Former Secretary of State Kris Kobach’s loss to Democrat Laura Kelly in the 2018 governor’s race has given rise to the view of Kobach as a hardcore conservative unwilling or incapable of moving to the center to broaden his appeal. It is part of the calculus of influential Republicans who have embraced U.S. Rep. Roger Marshall in the Aug. 4 primary race for the U.S. Senate seat to be vacated by retirement of Pat Roberts.

• GOP voters shouldn’t be fooled into believing Kansas is on a path to elect the first Democrat to the U.S. Senate since the 1930s, Kobach said. State Sen. Barbara Bollier, a retired physician with fundraising prowess, is the presumptive Democratic nominee.
• Kobach hasn’t asked the president, who has “different forces pushing on him,” for an endorsement and doesn’t expect one.
• If elected, he would target the National Endowment for the Arts because the organization throws money at “things that have a very left-wing political content to them.”
• He promised to expose covert moderates nominated to federal courts and to help confirm conservatives invested in the right to bear arms, religious freedom and restraint of abortion.