Welcome to debate night in Kansas.

I'm political science professor and KTWU public affairs host Bob Beatty.

And this hour, we bring you Republican Kris Kobach and Democrat Chris Mann in the Kansas attorney general debate.

This forum is a partnership with the political science department at Washburn University and KTWU.

I'll be asking some questions, and the candidates will also be taking questions from our audience members and from you on Facebook.

So please send those in.

And the candidates even get to question each other.

Now, candidates, by the rules of this forum have each been given two minutes for your opening statement.

And so we'll start with Chris Mann.

Good evening.

My name is Chris Mann, and I am in this race because Kansans deserve an attorney general who works for them.

I started my career in public service at just 21 years old.

A junior in college, I became a police officer like my dad before me.

I arrested domestic abusers, drug traffickers, and murders.

Unfortunately, that career was cut short.

I was hit by a drunk driver at 50 miles an hour while outside my car.

In a car stop.

The injuries I sustained ended my career, but not my passion for helping Kansans.

So I went back to law school and became a prosecutor.

I started in Wyandotte County, taking down drug trafficking rings and convicting murderers at the Securities Commissioner's office.

I prosecuted consumer fraud cases and white collar criminals taking advantage of Kansans.

Over the last year, I've traveled more than 50,000 miles and met with Kansans in 70 counties.

I've sat down with law enforcement and prosecutors, and everywhere I go, I hear the same thing when a complex case lands on their desk a homicide, a child sex crime.

Many counties call the attorney general's office for help.

And too often no one calls him back.

Or they're told no.

My background and priorities are why the Kansas State Fraternal Order of Police, representing more than 4300 officers, has endorsed me over my opponent in this race, and it's why I have the support of a bipartisan advisory committee of sheriffs, police chiefs, former U.S.

attorneys and retired judges, including sitting Republican sheriffs who crossed party lines to endorse me.

This office shouldn't be about Team Red or Team Blue.

We need to take this office away from one man's political agenda and bring it back to the people of Kansas.

I will fight for you and your family every day as attorney general.

Thank you so much, Kris Kobach.

It's been an honor to serve as your attorney general for the past four years.

For those of you who don't know my background, I grew up in Topeka and went to Washburn Rural High School.

I attended Harvard University, where I was first in my class and my department, got a PhD from Oxford University and then got my J.D.

at Yale law school.

But from there, I came right back to Kansas.

I served as a professor of constitutional law at UMKC for 15 years, and it's because of that expertise and my deep commitment to the Constitution that I ran for this office to protect the constitutional rights of Kansans.

My wife and I have five wonderful daughters, and we live on a farm near Lecompton.

It's because I want to protect my girls that I'm so focused on protecting Kansas families, and not just from criminals.

I've also been going after social media companies that prey on our children.

I've sued TikTok, meta, and most recently, OpenAI.

In the meta case, we won $134 million to protect our kids.

As your attorney general my top two priorities have been to protect you from crime and protect your constitutional rights.

And I've delivered.

Let's look at crime first.

Under my leadership, the Kansas crime rate has dropped to its lowest point in 57 years.

The last time Kansas was this safe was 1969.

And our crime rate is one of the lowest in the country because of the success in fighting crime.

I've been endorsed by 53 Kansas sheriffs, not 2 or 3.

And now let's look at protecting our constitutional rights.

Here are a few of the big cases that I won.

First, I personally argued and defeated the Biden administration in a regulation that would have changed title nine to allow biological men into women's locker rooms.

Second, I personally argued and defeated a Biden regulation that would have used our tax dollars to give Obamacare benefits to illegal aliens.

And third, i sued the Trump administrations ATF for unconstitutionally restricting firearms suppressors.

We won a huge victory for Kansas, and on October 9th, the ATF gave up completely.

So our win now protects gun owners in all 15 states.

I don't care which party's in the white House.

If the federal government violates the Constitution, I'll take them to court and we will win.

I don't just talk the talk.

I've delivered major victories for Kansas.

Thank you so much.

And now we'll get to the question part of this forum.

And in the first answer will come from Chris Mann.

And we'll rotate throughout, the debate.

And you have a minute 30 to answer.

