Graham’s Grumblings: The long game
By Timothy R. Graham
KNEA Director of Government Relations
Anthony Hensley likes to repeat himself - a lot.
He has an impeccable memory. He’s a master storyteller. And he understands that the best lessons are the ones you hear more than once.
So, after all these years, it was my pleasure to sit down with him and listen to him repeat himself again — this time for the Under The Dome podcast.
One of his most repeated lines, in the nearly 30 years I’ve known him, is this:
Patience is one of the most important virtues in politics.
This week's episode of the Under The Dome Podcast is a longer-than-normal episode as Timothy R. Graham, KNEA Director of Government Relations, sits down with Anthony Hensley. Hensley is a long-time educator, KNEA member, and a former Democratic member of the Kansas Senate.
This week on Under the Dome, I had the opportunity to sit down with Anthony - my former boss, longtime mentor, and the longest-serving legislator in Kansas history - to talk about what that really means.
I worked for Anthony from 2000 through 2016. Sixteen years inside the Senate Minority Leader’s office. Long enough to see coalition governments rise and fall. Long enough to watch redistricting maps get drawn and redrawn. Long enough to understand that very little in that building happens overnight.
Anthony was first elected in 1976, in the shadow of Watergate. Democrats took control of the Kansas House that year for the first time in 64 years. Over the next four decades, he would serve in both the majority and the minority, through Republican governors and Democratic governors, through eras of moderation and eras of sharp partisanship.
If you listen to our conversation, you can hear that theme - patience - running underneath every story.
From his first election victory to his final years in leadership, Anthony never confused urgency with effectiveness.
We talked about school finance battles where the votes weren’t there - until they were. About transportation negotiations where timing was everything. About redistricting fights that required unlikely coalitions and steady hands. About the night a gaming bill passed 21–19 because the groundwork had been laid quietly, patiently, long before the roll call.
None of those moments happened because someone delivered a dramatic speech - though Anthony is known to have given a few great ones over the years.
They happened because someone counted the votes, built the relationships, waited for the opening, and then moved.
They happened because patience wasn’t just a personality trait. It was a strategy.
We also talked about the parts of his life that shaped that approach: Growing up in a union household, teaching special education for 30 years, bringing his students to the Capitol, serving in both the majority and the minority, working with governors from both parties. Through all of it, the lesson was consistent.
Politics is about priorities.
It’s about coalition building.
And it’s about patience.
In a time when the Legislature often feels louder faster, and more transactional than it used to be, that reminder matters.
If you appreciate Kansas history, care about public education, want to understand why Anthony was a lifelong KNEA member - and why that commitment shaped his leadership - I hope you’ll take time to listen to this week’s episode of the Under The Dome Podcast. There’s something in it for every educator who cares about the long game.
Because in the end, the loudest voice in the room rarely wins. The one who stays, builds relationships, counts the votes, and understands timing usually does.
That’s the long game.
🎧 Listen here:
Timothy R. Graham is the Director of Governmental Relations and Legislative Affairs for KNEA. He has spent more than 25 years working inside Kansas politics and government, including Director of Government Affairs for Gov. Laura Kelly; Deputy Executive Director of the Kansas Lottery; Interim Executive Director of InterHab; Chief of Staff to the Kansas Senate Minority Leader; and Assistant Secretary of State for the State of Kansas. He can be reached via email at timothy.graham@knea.org.
The opinions expressed herein are those of the author alone and should not be interpreted as reflecting the official policies or positions of the Kansas National Education Association (KNEA), its local affiliates, or its members.