Interview of Mike Matson and Mike Swenson by Jim McLean, August 18, 2025

In this 2025 oral history interview, Mike Matson and Mike Swenson described how they transitioned from being members of the Statehouse press corps to serving as press secretaries for governors Graves and Carlin, respectively. In the role of press secretary, they were spokesperson for the governor and worked to get his message out, but they describe their role as including serving the public interest as a credible source of information. They understood the importance of working with the press to share their governor’s policy agenda and to get their message out to the public. Swenson explained how Governor Carlin was able to bring the leadership of both parties and cabinet members together to ‘hammer’ things out. Matson described how the Graves administration was faced with the challenge of a “conservative Republican in charge of the House…[that] was not interested in having the conversations that we’re talking about.” Governor Graves had to form coalitions with moderate members of both parties “in order to enact policy they felt most Kansans supported.” A printable copy of the transcript of this interview can be accessed at https://ksoralhistory.org. Mike Matson graduated in 1978 from Brown College in Minnesota with a certificate in broadcast journalism. He then worked as a political journalist for WIBW-TV in Topeka for three years before he was appointed press secretary for Governor Bill Graves in 1994. He served in that role until 2000 when he became the director of communications and public relations for Kansas Farm Bureau. In 2012, Matson became vice president of the Kansas Leadership Center a philanthropically-derived leadership development center. He returned to Kansas Farm Bureau as the director of industry affairs and development in 2016. In 2022, he helped build The Wichita Beacon, a non-profit digital journalism start-up. He was the the Beacon for six months before joining the Manhattan Area Chamber of Commerce as the director of external affairs. Since 2017, Matson has authored a column for the Manhattan Mercury newspaper, and in October 2024, he began hosting a regional radio talk show/podcast called “Within Reason” for the Manhattan Broadcasting Company. Mike Swenson graduated from the University of Kansas with a degree in journalism in 1978 and began his career as the first political/government correspondent for Kansas Public Radio, KANU-FM. He moved to KTSB-TV in Topeka for four years where he worked as a reporter, director, and assignment editor. In 1981, Swenson was appointed press secretary for Governor John Carlin. He and served in that role for almost six years before he was hired by The Boasberg Company as a senior account executive. In 1987, he started Barkley PR/Cause, a public relations firm, and served as president for 25 years. Swenson then worked for Crossroads-Real Communications, a public relations firm, from 2012 to 2020. At the time of this interview he was working as a voice talent/actor and as a private strategic communication consultant. This interview was conducted by the Kansas Oral History Project, Inc. (KOHP), a non-profit organization (501(c)(3)) that records, transcribes, and makes available to the public, oral histories of various aspects of life in Kansas. KOHP is supported by grants and donations, including grants from Humanities Kansas, Evergy, and ITC Great Plains. KOHP does not charge for non-commercial use of the oral histories it collects. Suggested citation: Matson, Mike and Mike Swenson (August 18, 2025) interviewed by Jim McLean. Video file of an oral history interview conducted for the Kansas Oral History Project, Inc. Retrieved from    • Interview of Mike Matson and Mike Swenson ...  . ***** The appearance of any advertisement on this channel does not constitute an endorsement of any product or service nor does it reflect any official position taken by the Kansas Oral History Project, Inc. Except where otherwise noted, The Kansas Oral History Collection © 2021 by Kansas Oral History Project, Inc. is licensed under Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivatives 4.0 International. The recording, transcript, summary, and biographical sketch associated with this video may be used in accordance with this license. If you have questions about licensing the use of this material, contact us using our online form at https://ksoralhistory.org/contact/.