identity politics
Kris Kobach, who claimed misspelled names indicated voter fraud, misspells own name in Senate race registration
"Chris" Kobach has registered to run for one of Kansas' seats in the U.S. Senate.
One might expect the more well-known Kris Kobach, who failed in his Republican bid for Kansas governor last year, to hop in the race to replace retiring Sen. Pat Roberts (R-Kan.) And sure enough, an hour after registration for "Chris" popped up on the Federal Election Commissions' website, the campaign amended its candidate's name to Kris Kobach, The Daily Beast reports.
The mixup was especially ironic for Kobach, who once headed President Trump's so-called voter fraud commission and dedicated his political career to demanding stricter identification for voters. As part of that fight, Kobach has tried to purge voter rolls of names that don't match registrants' state IDs, which would've included names that were misspelled during registration.
If Kobach's misspelled candidacy wasn't a bad enough omen for his 2020 run, his fellow Republicans have surely sealed the deal. "Just last year Kris Kobach ran and lost to a Democrat," National Republican Senate Committee spokesperson Joanna Rodriguez pointed out to the Kansas City Star, and said that Kobach now wants to "simultaneously put President Trump's presidency and Senate majority at risk." Even Jared Suhn, a GOP strategist who oversaw the launch of Kobach's gubernatorial run, told the Star that Kobach "hasn't earned a third shot." Read more criticisms of Kobach, including from his former supporters, at the Kansas City Star.