By JOHN HANNA
TOPEKA (AP) —Governor Laura Kelly and other statewide elected officials took their oaths of office Monday. The ceremony caps a big political comeback for new Attorney General Kris Kobach. He has built a national reputation by advocating strict immigration and election laws
Kobach and his family marked his return to public office in what, as a former law professor, he called “a role that will suit me well.”
Kobach lost a congressional race in 2004 before winning the first of two terms as Kansas secretary of state in 2010. He was the first prominent Kansas elected official to endorse Donald Trump's bid for president in 2016 and served as vice chairman of a short-lived Trump commission on voter fraud.
His unsuccessful 2018 and 2020 races crashed his political career and left many Republicans believing that he couldn't win a statewide race. But many GOP leaders and activists said his 2022 campaign was better organized and more focused, generating less drama or outrage.
The more combative Kobach could return: He's promised to file lawsuits to challenge Biden administration policies.
He's already identified as potential targets a listing of the lesser prairie chicken as a threatened species and an expansion of waters covered by U.S. Environmental Protection Agency regulations.
Kobach said Monday that the attorney general's office also will examine a new U.S. Food and Drug Administration rule allowing more pharmacies to dispense abortion medications. Kobach is a strong abortion opponent, while Kelly supports abortion rights.