Kris Kobach in 2018 KS Governor's race
On Drugs:
Skeptical of medical marijuana; we can't limit it
For the most part, the Republican candidates for governor are taking a harder line on marijuana, while the Democratic candidates and Greg Orman all support medical marijuana.Kansas Secretary of State
Kris Kobach said he doesn't support recreational marijuana and is highly skeptical of medical marijuana. "I don't see any way that has been proven to be successful of limiting it to those who truly medically need it," Kobach said.
Source: Wichita Eagle on 2018 Kansas gubernatorial race
Jun 29, 2018
On Government Reform:
Found in contempt for checking voter citizenship to register
A federal judge has struck down a Kansas voter citizenship law that Secretary of State Kris Kobach had personally defended. The judge also ordered Kobach, who is seeking the Republican nomination for governor, to take more hours of continuing legal
education after he was found in contempt and was frequently chided during the trial over missteps.In an 118-page ruling, the judge ordered a halt to the state's requirement that people provide proof of citizenship in order to register to vote.
The decision holds the potential to make registration easier as the August and November elections approach.
Kobach was ordered not to enforce the proof of citizenship law and its accompanying regulations.
Kobach's office said he will appeal the ruling. At trial, Kobach said the law was working. Since 2000, 129 non-citizens have either registered or attempted to register. Many of them were blocked from registering by the proof of citizenship law, he said.
Source: Wichita Eagle on 2018 Kansas gubernatorial race
Jun 18, 2018
On Government Reform:
Contempt of court for blocking new voter registration
US District Judge Julie Robinson ruled Kansas Secretary of State Kris Kobach was in contempt of court for failing to comply with her orders in a lawsuit over the state's voter registration law. Robinson ordered Kobach to pay for attorney fees to the ACLU
for litigating the contempt motion.Kobach's office refused to update language on its website suggesting that new voter applicants may not be able to vote after November 2016 elections. Kobach also failed to follow through on a promise to Robinson that
counties would send postcards notifying voters they could participate in elections, even if they failed to show a birth certificate or other documents when they registered.
Kobach for years has championed the need for strict voter registration laws as
a way of keeping noncitizens from voting. As a candidate, Kobach rallies supporters by telling them he likes makes the ACLU unhappy. "As soon as the ACLU sues, I know we have made the right decision," Kobach said during a debate last week.
Source: Topeka Capital-Journal on 2018 Kansas gubernatorial race
Apr 12, 2018
On Civil Rights:
Do nothing to protect the rights of LGBT workers
The headline of a recent editorial in The Star asked a fair question: "Why won't Gov. Jeff Colyer commit to protecting LGBT workers from discrimination?" The answer seems very clear: If the governor made such a commitment today--to issue an executive
order to protect LGBT state workers from discrimination--he might as well withdraw from the Republican primary race for Kansas governor. That's because with a promise like that, he would virtually be handing over the nomination to Kansas Secretary of
State Kris Kobach, whose overall appeal to conservatives makes him the frontrunner. Kobach has stated unequivocally he will do nothing to protect the rights of LGBT workers and said it is up to the Legislature to pass laws if needed.Although the US
Supreme Court has ruled that federal law does prohibit discrimination against same-sex partners and does not allow for sexual harassment, federal civil rights law doesn't apply to sexual orientation or gender identity. That void becomes a state issue.
Source: Kansas City Star on 2018 Kansas gubernatorial race
Mar 16, 2018
On Government Reform:
Tighten restrictions on voting
Kobach has advocated for voter identification and proof of citizenship voter registration laws. He spoke at a 2015 writer's workshop organized by The Social Contract Press, which the Southern Poverty Law Center says is a white nationalist publisher.
Kobach described the Press in 2015 as "a think tank for pro-enforcement immigration policies" and said it was ridiculous that the Center viewed it and other opponents of illegal immigration as white nationalists.
Source: Wichita Eagle on 2018 Kansas gubernatorial race
Aug 16, 2017
On Gun Control:
Opposes restrictions on guns
Kobach also helped craft [national GOP convention] planks dealing with gun rights that made it into the proposed platform. He wrote a provision opposing laws that would restrict magazine capacity, ban AR-style rifles or "deprive a person from the right
to keep and bear arms without the right to due process." The provision is meant to oppose efforts to ban assault rifles and to oppose proposals to block people on the federal government's "no fly" list from buying guns.
