Republican Kris Kobach completes comeback with win in Kansas AG race, vowing to fight Biden

Republican Kris Kobach won a tight race for Kansas attorney general on Wednesday, a stunning political comeback for the divisive figure.

Kobach, a former Kansas secretary of state, held a narrow lead over Democrat Chris Mann, a former Wyandotte County prosecutor and Lawrence police officer, according to unofficial results from the Kansas Secretary of State’s Office. Kobach had 51% of the vote to Mann’s 49% — a difference of 22,699 votes.

The Associated Press on Wednesday morning called the race for Kobach, after he declared victory overnight. Mann has not yet conceded.

“Everyone loves a comeback story, and I am grateful to Kansas voters for giving me this opportunity to serve and for putting their trust in me. I look forward to defending the rights of all Kansans as your Attorney General,” Kobach said in a statement.

Mann indicated he was waiting for the counting of more votes.

“There are tens of thousands of ballots that have yet to be counted by elections officials. We will wait until every vote is counted. That is the democratic process. Every Kansan deserves their voice to be heard,” Mann said in a written statement. “Kris Kobach has a record of disenfranchising voters, misleading voters, and preventing eligible Kansans from participating in our elections. It’s time he follow the law and wait for votes to be counted.”

Kobach’s victory represents a hard-fought comeback for the hard-right former state official, who has vowed to relentlessly fight President Joe Biden’s administration in court.

Kobach plans to position Kansas in the vanguard of states mounting legal challenges against the federal government, saying he will think of new lawsuits to file while “having my breakfast.” After building a national reputation for hard-line positions against illegal immigration and championing voting restrictions in the name of deterring fraud voter fraud, Kobach has likely won an office where he will be empowered to pursue his agenda through lawsuits and, in some instances, criminal prosecutions.

As results rolled in Tuesday evening, Mann initially held the lead but Kobach late in the evening overtook Mann as counting continued.

“I want to thank the voters of Kansas for putting their trust in me. It means so much to have their trust and I want to congratulate Chris Mann on a hard fought campaign,” Kobach said. “But tomorrow we begin the process of taking America back and the Kansas Attorney General’s Office is going to be very directly involved in that process.”

Kobach said he is committed to addressing “the fentanyl plague that is killing so many Kansans and we will take significant, dramatic steps in that regard. Secondly, we must protect girls’ sports.”

Kobach’s likely victory also draws to a close his time in the political wilderness. After winning the Republican nomination for governor by a razor-thin margin in 2018, he lost to Democrat Laura Kelly. He then lost the Republican race for U.S. Senate in 2020 to then-Rep. Roger Marshall, who went on to win the election.

Kobach’s victory carries national implications, delivering a one-time campaign adviser to former President Donald Trump a powerful platform. Kobach, who has promised a unit inside the attorney general’s office dedicated to suing Biden, may elevate Kansas to the ranks of Texas and Missouri in filing lawsuits to block or slow down the Democratic administration.

The comeback candidacy was divisive even among Republicans. Kobach, a Lecompton resident, fought a grueling primary race against state Sen. Kellie Warren of Leawood and Tony Mattivi, a former federal prosecutor. Both heavily attacked Kobach, but he emerged with 42% of the vote in the August race.

Kobach, 56, then faced a tough general election campaign against Mann, 46, who aggressively attacked Kobach’s professional competency and promised he would take a non-political approach to the office and emphasized public safety concerns.

Mann, a first-time candidate who lives in Lawrence, said in an interview before polls closed on Tuesday that his campaign had “done everything we possibly can” to place him in a position to win.

“I really think that we’ve run the exact race that we anticipated running,” Mann said. “It’s never been about the politics for me. I’ve tried to focus it on just what I’ve done all my life – that public service that I’ve done throughout my career and wanting to focus this office there.”

Mann outraised Kobach this fall, pulling in $952,000 in contributions since late July, compared to $465,000 for Kobach.

But Kobach painted the former police officer as a soft-on-crime liberal, echoing a focus on crime by Republicans nationally. He also questioned the Democrat’s commitment to defending Kansas laws in the Republican-leaning state.

Kobach, an attorney, will come into the office, if results hold, with extremely limited prosecutorial experience. As secretary of state, Kobach convinced state legislators in 2015 to give his office the power to prosecute election-related crimes, which he used to bring a handful of cases of double voting.

Kobach, who holds degrees from Harvard, Oxford and Yale, is the son of a Topeka car salesman. While working for the U.S. Department of Justice, he helped develop the National Security Entry-Exit Registration System following the 9/11 attacks, which was used to register non-citizens in the United States. Democratic President Barack Obama later dismantled the program.

For a time a constitutional law professor at the University of Missouri-Kansas City, Kobach was elected Kansas secretary of state in 2010, where he served two terms. In office, he pushed for a state law that required individuals to provide proof of citizenship to register to vote. The law was later struck down by federal courts following a disastrous trial in which Kobach personally defended the law. A federal judge held Kobach in contempt of court and ordered him to take additional legal education.

Still, Kobach told reporters on Tuesday before polls closed that he had emphasized his legal experience and academic background in an effort to win over voters who didn’t previously support him.

“You should be an attorney, and ideally you should be an attorney who’s accomplished and who has skills in an area that’s relevant for the state’s office,” Kobach said.

Kobach endorsed Trump early, when he remained a highly divisive figure among Republicans, a move that helped establish him as an informal adviser on the issue of immigration. He was later tapped to co-lead a presidential commission that investigated false claims of widespread fraud in the 2016 election. The panel disbanded without turning up evidence to back up the claims.

Outside of elected office, Kobach has spent most of his legal career helping municipalities across the country defend immigration-oriented ordinances and promoting other conservative causes. This year, he represented Air Force service members who are attempting to opt out of COVID-19 vaccine mandates on religious grounds.

His most prominent work as a private attorney, however, was his years-long role as general counsel to We Build the Wall, a charity that fundraised money to build strips of wall along the southern border. Former Trump strategist Steve Bannon and others associated with the operation were indicted on federal charges in 2020, accused of defrauding donors.

Trump later pardoned Bannon, who is now facing similar charges in New York State. Charges have also been brought against We Build the Wall.

Kobach hasn’t been accused of wrongdoing related to We Build the Wall. In September, Kobach resigned as general counsel and from We Build the Wall’s board of directors, just days after the New York charges were filed.

Kobach will take office in January, becoming the first new state attorney general since 2011, when Derek Schmidt entered office. Schmidt maintained a relatively low-key public demeanor for much of his three terms as he moved the office past the turbulent, scandal-plagued era of Republican Attorney General Phill Kline and Democratic Attorney General Paul Morrison.

Kobach’s critics warn he will take a splashier approach to the job that risks losing focus on the basic functions of the office, such as tackling consumer fraud and overseeing the Kansas Bureau of Investigation. But others say the role of state attorneys general has shifted nationwide and that the office is increasingly seen as a tool for states to challenge the federal government.

But Kobach took steps in his latest campaign to reassure voters that he could be trusted with the state’s top law enforcement job. He sanded the edges off some of the most bombastic rhetoric that had characterized his previous campaigns and appeared to make an effort to put forward a less divisive profile, such as no longer appearing in public in a Jeep with a mounted replica machine gun.

Kobach also emphasized that he will defend all Kansas laws in court, even those he disagrees with – a possible outreach to more moderate voters.

“They must be given a vigorous defense,” Kobach said this fall.

The Star’s Katie Bernard contributed to this story.