KRIS KOBACH

Democratic Gov. Laura Kelly has signaled her efforts to appeal to moderate Republican and GOP-leaning independent voters whose support is necessary for her to win a tough reelection race in Kansas next year.

Hundreds of people opposed to COVID-19 vaccine mandates have rallied at the Kansas Statehouse and pushed state lawmakers to quickly counter them.

A federal report finds that in the run up to the 2020 presidential election U.S. states and territories had spent less than a third of the $805 million Congress had provided to shore up security for state and local election systems.

Secretary of State Scott Schwab rejected President Donald Trump’s attack on election security in 2020.

Conservative had closely aligned himself with previous president

Former Kansas secretary of state, Kris Kobach, lost his race for governor in 2018 and the GOP primary for U.S. Senate in 2020. He also advised former President Trump on immigration and voting fraud.

Wolf hunting policies in some states are taking an aggressive turn, as Republican lawmakers and conservative hunting groups push to curb their numbers and propose tactics shunned by many wildlife managers. AdThe timing of the Wisconsin hunt was bumped up following a lawsuit that raised concerns President Joe Biden’s administration would intervene to restore gray wolf protections. The states have been holding annual hunts since, and wildlife officials cite stable population levels as evidence of responsible wolf management. Ad“Too many wolves,” Republican state Sen. Bob Brown said of his mountainous district in northwest Montana. Ad“I’m not surprised we’re seeing hunting groups wrap themselves in the mantle of patriotism,” Winkler said.

WASHINGTON – The Supreme Court on Monday rejected an appeal from Kansas that sought to revive a law requiring proof of citizenship to register to vote. The law was championed by former Kansas Secretary of State Kris Kobach, who led President Donald Trump’s now-defunct voter fraud commission. Kansas Secretary of State Scott Schwab, who supported the law when he was in the state legislature, pursued the Supreme Court appeal over the objection of Kansas Gov. Circuit Court of Appeals declared the law unconstitutional in April, affirming a trial court ruling. Justice Neil Gorsuch, who used to be a 10th circuit judge, sat out the Supreme Court's consideration of the case.

Marshall is facing stiff competition from state Sen. Barbara Bollier in the race to fill an open Senate seat in Kansas. Republicans are sweating a race in a state where they haven’t lost a Senate race since 1932 and where Democrats have sometimes conceded contests by Labor Day. The coronavirus pandemic and Trump's unpopularity with many voters are also weighing on Kansas Republicans. The Senate race wasn’t supposed to be so hard for Republicans. The leaders feared Kobach, a conservative hardliner, would reprise his 2018 loss in the governor’s race to Democrat Laura Kelly and hand the Senate seat to the Democrats.

A very sharp mind, but independent in her thinking, said former state Rep. Tom Moxley, a moderate Republican and central Kansas rancher and farmer. Bollier won her Kansas Senate seat in 2012. She's very task-oriented," said Joan Wagnon, a former Kansas Democratic Party chairwoman and ex-Topeka mayor. She will have a very liberal voting record, if she would get to the Senate, Marshall said. Nine conservative GOP senators joined in a statement that excoriated Bollier's remarks as offensive and anti-Catholic prejudice.She never was integrated into the Republican Party, said Kelly Arnold, a former Kansas Republican Party chairman.

Marshall's first tasks were quickly refilling his campaign treasury and rebuilding Republican unity after an often-bitter primary campaign. GOP leaders had feared that the Kansas seat would be in play if lightning-rod conservative Kris Kobach won the nomination after losing the 2018 Kansas governor's race. Trump, who had refused to intervene in the primary despite prodding from Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell, tweeted his Complete and Total Endorsement of Marshall early Wednesday morning. THE issue is who controls the Senate majority. Kelly Arnold, a former Kansas Republican Party chairman, predicted that Republicans will unite quickly behind Marshall because of the threat to the party's Senate majority.

Trump didnt intervene to help Rep. Roger Marshall in a crowded field, despite prodding from Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell and others. Trump didnt intervene to help Rep. Roger Marshall in a crowded field, despite prodding from Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell and others. The GOP already faces a potentially tough year in trying to retain its 53-47 Senate majority with competitive races in other states, including Arizona, Colorado and Maine. Counties could accept ballots until Friday so long as they were postmarked Tuesday, creating uncertainty that the GOP Senate primary would be decided before then. He also had the backing of 97-year-old political icon Bob Dole, the former U.S. Senate majority leader and 1996 GOP presidential nominee.

