TOPEKA, Kan. (AP) — Kansas' top elections official launched a campaign for governor Wednesday after building his public profile by pushing back against unfounded election conspiracy theories and breaking with fellow Republicans on voting rights issues.
Secretary of State Scott Schwab is the first candidate to confirm plans to seek the GOP nomination in 2026 to replace term-limited Democratic Gov. Laura Kelly. He announced his campaign in an online video, giving the August 2026 primary race an early start.
Schwab has repeatedly vouched for the integrity of Kansas elections on his two-term watch, despite President-elect Donald Trump's false assertions that the 2020 presidential election was stolen from him, Such assertions circulated widely within the GOP.
Schwab also has defended the use of ballot drop boxes and countered other Republicans' suggestions that voting by noncitizens — which is rare — is a serious problem in U.S. elections.
Republicans are keen to recapture the governor’s office in GOP-leaning Kansas after Kelly narrowly won a second four-year term in 2022 despite Democratic President Joe Biden’s unpopularity with voters. With Kelly in office, Republicans have been unable to enact some policies seen in other red states, such as a ban on gender-affirming care for transgender minors and a program let parents use state education dollars to pay for private schooling. Many Republicans expect a crowded primary.
Schwab compiled an orthodox conservative record on issues such as tax cuts, abortion and even election issues in 14 years in the Kansas House before he was first elected secretary of state in 2018. In his announcement video, he advocated a cut in local property taxes and endorsed proposed rules on foreign land restriction, particularly China, something Kelly vetoed this year.
“I believe that to do something great, you have to throw off the chains that hold you back,” he said in his video statement. “For Kansas, those chains come from big government.”
Yet Schwab has become notable for his willingness to dispute fellow Republicans’ assertions on election issues. He won a second term in 2022 after beating back a primary challenge from an election conspiracy promoter, Mike Brown, who later became Kansas Republican Party chair.
Schwab has repeatedly expressed frustration over unfounded arguments that fraud is widespread, noting in December that GOP complaints dropped after Trump’s victory in 2024. He attributed conspiracy theories to “a small group of people” and told reporters, “When their person wins, then they don’t complain.”
“Are there going to be people who say the world is still flat? Are there going people say we’ve never been to the moon?” Schwab said after he and other officials certified the November results. “I do my job, and I let the work of our election workers speak for itself.”
His embrace of ballot drop boxes has also put him at odds with some Trump supporters — including state Attorney General Kris Kobach — who suggest that they make fraud easier, despite a lack of evidence of problems.
As a legislator, Schwab backed a law that took effect in 2013 to require new Kansas voters to provide proof of citizenship to register, but he reconsidered after it kept more than 31,000 eligible citizens from voting and the federal courts struck it down. He has also rejected unfounded arguments that voting by immigrants in the U.S. illegally is potentially a serious problem.
“If I’m an illegal immigrant — I’m here illegally — the last thing I’m going to do is go to government to let them know I’m here,” he said in December. “And that’s exactly what voter registration is.”
Schwab, 52, launched his bid for governor 8 1/2 years after a searing and highly public family tragedy: In 2016, one of his four sons, 10-year-old Caleb, died while riding what was billed as the world's tallest water slide at a now-demolished water park in Kansas City, Kansas.
The park closed after its 2018 season, and Schwab's family settled legal claims against its operators and other parties for nearly $20 million, according to court documents.
John Hanna, The Associated Press
