Former Kansas Secretary of State Kris Kobach – the Trumpy, hard-right Republican once held in contempt of court – is back on the November general election ballot for the first time in four years.
Democrats sense a rare opportunity.
After losing the general election race for governor in 2018 and the Republican primary for Senate in 2020, Kobach heads into the fall as his party’s nominee for state attorney general as the office’s current occupant, Republican Derek Schmidt, mounts a campaign for governor.
The Kansas Attorney General’s Office has been in Republican hands for 11 years. But Democrats are betting Kobach’s divisive candidacy and past electoral losses have created an opening for a former Democratic prosecutor and police officer to seriously contend for the office in what was anticipated to be a tough election for Democrats.
Chris Mann, the Democratic nominee, raised $30,000 in the two days following Kobach’s nomination. In fundraising messages distributed on social media, he said he aimed to “end Kris Kobach’s career.”
The Democratic Attorneys General Association said in an email that Kobach’s win made the race a “top pick up opportunity” for the organization.
Kobach is among the most well-known – and most polarizing – politicians in Kansas. During the Republican primary, he laid out a plan to prioritize the political functions of the office, vowing to take on President Joe Biden in court and re-emphasize voter fraud prosecutions.
State attorneys general have become increasingly political in recent years.
Missouri Attorney General Eric Schmitt, the Republican nominee for U.S. Senate in that state, took a leading role in challenging the Biden administration COVID-19 vaccine requirements. Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton led several Republican attorneys general, including Schmidt and Schmitt, in challenging the 2020 presidential election results in Pennsylvania, Michigan, Georgia and Wisconsin.
Kobach plans to lean into that. While Schmidt has participated in lawsuits against the federal government, he has not often led them.
In May, Kobach announced he would form a special litigation unit in the Kansas attorney general’s office if elected.
“When there’s a left wing president in office who is violating federal law and shredding the Constitution, it’s time for conservatives to engage in lawfare to save the country,” Kobach said in a statement at the time.
Kobach’s plans for the AG’s office
Kobach and other conservatives have framed the political functions of the office as essential to protecting states from federal overreach.
U.S. Sen. Roger Marshall, a Kansas Republican who once proudly declared the end of Kobach’s career in 2020, cited federal overreach in his endorsement of Kobach Thursday.
“The fed gov keeps getting bigger and more intrusive,” Marshall, Kobach’s 2020 primary opponent, said on Twitter Thursday. “We can’t afford a weak AG who bows to Joe Biden and his out of control agencies.”
In a Friday statement, Kobach said the main job of the attorney general’s office is defending existing laws, assisting county attorneys and suing the federal government.
“As attorney general, I will defend all Kansas laws whether I agree with them or not. My opponent has said he will not defend some of the laws passed by our legislature. That violates one of the most important obligations of the attorney general,” Kobach said.
So far Mann has focused his message on law enforcement and public safety, leaning heavily on his background as a Lawrence police officer and Wyandotte County prosecutor. In the wake of the U.S. Supreme Court ruling overturning the federal right to an abortion, Mann has said he wouldn’t use his offices resources to limit abortion access.
“The Attorney General’s office should be about making Kansas safer: from violent criminals, from fraudsters, and from politicians who overreach and overstep and try to take our rights away,” Mann said in an email Wednesday.
Steve McAllister, a former Kansas solicitor general who also served as U.S. attorney for Kansas under President Donald Trump, said Mann seemed better suited to the office.
McAllister lamented the politicization of the attorney general’s office in recent years and said he worried Kobach would neglect the day-to-day operations in favor of advancing his political positions on voter fraud and immigration.
“None of which would seem to me to really be priorities of the office. They would seem to be, to me, personal agendas of Kris Kobach,” McAllister said. “There’s a lot of important things they need to be ready to do and not chasing non-existent voter fraud cases, trying to take on the administration on really political issues.”
The Kansas solicitor general, the role McAllister held from 2007 to 2018, is appointed by the attorney general and represents the state in civil and criminal appeals.
Possible path for a Democrat
The last Democrat elected Kansas attorney general was Paul Morrison in 2006.
Morrison, who at time was Johnson County district attorney, defeated Republican incumbent Phill Kline in who had come under fire for privacy violations as he investigated Kansas abortion clinics. Morrison resigned two years later amid disclosure of an affair and allegations of sexual harassment, involving a former employee.
Democrat Stephen Six was appointed to serve out the remainder of Morrison’s term, but Six lost to Schmidt in 2010 when he ran for a full term.
Bob Beatty, a Washburn University political scientist, said Morrison’s campaign should be a playbook for Mann.
“The TV ads were excellent, they did exactly what they wanted to do, which was build on the negatives that were there with Phill Kline,” Beatty said. “We haven’t seen any ads from Chris Mann yet. We don’t know yet.”
Morrison said that this year’s race is similar to his 2006 contest. Like Kline, Morrison said, Kobach came to the race with existing political baggage. And like Morrison, Mann can present himself as more of a prosecutor than a politician.
“It’s a lot easier if you know the system. You can speak with authority about a lot of things that the other candidate usually can’t,” said Morrison, now a private defense attorney.
Kobach won his primary despite losing out on endorsements from major law enforcement and business groups who threw their weight behind other candidates.
The Kansas Chamber of Commerce and Koch-funded Americans for Prosperity threw their weight behind Leawood state Sen. Kellie Warren, while coalitions of county prosecutors and sheriffs endorsed former federal prosecutor Tony Mattivi.
It’s unclear yet whether those organizations will get behind him in the general election. But Kobach is already tasked with building a coalition broader than what he built in 2018.
On Sunday, he announced endorsements from a range of Kansas Republicans, including Schmidt, former Gov. Jeff Colyer, Kobach’s 2018 rival, and his recent primary opponent Tony Mattivi. Kansas Senate President Ty Materson of Andover and Kansas House Majority Leader Dan Hawkins of Wichita also threw their support behind Kobach.
State Rep. Samantha Poetter Parshall, a Paola Republican and former Kobach Staffer, said she believed Kobach’s legal experience better positioned him to be elected Kansas attorney general than the previous positions he sought. Kobach, she said, was campaigning harder than she’d ever seen heading into this general election.
“I hope going into a general election that they’re able to show the real Kris and not just ‘the sue Joe Biden’ tough guy type of thing,” Parshall said.
“Those Republicans who voted for Kelly regret that vote and I think they’ll be supporting Kris.”
Parshall said Kobach would bring more conservatives to the polls, helping drive up turnout for Schmidt in the governor’s race.
But Democrats nevertheless are seeking to tie the two candidates together, banking on the idea that voters who rejected Kobach for governor still see him as a poison pill. A website run by the Kansas Democratic Party offers voters a “guess who” game of actions taken by Schmidt, Kobach and former Gov. Sam Brownback.
“If I were in Chris Mann’s shoes, I would be looking to hire deputies,” said state Rep. John Carmichael, a Wichita Democrat.