So the first question is one of the main tasks, at least we hope it is of the attorney general is battling crime statistics.

Tell us that the crime rate has dropped 5% in 2025, yet violent crime increased 7.5%.

What is your plan to keep the overall crime rate going down?

And why is violent crime rate up?

And we have Chris Mann start.

Yeah, thanks.

Look, you heard in the opening statement that my, opponent is cherry picking some statistics.

Property crimes have been steadily decreasing over the past 18 years, and that's what's led him to the number that he reported.

But that simply shows his inexperience in law enforcement, because that number alone is not the driver.

Like you just heard.

Violent crime is up.

The KBI's own statistics show that violent crime is up 7.5%.

It's increased dramatically since my opponent took office.

Aggravated assaults are at a ten year high, and domestic violence related homicides are up 65%.

While my opponent's been, hang in his Mission Accomplished banner and taken a victory lap, I've been on the ground talking to sheriffs and law enforcement leaders throughout the state, and I've been talking to them about what's happening in their communities.

They've told me that they need a better partner in the attorney General's office to help them with their crime problem.

One Western Kansas sheriff told me his drug crimes have doubled in the past year, and he was having a hard time keeping up with what's happening out there.

When I'm attorney general, we make sure that local agencies are resourced, they're supported by the AG's office, and we hold offenders accountable.

Kris Kobach Well, it's certainly correct that we have reduced our crime rate to the lowest in 57 years.

There's no denying that it's been dropping, steadily for the last few years.

My opponent is, well, frankly, lying when he says the crime has been dropping, for 18 years.

It has not.

You can look at the KBI reports.

They're public information.

And, in the last year only, there was a slight bump upward in violent crime, but property crimes were dropping dramatically.

In fact, burglary is now at its lowest point in more than 60 years.

Roughly 1 in 1000 individuals in Kansas has any chance of being broken into at night.

And I've we've done this through very specific things.

My opponent gives you only one idea that he's actually going to do.

To answer the question.

He says he's going to make sure that local, law enforcement gets resources.

That's not the AG's job.

I did it once because we had a fund that an extra $200,000, and I was looking for a place to put it.

I said, let's give it back to local, local sheriff's offices.

And that's what we did.

But the legislature, not the attorney general, doles out money.

And even that money is very limited.

Most of the money that the state and locals get, that the locals get, comes from county property taxes.

But we let a huge, assault on fentanyl.

And that's where the really big drivers are.

Fentanyl deaths are now down 17%.

The availability of fentanyl on the streets in Kansas is 1/20 of what it was when I started in an office.

Huge accomplishment.

We've also deported a lot of illegal alien criminals from Kansas, and that would probably end if my opponent became attorney general.

And so we've done a large number of things to have a real impact.

And that's what I'm going to continue doing to keep crime low in Kansas.

All right.

Thank you.

And, the candidates do not know the questions I'm asking, but, we do segue to what's been already mentioned over my lifetime.

I've seen crises involving cocaine, heroin, opioids, and fentanyl, to name a few.

There's a lot more drugs than that.

But I want to read you this from the country of Estonia.

Quote.

We wish we still had a fentanyl problem, unquote, said the chief prosecutor of organized crime in Estonia.

Why new synthetic drugs that can be 40 times stronger than fentanyl.

And they're now arriving in the United States with a death in California in September.

What's your plan to combat these new drugs, regardless of the successor or whatever, with fentanyl that we know inevitably will hit Kansas.

And we start with Kris Kobach.

Well, the the war on fentanyl is not over.

Our joint fentanyl task forces that I set up are still busy in Kansas, although the numbers are very low in Kansas.

Other states have not seen their dramatic drop in fentanyl availability, and fentanyl deaths dropped the first time last year by 17%.

But they have been going up higher and higher and higher every year for about 6 or 8 years.

So to suggest that fentanyl is no longer something we need to worry about, it's in the rearview mirror I think is incorrect.

But you do bring up a very good point.

We do see more synthetics coming on the market.

All kinds of drugs Delta eight, Delta nine, kratom and synthetic variant varieties of kratom.

What I have been doing as attorney general is with the help of the KBI, looking at every new drug.

