Exclusive – Democrat Kansas Lt. Gov. Dressed in Drag at 2010 Community Event

Democrat Kansas Lt. Gov. David Toland dressed up like a woman for an Allen County community event back in 2010, according to archives from the Iola Register.

“David ‘Davine’ Toland stand by their man, Charley Melvin, in preparation for the Mad Bomber Run festival’s ‘drag’ race on the Iola square Friday evening. At least 30 men and four women will participate in the wacky relay, representing Iola’s doctors, lawyers, bankers, and others,” reads an archived article from July 8, 2010, along with a photo that shows Toland [far right] in a full-length dress. 

“…A ‘drag race’ features prominent Iolans donning dresses, or women wearing suits in a relay race. The drag ‘queen’ will be crowned at the conclusion of the race.”

A follow-up article on July 12, 2010, shows Toland crowning a man named Matthew Skahan for winning “Charley’s Bombshell” in the “evening’s drag race.”

Toland, who is also the Secretary of the Kansas Department of Commerce, appears to have cocreated the Charley Melvin Mad Bomber Run as Thrive Allen County’s executive director, according to the nonprofit’s website. The website describes the event “a unique 5K run/3K walk that drew thousands of runners and walkers from throughout the Midwest to Iola, Kansas each July. Running from 2009 through 2016, it was the largest such event in Southeast Kansas.”

The website says:

The event commemorated the 1905 dynamite bombing of three saloons just after midnight by a local prohibitionist, Charley Melvin. This event brought national attention to the then-lawless boomtown of Iola, Kansas … and broke a whole lot of bottles! The Mad Bomber Run took a destructive historical event and turned it into something positive for the community, and we had a whole lot of fun doing it. The Mad Bomber Run was an unforgettable annual event. In addition to the run/walk, it featured a carnival, old time games, and more. Forgive the pun, but it was a blast, folks.

A 2011 article from the Iola Register noted that “men and women alike are encouraged to dress in a cross-gender manner and then ‘compete’ in teams of four in a relay,” and added that “last year, a women’s garter was transferred from one participant’s leg to another.”

“It’s better than a baton,” Toland told the publication at the time. 

Neither Democrat Gov. Laura Kelly’s reelection campaign, nor the Kansas Department of Commerce responded to request for comment by time of publication.

The resurfacing of Toland’s participation in the gender-bending event comes in the wake of a report that an “all-ages” drag show called “DADA Ball” took place at the Chainlink Gallery Place, overseen by Harvester Arts, in Wichita on October 22.

The Daily Mail first reported the story on October 24, and alleged that the Kansas Creative Arts & Industries Commission (KCAIC), which is part of the Kansas Department of Commerce, was partially responsible for funding the show. Since the story was published, fact-checkers found that the KCAIC grant cited in the report was not actually used to directly fund the “all-ages” drag show. The $7,500 Visiting Artist Grant to Harvester Arts was instead used to support an individual artist’s work at Chainlink Gallery Place.

When asked about the the Daily Mail‘s accusations, Toland told the Salina Post, “It’s just flat out not true. It didn’t happen.” He also called the incident a “classic October political dirty trick,” likely referencing the tight reelection race he and Kelly are running against Republican Kansas Attorney General Derek Schmidt. 

However, the KCAIC appears to have a history of funding Harvester Arts, the organization responsible for hosting the drag show, Breitbart News previously reported. Harvester Arts’ website states that it has “received funding for general operational support from the City of Wichita, the Kansas Creative Arts Industries Commission and the National Endowment for the Arts,” which is a federal agency. The organization also says it received funding from the KCAIC during the pandemic in 2020.

Moreover, the Interim Director of the KCAIC, Kate Van Steenhuyse, appears to be a cofounder of Harvester Arts. Both Steenhuyse’s LinkedIn page and the KCAIC website list her as the interim director. Harvester Arts appears to have removed Steenhuyse from its “Who We Are” page, though a cached version of the Harvester Arts website lists her as a co-founder. Local media names Steenhuyse in an article about Harvester Arts as recently as January 31, 2022, while her LinkedIn page says she has worked as interim director of KCAIC for more than two years. 

Breitbart News previously reached out to the Kansas Department of Commerce, Harvester Arts, and Steenhuyse for comment about how much funding KCAIC has given to Harvester Arts and about Steenhuyse’s current relationship with Harvester Arts given her position with the commission, but no one responded.