Source: Wichita Eagle on 2018 Kansas gubernatorial race
Aug 16, 2017
On Government Reform:
Vice-chair of Presidential Commission on Election Integrity
Kentucky's Secretary of State said she will not comply with broad federal request for voter registration information. Alison Grimes said, "Not on my watch are we going to be turning over something that's left to the states to run--to the federal
government." Kentucky is among at least 24 states that have either wholly or in part rejected a request by the Presidential Advisory Commission on Election Integrity to hand over key voter registration information as part of its investigation into
President Trump's claims of widespread illegal voting.The request, sent by the panel's vice chairman, Kansas Secretary of State Kris Kobach, asks states to provide voters' names, dates of birth, driver's license numbers and other information.
Source: The Hill coverage of 2018 Kansas Governor race
Jun 30, 2017
On Education:
End in-state tuition for illegal immigrants
Kobach pointed to a 2004 law that allows people who entered the country illegally to pay in-state tuition at Kansas universities if they've lived in the state for at least three years and have graduated from a Kansas high school. "We are also the only
state in the five-state area that rewards illegal immigration by giving in-state tuition to illegal aliens when our own students are barely able to afford college. The price of college is going up and up and up," Kobach said. "The universities tell us,
oh, they have to keep on increasing tuition, they have to keep on taking more from the taxpayer in legislative spending. But they give away hundreds of millions of dollars to maintain what is a subsidy to illegal aliens.
It's unfair. It's unreasonable, and it will stop when I'm governor."Only 686 illegal immigrants took advantage of the in-state tuition program in 2016, mostly for community college.
Source: Kansas City Star on 2018 Kansas gubernatorial race
Jun 8, 2017
On Government Reform:
Fight widespread voter fraud with strict voting laws
Kansas Secretary of State Kris Kobach (R), who has championed some of the strictest voting laws in the nation, announced a campaign for governor. Kobach was recently appointed by President Donald Trump to serve as vice chairman of a new federal
commission that will investigate the prevalence of voter fraud.During his 6-year tenure as secretary of state, Kobach has repeatedly made claims of widespread voter fraud. He crafted a law that requires Kansas voters to provide proof of citizenship,
such as a birth certificate or passport, to vote. He has so far secured nine convictions for election crimes.
Kobach has repeatedly said the law ensures the integrity of Kansas elections, but opponents, including the ACLU, say that the law makes
it harder for rightful voters to participate in elections.
The law blocked thousands of potential voters from participating in the state's last gubernatorial election, but it could not be fully enforced in 2016 under orders of federal and state judges.
Source: Kansas City Star on 2018 Kansas gubernatorial race
Jun 8, 2017
On Immigration:
Kansas shouldn't be the sanctuary state of the Midwest
Kobach advised President Donald Trump on immigration policy throughout the 2016 campaign. Kobach, who is a figure of national controversy for his hardline stance on illegal immigration, called Kansas the "sanctuary state of the Midwest" and claimed that
the state spends hundreds of millions on public services for illegal immigrants. Kobach cited figures from the Federation for American Immigration Reform in support of this claim.
Kobach touted his role in crafting immigration laws around the country, including a 2010 Arizona law that critics say encouraged racial profiling by requiring law enforcement officers to determine
a suspect's immigration status if there is reasonable suspicion he or she is in the country illegally. Kobach has repeatedly rejected accusations of racial bias.
Source: Kansas City Star on 2018 Kansas gubernatorial race
Jun 8, 2017
On Tax Reform:
Keep tax cuts despite state's budget hole
Kobach promised to center his campaign on fighting "corruption, taxation and illegal immigration." He lambasted Kansas lawmakers for raising taxes "on hard-working Kansans" by repealing
Gov. Sam Brownback's tax cuts to fill the state's budget hole and contended that the state could have saved dollars by restricting immigration.
Source: Kansas City Star on 2018 Kansas gubernatorial race
Jun 8, 2017
On Abortion:
Planned Parenthood like Nazi doctor
He compares Planned Parenthood to the infamous Nazi doctor Josef Mengele and blasts President Obama for opposing congressional
Republicans' efforts to defund it. "You couldn't even write a science fiction book about politics in America that would be this weird," he says.
Source: Wichita Eagle on 2018 Kansas gubernatorial race
Sep 26, 2015
On Families & Children:
Gay marriage makes it worse for traditional families
He then brings up the Supreme Court ruling legalizing same-sex marriage and
warns, "it's going to get worse, not better, for those of us who believe in the traditional family."
Source: Wichita Eagle on 2018 Kansas gubernatorial race
Sep 26, 2015
Page last updated: Apr 19, 2020