Our agents are on the streets and are aware of them and deciding whether we need to immediately change our Kansas laws.

And we have been changing our Kansas laws several times during my four years as attorney general, because my office has gone to the legislature and said, okay, this one needs to be illegal.

This one is very dangerous.

This one is killing people.

And so the attorney general needs to be on top of the problem, which I am and needs to go to the legislature and change our update.

Our laws is really what it is.

You're basically adding a new crime to a drug category that is already illegal wherever the category is appropriate.

So it might be a very heavy level or it might be a lower level, but I just want to say that we didn't just put more agents out on the street.

We brought the first fentanyl sniffing dogs to the Midwest at the KBI, and they had a huge impact sniffing boxes as they went by at a processing facility for Fedex.

We found that we had all kinds of creative solutions to this huge problem.

Chris Mann Yeah, thanks.

I'm the only person on this stage that is actually arrested or prosecuted personally.

Drug traffickers.

I've worked with the DEA to take down multistate, drug trafficking ring.

So I know what this work looks like and I know how to get results.

The fact is, we've lost more than 2000 people to fentanyl in the state of Kansas.

And earlier this year, Wichita had 29 overdoses in one weekend.

So the crisis is not over.

The fact is, is I'm out there talking to law enforcement.

I'm also hearing that methamphetamine is coming back.

And that's where some of the doubling in drug crimes is come from in western Kansas.

They're seeing all sorts of, drugs that are out there that they're trying to tackle.

And that's where we need to work, community by community to, to get that job done.

Look, one of the things that that, I saw as my opponent was, was working on this was he received a grant for life saving medication, and he used 85% of that grant for, putting his face on TV for self-promotion, just a small part on the actual medication.

And I talked to a community, organization who already had some naloxone boxes in locations that they had to take out so that, my opponent could put boxes in with his name on it.

That's not saving lives.

That's self-promotion.

We need an attorney general who's actually going to focus on this crime and helping people.

All right.

Thank you very much.

Kansas has the death penalty and has prisoners on death row.

We know from recent events in Tennessee that lethal injection is not, for lack of a better term, 100% reliable.

So, “A” do you support the death penalty in Kansas?

And “B” should Kansas adopt other methods like firing squad electrocution or lethal gas like the federal government did in 2025?

We go to Chris Mann for this question.

Yeah, thanks.

So I want to be really clear on this issue, because my opponent said a lot of things about my position, and you should hear from me straight.

The attorney General's job is not to push a political agenda or to pass laws.

It's to uphold the laws that are on the books in Kansas.

And right now, the death penalty is the law.

That means if a capital case comes across my desk, we prosecute it.

That being said, we should also know the facts about the death penalty.

Capital punishment is statistically shown to be ineffective in deterring violent crime, and it's the most expensive trial and the most lengthy appellate process that we have.

Now, my opponent said in a debate a couple weeks ago that he had researched suicide websites to find other ways to kill people.

I don't know why he would do that, but that's the route that he's taken.

And you can check out the video of that.

The fact is, we need to have an attorney general who's just going to uphold the rule of law, and not make up new ones.

I'm the only person in this race and on this stage who's actually tried a murder case.

I've held the hand of victims who have lost loved ones.

And I'll bring that same public service to the attorney general's office, because Kris Kobach.

There's a big difference between the two of us on this issue.

I have been fervently prosecuting and fighting to keep the death penalty in place in Kansas.

My opponent not only opposes the death penalty, I just told you that he opposes the death penalty.

And so he although his office might prosecute a case, he will be arguing against imposing the death penalty.

But he's also himself as a defense attorney, defended people in capital cases, cold blooded murderers who fortunately were convicted by the jury anyway.

As attorney general, I've proposed multiple bills to strengthen the death penalty in Kansas and allow us to use it more easily.

The last time Kansas executed someone, 1965.

We have nine people on death row right now.

We had more people on death row a few years ago.

What happened?

They died of old age.

Most of the people on death row in Kansas have been there for more than 20 years.

This denies justice to the families.

When the mother and father of the victim are passing away without ever seeing justice for their loved ones.

It's a travesty, a travesty, this delay of of justice in Kansas.

