WICHITA, KANSAS — Former Kansas Secretary of State Kris Kobach today announced he is running for Kansas Attorney General. In a press 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.
About Kris Kobach: 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.
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.
Kobach served as the 31st Kansas Secretary of State, 2011-2019.