Kansas GOP nominates Kobach for AG and advances comeback offer | Health, medicine and fitness

TOPEKA, Kan. (AP) — Republicans on Tuesday nominated Kris Kobach for Kansas Attorney General, keeping the polarizing conservative’s drive for a political comeback alive after his losses in a governor’s race and the US Senate primary in the past four year.

Kobach, a former Kansas Secretary of State who built a national profile by advocating strict immigration policies and questioning the integrity of elections, defeated two lesser-known rivals in the primaries. He won a thrilling race, overcoming the scruples of many Republicans over his losses to Democrat Laura Kelly in the 2018 governor’s race and to Roger Marshall in the 2020 Senate primaries.

Kobach’s supporters argued that this year’s election in November is likely to see a wave of conservative voters amid anger over inflation, gas prices and COVID-19 restrictions. The Democratic nominee is the lead candidate Chris Mann, a lawyer who previously worked as a police officer and prosecutor.

Many Republican critics of Kobach had pinned their hopes on Senator Kellie Warren, a Kansas City attorney who has been vocal in legislative efforts to add anti-abortion language to the state constitution and limit the power of state and local officials to closing businesses and imposing other restrictions during pandemics. A third candidate followed them both by a wide margin, Tony Mattivi, a former federal prosecutor who handled high-profile terrorism cases.

Kobach promoted electoral fraud as a major problem for a decade before former President Donald Trump made his false claims that fraud cost him reelection in 2020. election fraud. He promises to continue such cases if he is elected Attorney General.

But Kobach’s bigger tone to Republican voters was that he will seek ways to indict Democratic President Joe Biden’s administration and file lawsuits, even if he believes victory is far from guaranteed.

Warren had the support of the politically influential Kansas Chamber of Commerce, as well as the small-government, low-tax group Americans for Prosperity. She attacked Kobach for his election losses and doubted his abilities as a lawyer, while mocking her as a lawyer with little real courtroom experience.

Mattivi praised his experience as a prosecutor, arguing that the attorney general’s greatest job was to protect the residents of Kansas. But his campaign never gained traction.

Kobach is a former law professor at the University of Missouri-Kansas City who served with the United States Department of Justice before losing a race for Congress in 2004. a Republican midterm wave that year to oust a Democratic incumbent appointed just months earlier to fill a vacancy.

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