Barbara Goolsbee was born in Galveston, Texas, on January 13, 1958, while her father, Robert L. Goolsbee, was in his medical residency, and her mother, Betty, was a nurse, whom Goolsbee had met during an internship in Kansas City. She grew up in Fairway, Kansas, and Mission Hills, where she attended public high schools. After receiving an undergraduate degree at the University of Kansas, Bollier earned an MD from the University of Kansas School of Medicine. Her residency at Baylor College of Medicine was in anesthesiology; her father had attended Baylor University.
Medical career
After earning her MD, Bollier joined her father's practice at Surgicenter of Kansas City, one of the first freestanding outpatient surgery centers in America. Bollier retired from medicine in 1999. She initially took a year off to help care for a family member, but then became increasingly involved as a volunteer with the Center for Practical Bioethics. She also was active on the Shawnee Mission Education Foundation Board.
Bollier’s legislative career began in 2010 when Republican precinct committee members appointed her to replace a state representative who had been appointed to the state Senate. From 2010 to 2012 Bollier represented the 25th district as a Republican in the Kansas House of Representatives. She represented the 21st House district from 2013-2017. Bollier did not have a Republican primary challenger in 2010 or 2012. But in 2014 she faced Neil Melton, who received considerable support from the conservative Kansas Chamber PAC and from the national group Americans for Prosperity. Bollier won, 59 percent to 41 percent.
In May 2016, Bollier ran for the Kansas Senate 7th district, after Kansas Senator Kay Wolf announced that she was retiring. Bollier won the seat by defeating Democrat Megan England, with 22,439 votes to 18,884 votes. In July 2018, Kansas Senate President Susan Wagle removed Bollier as the Vice Chair of the Senate Public Health and Welfare Committee after she endorsed Democrat Tom Niermann's campaign for Congress. In the November 2018 election, Bollier supported the Democratic candidate for governor, state SenatorLaura Kelly, over the Republican candidate, Secretary of StateKris Kobach. On December 12, 2018, Bollier changed her party affiliation to the Democratic Party, saying: "Morally, the party is not going where my compass resides. I'm looking forward to being in a party that represents the ideals that I do, including Medicaid expansion and funding our K–12 schools." Bollier said that the "breaking point" had been the Kansas Republican Party's inclusion of anti-transgender language in its platform. Two other Kansas legislators, state Representative Stephanie Clayton and state Senator Dinah Sykes, also switched from the Republican Party to the Democratic Party in December 2018.
2020 U.S. Senate election
On October 16, 2019, Bollier announced that she would run in the 2020 election for the United States Senate seat being vacated by the retiring Pat Roberts. The next day, former United States Attorney for Kansas Barry Grissom dropped out of the race and endorsed Bollier. Grissom's withdrawal from the race came despite his having raised almost half a million dollars in contributions during the previous quarter. His departure left Bollier as the party's clear frontrunner in the primary. Bollier's senate candidacy was endorsed by former Democratic Governor Kathleen Sebelius. Overland Park's Representative Clayton, who became a Democrat simultaneously with Bollier, said the Kansas Republican Party hasn't got anyone possessing equivalent sway as has Sebelius, given the stark divisions between that party's moderates and conservatives. Clayton commented, "When she talks, people listen. And that's that." The Sebelius endorsement came after Sebelius referenced Bollier's history of almost a decade of consistent support for fully funding schools, Medicaid Expansion, and the repeal of former governor Sam Brownback's "devastating tax experiment." If Bollier wins, she would be the first woman doctor elected to the U.S. Senate.
Personal life
While in medical school, Bollier met her husband Rene Bollier, a family medicine physician in Kansas City. Their daughter Anne-Marie holds a master's degree in public health and is active in the art community of Melbourne, Australia. Bobby Bollier, their son, is an American professional swimmer, a 14-time NCAA All-American while at Stanford University, before attending George Washington University Law School.