He said that, and now the two bills.

He said I researched something on the website looking for suicide.

No, he didn't even listen.

And I hope he's listening now.

What I said was, I support a nitrogen hypoxia bill that would have two methods of execution.

Right now, we only allow lethal injection.

It has some drawbacks.

We should allow nitrogen hypoxia, which I said is the most painless method.

And if you don't believe me, go look on the Hemlock Society's website, which is a website for people contemplating suicide, and they say it's the most painless method for suicide.

The other bill I had would just speed up the judicial process to bring this long awaited justice.

There's a big difference here, and you've got to listen carefully to what he says.

For good or ill, there's a lot of interest in this.

I think part of it is because Kansas has the death penalty.

But, there is some concern that, if it actually had to be used, it it may not, actually happen.

So a quick follow up.

:30.

We'll start with Kris Kobach.

Maybe you just repeat what you just said, but as even your proposal, which, you just mentioned, is even that, again, this is horrible term, but I don't know what else to say.

Reliable that we can assure that if someone is receiving the death penalty, that what happened in Tennessee will not happen.

And then that's the follow up.

30s and Chris Mann same sort of question about that issue.

Well, after Kris Kobach.

It's a more simpler, more simpler form of execution.

You're denying the body oxygen as opposed to introducing chemicals into the body, which might react differently.

Once our bodies are denied oxygen, we pass away.

But I want to counter my opponent's point that he thinks the death penalty is a bad idea.

It also provides prosecutors with a bargaining chip when dealing with defense attorneys like him defending a killer so they can say, you know what?

Why don't you take this deal instead of facing the potential death penalty?

And it also deters crime from those people who've been in jail already, but have been released early because of a sentencing commission vote he took that increased good time, percentages so people could get out of jail earlier, and theyre doing that.

Chris Mann.

First flat out lie have never defended a murder case.

Second, unlike my opponent, I know that the job of the attorney general isn't to push a political agenda.

My job is to follow the rule of law.

So he thinks that I would, go and change laws.

That's not what I believe the AG is supposed to do.

That's what he believes the attorney general is supposed to do.

I will always defend the rule of law.

All right.

Moving on.

The president of the United States states relatively recently led a large group of people in a pledge to promise to vote and then saying, quote, I don't care if I'm registered or not.

I'm going to try to cheat like hell.

That was the pledge he asked them to make, unquote.

Given this interesting rhetoric, how serious is this issue of voter fraud in the scheme of things for an attorney general to pay attention to in the state of Kansas?

Kris Kobach, you have the first shot at this.

It's very serious.

The attorney general of Kansas is one of very few attorneys general in the country who has original jurisdiction to prosecute election fraud, and I have prosecuted multiple cases.

Indeed, probably the most interesting ones are non-citizens who are voting in Kansas.

We just brought our fourth prosecution.

Most of them have already been resolved to the guilty plea.

And those four cases are just the tip of the iceberg.

We're talking about well over 100 cases that we have.

But we have to move very slowly and take the easiest cases first.

And we don't want to put a lot of our criminal attorneys on these cases, because we've got other things to do, too.

But this is a problem.

Thats why when I was secretary of state for eight years, the chief official in charge of policing elections in Kansas, we did many things.

I brought photo ID to Kansas elections.

I brought signature verification to Kansas elections.

And as attorney general, I defended that in front of the Kansas Supreme Court because there are some organizations and probably my opponent, I'd love to see if he thinks we should have signature verification, that were saying, oh, signature verification makes it too hard for you to cast your vote.

Not at all true.

Anyway, I got a victory in a in the Kansas Supreme Court four three decision, but we'll take it.

And so I know a lot about our election laws, and I take seriously the attorney general's job to prosecute election fraud, and I will continue to do it.

I would like to hear from my opponent if he will continue to prosecute election fraud.

Chris Mann Yeah, look, I think it's important to start by saying that our elections in the state have consistently been proven to be safe and secure.

As attorney General, I will investigate and prosecute any case of voter fraud that comes across my desk point blank.

But what I won't do is spend millions of taxpayer dollars pursuing a political agenda.

My opponent has been at this for the better part of a decade.

