WICHITA, Kan. (KSNW/AP) — Former Kansas Secretary of State Kris Kobach today announced he is running for Kansas Attorney General. In a news conference in Wichita, Kobach, a former constitutional law professor, said states’ attorneys general are the last line of defense against unconstitutional overreach by the Biden administration.
“On a host of issues from a federal takeover of elections, to attempts to restrict our Second Amendment rights, the Biden administration and its allies in Congress have disregarded the constitutional limits on federal power. The most important officer who can fight back against such unconstitutional actions is a state attorney general,” Kobach said.
Kobach served as a White House Fellow in the U.S. Justice Department and said he is also running to make clear that in Kansas, law enforcement officers are protected and respected.
“The attack by the Left against police officers across the country has reached a fever pitch. In Kansas, I will make clear from the top that we stand with law enforcement, and we value the officers who protect us.”
Finally, Kobach said that he is running to protect life and to protect Kansas’s laws from attack by the ACLU and its allies.
“When the Legislature passes a law to protect the unborn or to protect our way of life in a manner the Left does not like, the ACLU and its allies inevitably sue. The attorney general must have the expertise and the willingness to defend our laws in court,” Kobach said.
His kickoff Thursday means he is attempting a political comeback in 2022 after losing nationally watched races for governor and U.S. Senate.
Kobach is a former Kansas secretary of state who built his political brand by advocating restrictive immigration policies and tough voter identification laws.
He also was the first prominent Kansas elected official to endorse Donald Trump for president in 2016 and was vice chairman of a short-lived Trump commission on voter fraud.
But he lost the GOP primary for U.S. Senate in 2020 after losing the 2018 governor’s race.
