Kansas House investigative committee splits after hearing on complaint against Rep. Ford Carr

A Kansas House select investigative committee met March 27, 2025, in Topeka to continue a formal complaint charging Representative Ford Carr with a pattern of violent rhetoric, use of racial slurs and physical misconduct at a legislative reception. Chairman Lewis opened the hearing by ruling on evidentiary objections, directing the committee through a package of documentary and video evidence and then hearing oral testimony from the two parties, the complainant, Representative Howell, and Representative Carr.

The committee’s chair, identified in the record as Chairman Lewis, addressed admissibility before witnesses spoke and said the committee had admitted documents submitted by Carr and that it had excluded portions of some news articles as hearsay while preserving an exception for prior statements attributed to a party that is present to testify. "They are therefore admissible," Lewis said during the evidentiary rulings, referring to quoted or paraphrased statements by Representative Carr in news reports. The chair also explained exclusions grounded in relevancy and redundancy under applicable evidentiary rules the committee was applying on the record.

Representative Howell, the member who filed the complaint, testified that the complaint was not politically motivated and laid out what she called three core instances demonstrating a pattern: Carr’s April 28, 2023, comment from the House well using the term "house *****" (reported publicly), a Jan. 22, 2025 altercation at a legislative reception at the Celtic Fox in Wichita in which Howell said Carr used racial epithets…