In 2016, he was part of the election integrity committee, and he said that he was going to find 3 million illegal votes.

And then earlier this year, he said there were going to be thousands of noncitizen voters in the state of Kansas.

And now tonight, he's down to hundreds.

Obviously, he's he's prosecuted for.

The fact is, he's either been lying to us this entire time or he's really bad at his job.

And either way, he shouldn't be the attorney general.

He's also tried to pass laws that have made it harder for eligible Kansans to vote.

When he was secretary of state, he passed an unconstitutional law that disenfranchized 30,000 voters.

He took it to court.

It was found unconstitutional, cost our state $2 million, and he had to be sent back to Lawyer Kindergarten to learn how to enter evidence into court.

The fact is, we need better.

We need an attorney general who will stand up for the election rights of all eligible voters in Kansas, not attack them.

All right.

Next question.

I don't want to sound too dramatic, but a lot of people agree with the proposition that AI could, no joke, possibly end humanity.

This may be the issue of our lifetime.

Are you concerned with the idea that I can be regulated by the private sector?

Or should the attorney general of Kansas or any state who many see as a protector of the people, have a role in avoiding something very disastrous from occurring?

And Chris Mann the first shot at this one.

Thanks.

This is an important issue.

I've got a couple of young children I'm concerned about online, privacy.

I'm concerned about the, increased use of AI that is unregulated.

The fact is, until Congress does something to put guardrails up the attorneys general are, that stop and have that ability to force corporations to do that.

Look, the recent Open AI, lawsuit.

It's a good start, but we have to go further.

We have to make sure that all AI companies are, have guardrails in place and are doing right by consumers.

I talked to a, woman earlier this year whose son was groomed online, and, she desperately tried to get help from the attorney general's office.

She couldn't get it.

And the attacker is still out there.

There are still children who could be at risk.

So whether the threat is AI or real life, we need an attorney general who's going to focus on protecting our kids.

That's why I'm going to start a standalone, child victims unit in the Attorney General's office to complement the KBI's unit and make sure we have specialized prosecutors in there to take on these crimes and make sure that we're protecting our children.

Kris Kobach, My opponent, evidently doesn't understand how the attorney general's office works.

We don't have original criminal jurisdiction to prosecute someone for child grooming or the vast majority of laws in Kansas.

The counties do.

The attorney general only has the power to prosecute if the county invites the attorney general in and in lower level crimes like that, they rarely ask the Attorney General for help.

And contrary to the lie my opponent said earlier, we have never turned down counties help from on major crimes, certainly never on homicide, and certainly never on under my watch.

Where you have cases of child sex, predators are targeting children.

But let's talk about the I question.

One week ago, I and seven other attorneys general sued OpenAI, and we sued simultaneously in the eight different states.

My opponent says, well, we need to go further than suing so we can put up guardrails.

Again, he doesn't understand the judge's decision in the case will put up guardrails and will issue an injunction saying, you cannot do this, you cannot do that, and you cannot do that.

That is what the suits do.

And then when the other firms developing, AI see that they will follow suit.

It would be foolish to do as some have suggested and just wait for Congress to put up some guardrails.

Congress has had 150 bills in the hopper for more than two years, and just a couple of them have even gotten a hearing.

Attorneys general are nimble, and that's why I and my seven colleagues moved immediately when we had the evidence to go ahead and bring the cases against OpenAI.

We're in a dangerous situation right now.

Our kids are being misled by sycophantic chat bots, led to some to suicide and other dangerous outcomes.

Attorneys general have to act.

All right.

Thank you very much.

We're now done with part one of the forum.

So we'll take a very short break.

And when we get back, the candidates will question each other.

So stay with us.

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Welcome back to the 2026 Kansas Attorney General debate between Kris Kobach and Chris Mann.

In this segment, each candidate can ask one question of the other, which should be very interesting.

At least I think they each will get 30s to ask their question, and then whoever they ask it to will get a minute 30 to answer.

Then they'll both get 30s for rebuttal.

Time to comment on the other's answer.

So we start with Kris Kobach.

Maria Rojas was killed by an illegal alien and left behind two small children in Johnson County.

