| Leslie Donovan | |
| State Senate: | Kansas |
| State: | Kansas |
| District: | 27th |
| Term Start: | January 8, 1997 |
| Term End: | January 10, 2017 |
| Preceded: | Michael Terry Harris |
| Succeeded: | Gene Suellentrop |
| Party: | Republican |
| Birth Date: | 5 May 1936[1] |
| Birth Place: | Wray, Colorado, U.S. |
| Spouse: | Mary |
| Children: | 3 |
| Profession: | auto dealer |
| Residence: | Wichita, Kansas |
Leslie D. "Les" Donovan, Sr. (May 5, 1936) was a Republican member of the Kansas Senate, representing the 27th district from 1997 to 2017. He was the Assistant Majority Leader in 2001 and was a delegate to the National Republican Convention in 2000. He was a Kansas Representative from 1992 to 1997.
He is an auto dealer from Wichita.
Donovan served on these legislative committees:[2]
Legislation sponsored or co-sponsored by Donovan includes:[3]
Some of the top contributors to Les Donovan's 2008 campaign, according to the National Institute on Money in State Politics:[7]
Kansas Republican Senatorial Committee, Koch Industries, Kansas Contractors Association, Kansas Association of Realtors, Kansas Medical Society, Kansas Bankers Association
Financial, insurance and real estate companies were his largest donor group.
Donovan was unopposed in the 2012 Republican primary. He defeated Democratic nominee Diana Cubbage in the general election, by a margin of 20,773 to 10,922 — 65.5 percent to 34.5 percent. In their primaries, Donovan had won 7,455 votes; Cubbage 1,044 votes.
Cubbage, a Wichita educator, had been unopposed in the 2012 Democratic Primary.[8] [9] She had been endorsed by the Kansas Education Association, the American Federation of Teachers-Kansas and the AFL-CIO.[10]