‘law and order’ party at it again.”
The anger was not universal evidence of Kansas public opinion, of course. A Reddit thread represents the people participating in that discussion, not the electorate as a whole. But the reaction shows where Proctor’s political vulnerability may lie.
His opponents are already making the same argument. Democratic nominee Jennifer Day questioned whether someone involved in unpaid wage violations should be trusted to administer Kansas elections. At the same time, United Kansas candidate Scott Morgan challenged Proctor’s claim that business owners should receive greater government guidance about regulations.
Proctor has proposed using artificial intelligence on the secretary of state’s website to help businesses identify legal and regulatory obligations. He has also suggested companies should be protected from fines if that government guidance proves inadequate.
That idea turns his old labor dispute into something larger than an embarrassing campaign story. Proctor is effectively arguing that his experience shows government should do more to prevent business owners from making regulatory mistakes. His critics see the opposite lesson.
For Kansas voters, the question now is whether Proctor’s explanation sounds like a case for reform, or an excuse from a candidate asking to run an office built around rules, records, and compliance.
