Kris Kobach

Kris William Kobach (/ˈkoʊbɑːk/ KOH-bahk; born March 26, 1966) is an American lawyer and politician who has served as the attorney general of Kansas since 2023. He previously served as the 31st secretary of state of Kansas from 2011 to 2019. A former chairman of the Kansas Republican Party, Kobach rose to national prominence over his support for anti-immigration advocacy, including involvement in the implementation of high-profile anti-illegal immigration ordinances in various American cities. Kobach is also known for his calls for stronger voter ID laws in the United States. He has made claims about the extent of election fraud in the United States that some studies and media have said are unsubstantiated.

Kobach began his political career as a member of the City Council of Overland Park, Kansas. He was later the Republican nominee in Kansas's 3rd congressional district in the 2004 election, losing to Democratic incumbent Dennis Moore. He was elected Secretary of State of Kansas in 2010, winning nearly 60% of the total vote. As Secretary of State of Kansas, Kobach implemented some of the strictest voter identification laws in the history of the United States and fought to remove nearly 20,000 registered voters from the state's voter rolls.

Kobach announced in June 2017 that he would run in the 2018 primary for Governor of Kansas against then-Lieutenant Governor Jeff Colyer, who became governor in January 2018 following the resignation of Sam Brownback. After narrowly defeating Colyer in the Republican primary by less than 500 votes, Kobach was defeated by Democrat Laura Kelly in the general election. In July 2019, Kobach launched his campaign for the U.S. Senate in the 2020 campaign after Senator Pat Roberts announced his retirement. Upon the campaign's launch, Kobach implied he had Trump's support. Kobach's main opponent in the Republican primary August 4 was U.S. Representative Roger Marshall, who received 40 percent of the vote to Kobach's 26 percent; nine other candidates split the remaining 33.5 percent of the vote. He became the Republican nominee for Kansas Attorney General in 2022 and was elected to the post on November 8, 2022.