Republican Kris Kobach loses AG reelection bid in Kansas

Kansas Attorney General Kris Kobach has lost reelection, the Associated Press projected, denying him a second term as the state’s top lawyer.

Kobach lost to Chris Mann, a former prosecutor and police officer who nearly beat him in 2024. Mann leads with 50.6 percent of the vote to Kobach’s 49.4 percent, or a lead of about 13,000 votes. Decision Desk HQ, The Hill’s election desk partner, has not yet called the race.

The Sunflower State attorney general is best known for his accusations of widespread election fraud, including while he was Kansas secretary of state, the top election official. He was the vice chair of President Trump’s voter fraud commission in his first term, a task force that aimed to find the “full truth” about voter fraud in U.S. elections.

The commission drew controversy for demanding states turn over voter roll information that included partial Social Security numbers — a move that received pushback from both parties. Kobach then said Kansas would not hand over the last four digits of voters’ Social Security numbers despite his commission making that request of other states.

A report from Maine’s then-Secretary of State Matt Dunlap showed that the commission did not find any widespread voter fraud. Trump dissolved the commission.

Kobach’s loss is his second statewide defeat in a general election in the past 10 years, despite Kansas typically being a deep-red state.

Gov. Laura Kelly (D) defeated Kobach in the 2018 gubernatorial race by a seven-point margin. He later ran in the GOP primary for U.S. Senate in 2020, but lost to now-Sen. Roger Marshall.

Kobach’s Tuesday defeat was one of many for Kansas Republicans, led by Democrat Adam Hamilton’s victory in the Senate race. The Methodist pastor defeated Marshall by five points and became the first Democrat to win a U.S. Senate seat in Kansas in nearly 100 years.

Kansas Democrats are also poised to pick up 20 seats in the state House with nearly all votes counted. The party appears likely to hold the governor’s mansion, though a winner has not been projected.

Inroads in Kansas were part of a Democratic surge nationally. The party flipped Senate seats in red states like Texas, South Carolina, Iowa and Ohio and won several gubernatorial races in states that currently have Republican governors.