Former Vice President Mike Pence to visit Wichita to campaign for AG Derek Schmidt

Former Vice President Mike Pence will campaign for Kansas Attorney General Derek Schmidt in Wichita next week, becoming the highest-profile Republican to visit Kansas as Schmidt campaigns for governor.

Pence, who was vice president under former President Donald Trump, will appear with Schmidt at B&C Barbeque in Wichita on Oct. 21.

The visit comes less than a month before the Nov. 8 election between Schmidt and Democratic Gov. Laura Kelly, and less than a week after early voting begins. Schmidt’s campaign said Sen. Jerry Moran and Reps. Ron Estes, Tracey Mann and Jake LaTurner, all Republicans, will attend.

“Kansans deserve better than the policies of Joe Biden and Laura Kelly that have made life less affordable and less safe,” Schmidt said in a statement. “We need the type of strong commonsense, America First leadership Vice President Pence provided alongside President Trump and that’s what we will do for Kansans in the Schmidt administration.”

Pence’s visit to help Schmidt is one of a number of stops the former vice president is making this fall to boost GOP candidates across the country. His standing among Republicans has been complicated, however, since his split with Trump over certifying Democratic President Joe Biden’s 2020 victory.

Trump and his allies pressured Pence to use his position as president of the Senate to delay or block the certification, which would have been an unprecedented subversion of democratic norms by a vice president. Pence refused, and when pro-Trump rioters stormed the Capitol on Jan. 6, 2021, they erected a gallows and called for Pence to be hung.

Pence, who served as Indiana governor before his term as vice president, is the latest potential 2024 Republican presidential hopeful to visit Kansas this year. Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis and Virginia Gov. Glenn Youngkin both campaigned for Schmidt in September, with each appealing to different elements of the conservative movement.

“Derek Schmidt has been a champion for Kansas, and I know he will continue to listen to Kansans and lead the state back to prosperity,” Pence said in a statement. “I look forward to joining Derek and meeting Wichita voters to discuss our shared conservative values and vision for Kansas’s future.”

The race between Schmidt, the state attorney general since 2011, and incumbent Democratic Gov. Laura Kelly is highly competitive. In a survey conducted by Emerson College Polling/The Hill in mid-September, the two candidates were effectively tied, with Kelly holding a 45% to 43% lead over Schmidt, within the poll’s margin of error.

Kelly campaign spokesperson Madison Andrus in a statement noted Kelly’s support from former Kansas Republican Govs. Bill Graves and Mike Hayden, as well as the endorsement of former Republican U.S. Sen. Nancy Kassebaum.

“Derek Schmidt has shown time and time again that he is not focused on Kansas. He’s focused on out-of-state, national politics to distract from his record of disappointing Kansans, underfunding our schools, and defending policies that tanked our economy,” Andrus said in a statement, which sought to tie Schmidt to former Republican Gov. Sam Brownback.

Pence’s Wichita visit will also place him in the hometown of Mike Pompeo, another possible Republican presidential candidate who has endorsed Schmidt. Pompeo, who was U.S. secretary of state under Trump, will release a new book in January.