TOPEKA, Kan. — A Republican state lawmaker launched a campaign Tuesday for Kansas attorney general and immediately played to some fellow Republicans' fears about whether GOP rival and polarizing conservative Kris Kobach can win in November 2022.
State Sen. Kellie Warren, a Leawood attorney, is the chair of the Senate Judiciary Committee. She was at the center of debates about the state's response to the coronavirus pandemic and GOP efforts to lessen Democratic Gov. Laura Kelly's power.
She released a campaign video in which she declared, "I fight. Then I win."
It was a dig at Kobach, her main rival so far for the Republican nomination in the August 2022 primary. Kobach, a former Kansas secretary of state, built a national profile as an advocate of strict immigration laws but lost the 2018 governor's race to Kelly and a Republican primary in 2020 for a U.S. Senate seat.
Kobach suggested Warren isn't qualified to be attorney general because real estate law is a major part of her private practice.
"Kansas doesn't need a homeowner association lawyer in the attorney general's office," Kobach said in a statement.
Warren was elected to the Kansas House in 2018 and won her Senate seat in 2020.
