Her son was too shy to venture alone onto the exercise floor.

Thirty-some-years later, the reluctant "tumbleweed" works on a floor surrounded by a perimeter of onlookers. This month, Hutchinson native Kevin Yoder, 37, started his second term in the U.S. House of Representatives.

Recently, The News followed Yoder, R-Overland Park, on a trip to Miami County, added to his 3rd District by 2012 redistricting.

When he introduces himself to new audiences, the story begins with Hutchinson.

Yoder, Haven, Hutch

Wayne Yoder is in his 70s and continues to farm land several miles west of Yoder that has been in the family for years.

"I just felt like that's where he was headed," Yoder said, not surprised son Kevin pursued a law degree and politics.

Kevin, the only son with two older sisters, attended Haven Grade School. His parents divorced at the end of his sixth-grade year, and he moved to Hutchinson with his mother, Susan Alexander. He enrolled in Liberty Middle School and then Hutchinson High School.

"I made him take debate," said Alexander, promising him he could drop it after one year if he wanted.

Yoder excelled.

"Our senior year we won state," said debate partner Brandon Neuschafer, an attorney in St. Louis. "We went to nationals in another event, called student congress." They "did pretty well," he said, in the mock congress competition where students draft and debate legislation.

Yoder also played tennis, but "kind of kept a lower profile" at Hutchinson High, Neuschafer said.

He was "fun to be around" at debate and forensics tournaments, and peers gravitated toward him, Neuschafer said. "I think he was seen as particularly charismatic when we would go to participate in tournaments," he said.

Another thing Neuschafer and Yoder shared in common in high school: Both were Democrats.

Political roots

Yoder's family roots are Republican.

Asked why he chose law school, Yoder pointed to the influence of his maternal grandfather William Alexander.

Alexander was president of the Chicago Bar Association and village president - the equivalent of mayor - of Wilmette, Ill.

"He was someone to admire," Susan Alexander said, of her late father. "He stood up for what he thought was right," she said.

He also was a Republican, and Alexander was a "Goldwater Girl" in the 1960s.

Another example of political activism came when Wayne Yoder drove his tractor to Washington, D.C., in 1978, as farmers protested federal policies under Democratic President Jimmy Carter.

"I think each of us has to go through maturation," Rep. Yoder said of his period in high school and college as a Democrat. He had different viewpoints then, he said, but admired people on both sides of the political spectrum.

University of Kansas Political Science Professor Burdett Loomis said Yoder, as a KU law student, asked Loomis if he should run for political office as a Democrat or moderate Republican.

Kansas is a Republican state, but there are "fewer bodies" for a Democratic candidate to step over to get a nomination, Loomis observed.

Yoder doesn't recall asking Loomis that question, and Yoder staff noted that the Congressman worked on Republican campaigns in college and law school.

When Yoder campaigned in 2002 for the Kansas House of Representatives, he ran as a Republican and won. And when Yoder ran in 2010 for an open seat in the U.S. Congress, he defeated eight fellow Republicans in the primary, easily winning the general election.

Moving north

The University of Kansas offered a better financial package than Kansas State University, and Yoder headed there after graduating from high school in 1994.

A double major in political science and English, Yoder ran twice for the Student Senate as an undergraduate and lost.

His eventual election as KU student body president proved pivotal.

You "get thrown into the fire," he said of the challenge of leading a campus of 25,000 students. He relished the job. He also was president of Lambda Chi Alpha fraternity while at KU.

Those leadership experiences, combined with an internship in the State Legislature, fueled his interest in government. His base would become Johnson County.

He practiced law in Olathe. His wife, Brooke Yoder, also earned a law degree from KU, and works in administration at the Kansas City University of Medicine and Biosciences.

The couple lives in Overland Park, and he commutes on a direct flight to Washington Monday or Tuesday, flying back for weekends. House members are given one week each month to spend in their district.

Quizzing students

The 3rd District encompasses urban Wyandotte County, suburban Johnson County, and a portion of rural Miami County.

During a recent in-district week, Yoder traveled to Louisburg, population 4,300, to talk to the high school government class.

"You guys want to take out a piece of paper," Yoder said, surprising the class with a 10-question pop quiz.

How many serve in the U.S. House of Representatives? Yoder began. He served up a softball question - What Kansan was President of the U.S.? He also offered a bonus question: Name the person third in line to the presidency.

One student guessed former House Speaker Nancy Pelosi, D-Calif., is third in line. Yoder expressed relief the correct answer is Speaker John Boehner, R-Ohio.

"I worry a lot about you guys," Yoder told the students, voicing concern they will go to college but not find a job in this economy and will be saddled with debt.

Yoder removed the House pin from his jacket lapel - "This is what gets you into one of the office buildings," he said - and the students passed the pin and a credit-card-size House voting card around the room.

As a freshman House member in 2011, he wondered what his seniority rank was in the 435-member House. That's the number on the back side of his House pin, he was told.

His number? 434.

Freshmen are on the bottom rung, and rank within the class is determined alphabetically.

"Those at the end of the alphabet - it never ends," he told the students.

Focus on the economy

At a business roundtable at Louisburg's First National Bank, Yoder fielded questions that centered on the economy.

Yoder voted in August 2011 against raising the debt ceiling and voted no on "fiscal cliff" legislation at the start of this year.

