White supremacists have funded Kansas GOP gubernatorial candidate Kris Kobach for years

Kris Kobach.
(Image credit: Scott Olson/Getty Images)

Kansas Secretary of State Kris Kobach has drawn plenty of criticism for his hardline views on immigration, fixation on voter fraud, and freelance gig as a Breitbart columnist. But financial filings also show that Kobach, Kansas' GOP gubernatorial candidate, has accepted campaign donations from white supremacist groups throughout his career. And they haven't gotten as much attention, The Guardian reported Monday.

In 2004, Kobach launched his political career with a run for Congress — and received a $10,000 donation from the U.S. Immigration Reform PAC, a group with white supremacist ties. Kobach lost that race, but got another $2,000 from the group this year, The Guardian reports. The PAC's president is married to John Tanton, a man who's been called "the 'puppeteer' of the nativist movement ... with deep racist roots" by the Southern Poverty Law Center.

Beyond the USIRPAC, Kobach also worked closely for a Tanton-founded organization labeled a “nativist hate group” by the SPLC, per Politico. He's also accepted donations from another group founded by Tanton, and from a blogger who runs what the SPLC has called a "hub for white nationalists and anti-Semites," among others, writes The Guardian.

Subscribe to The Week

Escape your echo chamber. Get the facts behind the news, plus analysis from multiple perspectives.

SUBSCRIBE & SAVE
https://cdn.mos.cms.futurecdn.net/flexiimages/jacafc5zvs1692883516.jpg

Sign up for The Week's Free Newsletters

From our morning news briefing to a weekly Good News Newsletter, get the best of The Week delivered directly to your inbox.

From our morning news briefing to a weekly Good News Newsletter, get the best of The Week delivered directly to your inbox.

Sign up

Kobach has told Politico that the USIRPAC "is not a notorious hate group," and a spokeswoman told The Guardian she had never heard Kobach make racist remarks. "I am black and I am his closest staff member," she said. "He is not a racist."

Earlier this year, Kobach defeated current Gov. Jeff Colyer to become the state's GOP nominee for governor. The race is now a toss-up between Kobach and Democrat Laura Kelly. Read more about Kobach's questionable donors at The Guardian.

Explore More

Kathryn is a graduate of Syracuse University, with degrees in magazine journalism and information technology, along with hours to earn another degree after working at SU's independent paper The Daily Orange. She's currently recovering from a horse addiction while living in New York City, and likes to share her extremely dry sense of humor on Twitter.