“He won’t just join the fight, as Kansas Attorney General, he will help lead it. Kris Kobach is the best choice in the race for Kansas Attorney General.”
– U.S. Senator Ted Cruz
TOPEKA, KANSAS — Kris Kobach officially filed to run for Kansas Attorney General today.
“On a host of issues from vaccine mandates 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.
The former Kansas Secretary of State announced a Five Point Plan for the Kansas Attorney General’s Office. The plan outlines his commitment to Kansans and the experience he will bring to the AG’s office to help accomplish the plan’s initiatives.
Kobach will prosecute voter fraud as the next attorney general, according to the five-point plan.
“As Kansas Secretary of State, I drafted the 2011 law that made Kansas’s elections the most secure in the nation,” Kobach said. “I brought photo ID and advance ballot security to our state, and drafted the Kansas law that gives both the Kansas Secretary of State and the Kansas Attorney General the ability to prosecute voter fraud. As Attorney General, I will be the first Kansas Attorney General to use that authority to prosecute voter fraud.”
Kobach is a long-time leader on election security. Former President Donald Trump tapped Kobach to lead his commission on election integrity. Kobach successfully prosecuted more than a dozen voter fraud cases as Kansas Secretary of State.
If elected to Attorney General, Kobach will create a special litigation unit within the AG’s office, according to the plan. The unit will be tasked with suing the Biden administration to defend Kansans’ constitutional rights.
“Leftists weaponized the legal system using activist judges to implement their ideas when voters and legislators refuse. It’s called lawfare, and the Left has engaged in it for decades,” Kobach said. “But when there’s a leftwing 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.”
As a private attorney, Kobach has already filed four lawsuits against the Obama and Biden administrations. He also worked as a constitutional law professor for 15 years.
His 5-point plan also includes initiatives to restore Kansas’s pro-life laws, strengthen Kansas’s protections against consumer fraud, and eliminate Kansas conceal and carry registration fees.
Read the Five-Point Plan (PDF)
Qualified. Experienced. Trusted.
Kris Kobach was raised in Topeka, Kansas where he graduated from Washburn Rural High School. He completed his undergraduate studies in government at Harvard University, graduating first in his department and summa cum laude. A Marshall Scholarship recipient, he received his Ph.D. in politics from the University of Oxford. Kobach received his J.D. from Yale Law School, serving as notes development editor of the Yale Law Journal.
Kobach clerked for the Tenth Circuit Court of Appeals and shortly thereafter became a professor of constitutional law at the University of Missouri – Kansas City School of Law. Kobach received a White House Fellowship from President George W. Bush. He served in the United States Department of Justice under Attorney General John Ashcroft as Counsel to the Attorney General.
“Kris Kobach was one of my most qualified, competent and dedicated attorneys at the Justice Department when I served as U.S. Attorney General. His experience and skill as an attorney are among the best in the nation.”
Former U.S. Attorney General, John Ashcroft
He has litigated some of the most high-profile cases in the country, including defending statutes and ordinances against the ACLU on multiple occasions. In 2012, Kobach brought the first challenge to President Obama’s DACA amnesty on behalf of 10 ICE agents. His victory in federal district court paved the way for Texas to defeat the Obama Justice Department in its litigation.
Currently, Kobach is engaged in three federal lawsuits against the Biden administration. He brought suit against OSHA in November of 2021 on behalf of employers and employees impacted by Biden vaccine mandates and won. He also filed suit in June of 2021 against the Department of Homeland Security on behalf of ICE agents and sheriffs who are barred by the administration from detaining and deporting illegal alien criminals. In 2022, Kobach filed suit in federal court against the Biden administration to stop the U.S. Air Force from expelling pilots at McConnell Air Force Base in Wichita for exercising their religious beliefs.
Kobach served as the 31st Kansas Secretary of State, 2011-2019. He lives near Lecompton with his wife, Heather, and their five children.
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