He said he can't support raising the debt without a way to pay it back.

"I just want a solution as part of it," he said.

He admires former Republican vice presidential candidate Paul Ryan, R-Wis., voted for the Ryan budget, and thinks rules for Medicare should be changed for those aged 54 and younger "to save the program."

Yoder favors a fiscal strategy that includes a government hiring freeze, "surgical cuts" in every department, and agency elimination. He introduced legislation to ax the pension for members of Congress and to cut their pay. He also supports term limits.

The debt is $16.4 trillion and grows by $4 billion daily, he noted, so if the cuts aren't determined now, they will happen involuntarily in the future.

"You know, I like this guy a lot," said rancher Richard Radke to a bank official as he left First National.

At the Louisburg Rotary Club, First National Bank President Bob Nauman introduced Yoder by saying he liked everything Yoder had just said at the business roundtable.

"I'll just repeat myself," Yoder quipped, and he dove into the economy again.

He called his 101-year-old paternal grandmother in Reno County, Edna Yoder, who survived the Dust Bowl and Great Depression, an "inspiration" to him.

"Folks weren't waiting for Washington to save them," he said, of her generation.

Yoder wants to reform immigration, noting that the legal immigration process "takes forever," while those coming in illegally have incentives. He cited the importance of early childhood development and Head Start. He described himself as someone "who supports all-of-the-above approach" toward energy production and that includes incentives for wind energy.

He voted against Hurricane Sandy legislation because it did not address how to offset spending. All three other Kansans in the House voted no, too.

"If you ask questions, you're labeled as heartless," defended Yoder. "We ought to champion those who are asking the difficult questions," he said.

On gun control, Yoder said, "I err on the side of freedom and liberty."

"These are trying times," he said, and it's not going to be a Republican agenda or a Democratic agenda. He said he is open-minded to both sides of the debate.

"I'm a person who wants to get to yes," Yoder said.

Yoder and Cleaver

The Greater Kansas City Chamber of Commerce invited Congressmen Emanuel Cleaver II, D-Kansas City, and Yoder to speak at a chamber event. Both accepted.

"I was so impressed that he was not an ideologue," Cleaver said in a phone interview. "I thought boy, this young guy is going to be very, very good to work with," he said.

"I think with great intentionality he avoids using the language that engenders a kind of hostility," Cleaver said.

Yoder and Cleaver have taken part in about a half-dozen forums and take the same flights to and from Washington. In December, Yoder spoke on the House floor on behalf of legislation that would declare the Kansas City Liberty Memorial World War I Monument in Cleaver's Kansas City, as the National World War I Monument.

Cleaver and Yoder received the Consensus Civility Award this fall from a non-profit organization in Kansas City, recognizing their work together.

"I try not to be overly political," Yoder said. "I just don't see any benefit in attacking the President in a political way," he said.

Yoder said he can understand the anger, but "some vitriol" can be counterproductive, he said.

Yoder holds a conservative voting record, but he is the only Kansan in Congress who has not signed Grover Norquist's Americans for Tax Reform pledge not to vote for tax hike.

Such commitments to groups handcuff lawmakers, in Yoder's view.

Lesson learned

Yoder and his wife traveled to Israel in August 2011, as part of a Congressional delegation trip sponsored by the American Israel Education Foundation.

Travel expenses covered for Yoder and his wife amounted to about $20,000, according to Legistorm website.

One night after a dinner, some members and other people on the trip went for a swim in the Sea of Galilee. Yoder took his clothes off and went in.

House Majority Leader Eric Cantor, R-Va., "was so upset about the antics," wrote Politico which broke the story, that he "rebuked" the lawmakers.

News of the skinny-dipping did not surface until August 2012. Promptly, Yoder became fodder for late-night talk show hosts.

Yoder said he quickly apologized when the story broke.

"I learned a lesson," he said. He thinks ultimately, the episode will make him a better member of Congress.

"I haven't had anybody say it's going to affect their vote or support," Yoder said.

Alexander said her son apologized to her for causing embarrassment. She let him know such an apology was not necessary.

No one at the stops in Louisburg mentioned the episode. Yoder's staff said that was not unusual.

The story broke after the candidate filing deadline for 2012 elections, and Yoder easily outpolled a Libertarian candidate in his November 2012 re-election bid.

Loomis does not think the incident will sink Yoder's political future.

Yoder said he was sorry and went right back to work, Loomis said.

When Yoder was a state legislator in 2009, he was stopped while driving and he refused a breath test.

"You chalk them up to youthful discretions," Loomis said, but a third incident would be damaging.

"I think Kevin is going to be a survivor if he doesn't do one more stupid thing," Loomis said.

Outlook

Yoder was a fast-climber in the State Legislature, becoming chairman of the House Appropriations Committee. He landed a coveted spot on the U.S. House Appropriations Committee as an incoming Congressman.

Yoder presides over the House quite a bit, Cleaver said. That's evidence, Cleaver explained, that Yoder had impressed Speaker Boehner.

"I look at Kansas, and I see a state self-determined and hard working," Yoder said, and with "a core set of beliefs."

Too many people who go to Washington lose sight of their purpose, he said.

"I think the key to being an effective member of Congress," Yoder said, "is to never forget where you come from."

"It is quite an honor for a farm kid," Yoder told the Louisburg residents.