(AP Photo/John Hanna)HOLTON, Kan. Establishment Republican leaders are scrambling to pull out a win in a tense party battle for the nomination in the Kansas Senate race, and they won't be able to count on last-minute help from President Donald Trump. Trump's neutrality leaves the Kansas primary heading to a tight finish Tuesday under a barrage of attack ads from political action committees. Thats why the Senate race is so important in Kansas.Republican leaders have been trying to avoid a Kobach nomination for seven months, but the stakes have increased in recent weeks. The once-safe seat in a state where Republicans have won every Senate race since 1932 now looks shaky and a loss the GOP can't afford. In Kansas, Kobach has played up his ties to the president even without an endorsement.

Democrats have at least a punchers chance of grabbing Republican-held seats in four states Trump won by double digits: Alaska, Kansas, Kentucky and South Carolina. They argue that Trump's name on the ballot will give Senate candidates in Republican states a major edge and say they're spending there because Democrats are raising sums that can't be ignored. An expensive battle is brewing over Ernst's Iowa seat, with outside Democratic and GOP groups each planning to spend over $20 million. Kelly has a solid chance of defeating GOP Sen. Martha McSally while Harrison is waging an unlikely drive to oust Republican Sen. Lindsey Graham, a close Trump ally. Republicans are eyeing Alaska, where GOP Sen. Dan Sullivan's likely opponent is Al Gross, an independent with Democratic support.

They're growing more vocal about describing Marshall as the best alternative for keeping the Kansas seat out of play in a potentially difficult fall for defending Republicans' Senate majority. You're seeing a lot of people starting to circle the wagons around Roger Marshall, said Kelly Arnold, a former state GOP chairman. Kobach, Marshall and Bob Hamilton, the founder of a Kansas City-area plumbing company, are running with eight other candidates in the most crowded GOP field since Kansas began holding Senate primaries more than 100 years ago. That was showing their hand, that they wanted everybody to be for Marshall, said Tim Shallenburger, a former Kansas GOP chairman and state treasurer. He said the party always anticipated that its last candidate event on July 15 might involve them talking issues rather than throwing jabs. He said any of the major GOP candidates are better alternative than Bollier.

Republican leaders looking to broaden the party's appeal were buoyed Tuesday when Iowans refused to renominate Rep. Steve King, known for racially incendiary comments. Republican leaders are taking steps to withhold support from candidates with extreme views. King was stripped of committee assignments last year by House Republican leaders after he defended white nationalism. In Kansas, Pompeo failed to file this week to become a Senate GOP candidate. Emmer, the House GOP campaign chairman, said people are nervous about safety and Trumps stance will prove a winning November message.

It also left Marshall and Kobach, the former Kansas secretary of state who lost the 2018 governor's race, as the top rivals in a GOP field of 11 candidates. Many Republicans fear that Kobach's nomination would put the seat in play even though Republicans have won every Senate election in Kansas since 1932. He said GOP voters know he strongly opposes abortion and dismissed the nervousness among some top Republicans about him. But Marshall pollster Robert Blizzard said Marshalls fundraising will improve with Pompeo officially out of the race. Marshall faces plans for $2.2 million in television ads attacking him by the national anti-tax, free-market group Club for Growth.

A moderator signals 30-seconds remaining to senate candidate Rep. Roger Marshall, R-Kan., right, during a GOP senatorial debate In Manhattan, Kan., Saturday, May 23, 2020. David Lindstrom, left, Susan Wagle, second from left, Kris Kobach, middle, and Bob Hamilton, second from right, share the debate stage. With the GOP worried about keeping its U.S. Senate majority, the party doesn't need a money-pit race in Kansas when Republicans have won every U.S. Senate race there since 1932. Marshall touted his work on the House Agriculture Committee in four years in Congress and endorsements from the Kansas Farm Bureau and Kansas Livestock Association. Lindstrom also described himself as a businessman-outsider, but he has served on an elected community college board and the Kansas Turnpike Authority.

LAKANA(CNN) - Republicans shouldn't have to worry about a Senate race in Kansas. Besides Kobach, Rep. Roger Marshall, State Senate President Susan Wagle and former Kansas City Chiefs player and businessman Dave Lindstrom are running in the party's primary. It was no surprise then that Pompeo's return to Kansas last week to give a lecture on human rights at Kansas State University was greeted with anticipation and intrigue. With state officials and mega donors in the audience, the Senate race wasn't far from anyone's mind. "We're very interested in the Kansas Senate race and view it as an opportunity to get a real economic conservative in there," said McIntosh.