Kate Brubacher confirmed as U.S. attorney for Kansas, first woman to hold position

The U.S. Senate on Tuesday easily confirmed former Jackson County assistant prosecutor Kate Brubacher as the U.S. attorney for the District of Kansas, the first woman to hold the position in Kansas.

President Joe Biden nominated Brubacher to the position in November, but her vote was delayed for several months as the Senate worked its way through a long list of executive and judicial branch nominees.

She served as an assistant prosecutor in Jackson County between 2016 and 2022, where she prosecuted homicide cases and worked to reduce gun violence in Kansas City. Brubacher received local praise for her work to help free Kevin Strickland, a Kansas City man who served more than 40 years in prison for a triple murder he did not commit, the longest serving wrongful conviction in state history.

Brubacher’s confirmation cleared the Senate through a “voice vote,” a method the chamber uses to approve non-controversial nominees. But her path through the Senate was not always so simple.

In the Senate Judiciary Committee, Sen. Marsha Blackburn, a Tennessee Republican, delayed Brubacher’s nomination for a week as part of a larger protest against the Biden administration for declining to renominate Casey Arrowood for U.S. attorney in the Eastern District of Tennessee after Asian-American groups opposed his nomination over Arrowood’s role in prosecuting a Tennessee professor on allegations he was a Chinese spy. The charges were dismissed.

Blackburn accused Brubacher of saying she was a “prison abolitionist” though her office never presented evidence for the claim. She also mentioned that Brubacher worked to free a man convicted of triple homicide, without mentioning that Strickland was wrongfully convicted.

When her name was officially brought for a vote in committee, seven Republicans voted against her nomination including Sen. Josh Hawley, a Missouri Republican who attended Stanford at the same time as Brubacher. Both Hawley and Brubacher also attended Yale Law School, but graduated four years apart.

Because her confirmation passed on a voice vote, the senators votes were not recorded, making it unclear where Sen. Eric Schmitt, a Missouri Republican who as state attorney general fought against Strickland’s release, stood on her confirmation.

Both of Kansas’ Republican senators — Sen. Jerry Moran and Sen. Roger Marshall — approved of Brubacher, likely helping her earn the support of skeptical Republicans in between the Judiciary Committee and her confirmation vote on the Senate floor.

“I congratulate Kate Brubacher on her confirmation by the U.S. Senate to serve as the U.S. Attorney for Kansas, the first woman to hold this office,” Moran said. “This important position has been vacant for too long, and I hope that under Ms. Brubacher’s leadership the office will be able to ensure that federal law is impartially enforced in Kansas.”

Star reporter Luke Nozicka contributed reporting