Janis Lee is a native Kansan and graduate of West Smith County High School and Kansas State University. Lee, a Democrat, served as a Kansas state senator from 1989 until 2011. Her first campaign for the state senate in 1988 was against a popular Republican incumbent. She continued to be re-elected though her district changed through two rounds of redistricting, again defeating an incumbent Republican when their districts were merged. She was elected to the position of Assistant Minority Leader in 1997, a post she held until she left the Senate. In 2011 she was appointed to the state Court of Tax Appeals as a hearing officer, judge pro tem, and acting executive director. At the time of this interview Lee was actively involved in the family farming operation as Secretary/Treasurer, served as Co-Chair of the Governor's Council on Tax Reform, and was active in church and civic activities in Hays, Kansas. Prior to her service at the state level, Lee was elected to serve as the Swan Township Treasurer in the 1970s, elected to the USD 238 Board of Education, serving from 1979-1989, where she was Vice-President for 8 of those years; and represented 10 Northcentral counties on the Board of the Kansas Association of School Board for four years.

Laura McClure is a native Kansan, born in Hays, and currently living in Osborne, which is in the district she represented in the Kansas House. Her involvement in public issues of particular interest for this interview began when she read a story in the local newspaper about federal plans to build a low-level radioactive waste facility in Kansas. That night, at her son’s baseball game, Laura began circulating a petition against the location of the Central Interstate Low-Level Radioactive Waste Compact site in Kansas. Asking for support for that petition at her son’s baseball game, started Laura’s, and eventually her husband John’s, journey into politics. A few years later, and after her husband John had served two terms in the Kansas House, Laura ran in 1992 to represent what was then House District 119, made up of pieces and parts of five counties. She was re-elected 4 times and served for ten years. Laura and John were the first husband and wife consecutively elected to serve in the House of Representatives. Laura served on the Energy and Natural Resources Committee for her entire time in the House. She also served as the Ranking Minority Member on the House Utilities Committee.

Janis Lee and Laura McClure, both Democrats elected from predominantly Republican districts that overlapped, often campaigned together and conducted constituent communication sessions in the areas they both represented. Because their time in the legislature (1989-2011) and their largely rural districts in northcentral Kansas intersected, Lee and McClure both worked on a wide range of policies pertinent to the Energy & Environment Collection of oral histories: confined feeding facilities, solid waste, waste tires, water quality standards, the Kansas v. Colorado lawsuit, and the Water Transfer Act that the city of Hays was exploring at the time of this interview, among others. In the energy arena, significant issues during their time of service in the Kansas Legislature included retail wheeling of electricity, gas pollution remediation, well plugging, and gas-gathering systems regulations. In this May 2024 interview, they explore those issues, the dynamics of the legislature, campaigning, and the work involved in serving in the legislature.