Republican Jacob LaTurner, of Pittsburg, right, is sworn in Wednesday as the 40th Kansas state treasurer by Kansas Supreme Court Justice Caleb Stegall. LaTurner's wife, Suzanne, is at center. LaTurner, a former state senator, succeeds Ron Estes, who recently won a special election for the 4th District congressional race.

Topeka ? Republican Jacob LaTurner was sworn in Wednesday as Kansas’ 40th state treasurer, a position that immediately elevates him into the upper tier of potential GOP candidates for higher office in the future.

LaTurner, 29, a former state senator from Pittsburg, had been considered a potential candidate for the open 2nd District congressional seat in 2018. But while he has said he plans to run for a full four-year term as treasurer next year, he did not rule out the possibility of seeking higher office in the future.

“We’re going to do a good, solid job of representing the people of Kansas,” he told reporters after the ceremony. “And we hope that by doing a good, solid job, getting out and meeting the folks of Kansas, that elections and things like that take care of themselves.

Republican Jacob LaTurner, of Pittsburg, right, is sworn in Wednesday as the 40th Kansas state treasurer by Kansas Supreme Court Justice Caleb Stegall. LaTurner's wife, Suzanne, is at center. LaTurner, a former state senator, succeeds Ron Estes, who recently won a special election for the 4th District congressional race.

The job of state treasurer is largely administrative. The office manages the state’s idle funds and its unclaimed property program. It also administers the state’s college savings program known as LearningQuest.

Perhaps the most demanding part of the job, though, is serving on the Kansas Public Employees Retirement System’s Board of Trustees, which governs the state’s $16 billion public pension fund, something LaTurner admitted will be a new experience for him.

“Serving on the KPERS board will be new,” he said. “We’re going to pay attention. We’re going to wait for those policy decisions as time goes by.”

His appointment to the job was part of a domino reaction that was set off in Kansas politics when President Donald Trump named 4th District Congressman Mike Pompeo, of Wichita, to become CIA director.

In a special election to fill Pompeo’s seat, former Treasurer Ron Estes edged out Democrat James Thompson in a surprisingly close race. That prompted Gov. Sam Brownback to name LaTurner, who had just won re-election to a second term in the Kansas Senate, as treasurer.

The last domino in the series will fall Sunday when Republican precinct committee officials from the 13th Senate District in southeast Kansas meet to fill LaTurner’s vacant Senate seat.

Kansas GOP executive director Clay Barker said the winner of that contest will be sworn into office Monday, the day lawmakers return from a three-week break to finish out the 2017 legislative session.

The race to succeed LaTurner could have a big impact on whether the Legislature can pass a tax package by a wide enough margin to overcome a governor’s veto.

Earlier in the session, the Senate came up three votes short, 24-16, in attempting to override Brownback’s veto of a bill that would have reversed course on many of the income tax cuts he championed in 2012.

LaTurner, an ally of Brownback’s, voted to sustain the veto. But he declined to offer an endorsement of anyone vying to fill his seat.

“It’s hard to imagine how I’d make a lot of friends by wading into that too much,” LaTurner said.