Kris W. Kobach, Kansas’ Republican attorney general, helped to make claims of widespread illegal voting a potent political issue years before President Trump became the party’s leader.
But Mr. Kobach was denied another term by voters, The Associated Press reported on Friday. The result demonstrated both how Kansas and Mr. Kobach’s own trajectory have shifted since he crashed onto the national political landscape more than 20 years ago.
Chris Mann, a Democrat who has worked as a police officer and prosecutor, defeated Mr. Kobach, marking the first time in 20 years that Kansans have elected a Democrat as attorney general.
It was a momentous election for Democrats in Kansas and across the country. Adam Hamilton, a Methodist pastor and centrist Democrat, became the first member of his party to win a Senate race in Kansas since the 1930s. He unseated Senator Roger Marshall, a first-term Republican and close ally of President Trump. And in the governor’s race, Cindy Holscher, the Democratic nominee, was leading in a close contest that had not yet been called.
Mr. Kobach was, in many ways, ahead of his political time. As a law professor and Justice Department official in the 2000s, he pushed for tighter immigration laws. And as Kansas’ secretary of state in the 2010s, he sought and received the authority to prosecute people for illegally voting, making national headlines with the handful of cases he pursued.
Though studies have shown that a very small percentage of ballots are cast by noncitizens, Mr. Kobach’s focus on the issue helped to elevate illegal voting as a national issue years before Mr. Trump seized on it during his presidential campaigns. During his first term as president, Mr. Trump tapped Mr. Kobach to lead a panel on voter fraud.
While Mr. Kobach’s message resonated, his own record was more mixed. A federal judge once found him in contempt of court. And Mr. Kobach lost his campaign for governor in 2018 to Laura Kelly, a Democrat, before losing the Republican primary for Senate in 2020. He returned to statewide office four years ago after narrowly defeating Mr. Mann to win a first term as attorney general.
As attorney general, Mr. Kobach has defended a state law restricting gender-transition treatments for minors and pushed unsuccessfully for an elected State Supreme Court. His office also prosecuted the Mexican-born mayor of a small Kansas town, who admitted to voting in U.S. elections without being a citizen, in a case that captured the attention of the Trump administration.
Though Mr. Kobach was once seen as an outlier among Republicans, his views on immigration and voting have become centerpieces of the party’s platform during the Trump era. But in that same period, Republicans’ hold on Kansas has slipped somewhat.
Republicans continue to win presidential elections in Kansas by large margins, but Ms. Kelly won two terms as governor and the once-conservative suburbs of Kansas City have turned blue, repeatedly electing Representative Sharice Davids, a Democrat, to Congress.
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