The Democratic establishment is spending big money to meddle in the Republican Senate primary in Kansas, using a super PAC to run advertising boosting immigration hawk Kris Kobach over GOP establishment favorite Rep. Roger Marshall.
The super PAC is controlled by Democratic operatives linked to their party’s leadership, and Republicans say the move amounts to dirty tricks intended to elevate weaker Kobach and manipulate the outcome of the Aug. 4 primary.
Sunflower State PAC is investing nearly $1 million to air a television advertisement that promotes Kobach as a stalwart conservative allied with President Trump and that undercuts Marshall as a flip-flopper at odds with the White House.
“Chuck Schumer and his allies have spent millions bailing out their candidates in Democratic primaries, and now, Schumer has zeroed in on his preferred candidate in the Kansas GOP primary,” Jesse Hunt, spokesman for the National Republican Senatorial Committee, said, referring to the Senate minority leader. “Kansas primary voters can see right through the New York liberal’s desperate attempt to prop up a losing candidate.”
Kansas leans Republican, especially in presidential elections.
But after Kobach’s failed gubernatorial bid in 2018, top Republicans in Washington worry some of his provocative views and penchant for controversial rhetoric would render him unelectable this fall against likely Democratic nominee Barbara Bollier. To box Kobach out of the primary, Republicans recruited Secretary of State Mike Pompeo, a former Kansas congressman, to run for the Senate to replace retiring GOP Sen. Pat Roberts. Pompeo declined.
With Kobach, a grassroots favorite in the race, Democrats pounced, using an outside group with a name — Sunflower State PAC — that does not suggest affiliation with their party to run a television spot that sounds like it might have been aired by a pro-Trump, conservative organization. Both parties have, over the years, used this strategy to intervene in opposing primaries and fuel support for problematic candidates.
“Kris Kobach, he’s too conservative. Kobach won’t compromise on building a wall or getting tough on China,” the ad’s voice-over says. “And, Roger Marshall’s a phony. After backing a Mitt Romney-like candidate for president, he’s been soft on Trump and weak on immigration. Marshall’s been both for and against the wall. He went easy on China but now talks tough.”
Sunflower State PAC has placed an initial buy of $850,000 to run this spot in Kansas for one week, according to Medium Buying, a firm that tracks political ad spending.
In an interview Wednesday, Kobach declined to comment on the Sunflower State PAC advertisement. The former Kansas secretary of state said he feels “cautiously optimistic” about his prospects in the upcoming primary, saying strong grassroots attendance at recent campaign events suggests to him that his momentum is positive.
“Roger Marshall has chickened out of numerous forums … and that says something, too,” Kobach told the Washington Examiner, adding that the Republican establishment’s support for his opponent “indicates they want a yes man for [Senate Majority Leader Mitch] McConnell, and they know I’m a conservative disrupter who’s not going to be pushed into compromise.”