Amanda Bixby was killed by an illegal alien and left behind two grieving parents in Leavenworth County.

And those are many.

There are many more cases.

There were illegal aliens who killed them, but if those aliens had been deported, those people would be alive today and their families would not be grieving.

You said to a Democrat audience recently that, quote, we need to do everything we can to stop ICE deportations from Kansas.

I'm doing everything I can to help ICE deport people from Kansas.

How would you explain your position to those family members?

Well, I would tell you that I never said that to any audience.

I am definitely for strong borders.

We need to make sure that we are, keeping our borders strong and making sure that, violent offenders can't get to the United States.

The fact is, though, in the state of Kansas, my opponent has been trying to pass laws that would force, agreements on sheriffs offices throughout the state.

I've been talking with these, sheriffs, throughout the state, as well as police chiefs, and have been discussing whether or not those agreements are right for them.

Many of them don't have the resources to take on an agreement like that or, simply don't want to do it.

The fact is, my opponent has never walked a day in the life in the shoes of the men and women who are protecting our communities, and he still wants to tell them how to keep their communities safe.

I'm going to trust local law enforcement.

I'm going to work with them.

We're going to work every day to make sure that our communities are safe.

But that doesn't mean forcing one size fits all solutions on the people of Kansas.

It means doing the work, talking to two communities, and holding all offenders accountable no matter who they are.

Kris Kobach You have 30s.

Well, I have the audiotape.

He said it, and I wish we had more time here.

I play it on my phone.

He absolutely said we we have to do everything we can.

Where his words to stop deportations in Kansas.

He says he doesn't like the 287 G agreements that I've used, with KBI, where they can assist ICE in making immigration arrests and start deportation.

He says we shouldn't be forcing counties to do it.

I agree the law doesn't force counties to do it.

They could do it voluntarily in 30 so far.

Have already said they want to keep doing it.

So he's against enforcing.

But yeah he says he wants to enforce the law.

Which is it.

It's a real problem.

Chris Mann you have 30s.

Yeah, I, I didn't say in my answer that I didn't like 287 G agreements.

I said the sheriffs were concerned that he was trying to force them when he tried to pass a law that would make them all, comply with his political agenda.

The fact is, where there are violent offenders that are here, illegally, we should remove them.

We should remove any violent offender off of our street and make sure that our communities are safe.

And that's exactly what I'll do.

And that's why law enforcement is backing me.

Chris Mann, you now can direct a question at Kris Kobach.

Thank you.

Look, there was a powerful county prosecutor down in Neosho County.

He used his position to allegedly extort at least 50 women.

He interfered with multiple law enforcement investigations and illegally used county funds for personal benefit.

You wrote a plea deal that was so lax that it recommended misdemeanors and no jail time.

The judge down there had to overrule it.

You say you're tough on crime.

Why would you let the powerful go free?

Kris Kobach.

You know, this is a common theme for my opponent.

He tells you only half of the story.

He's got a an ad out there that's flat out lies.

Similar theme that somehow some special deal was given to a defendant Were brought into cases like that because they need a neutral third party to decide whether to prosecute the case.

In that case, we assembled all the evidence we had.

And in some instances, when you're brought in to prosecute a case, the evidence that you think is there to put someone behind bars or to impose a very significant penalty, isn't there?

And so you at that point have to decide, do you do you seek a lower penalty in the actual trial itself, or do you negotiate with the person in the plea deal?

I didn't negotiate that deal.

My my criminal defense team did.

Criminal prosecution team did.

But they felt that that was the absolute most that they could get, given the limited facts that they have.

He has an ad out there.

I won't go into the details, but it's based on a Wyandotte County case where it was handed off to my predecessor as attorney general.

Same situation.

The witnesses were gone.

The case was ten years old.

And contrary to what his ad claims on TV, it wasn't a sweetheart deal.

The judge said that the 15 year penalty was a very stiff penalty, given the amount of evidence that was available to the prosecution.

We go for the most severe penalty we can in every single case, and I don't think anyone watching seriously believes that we be cutting deals to anyone breaking the law.

Chris Mann, 30s.

The case in Neosho was stalled so long that it allowed that prosecutor to retire with public benefits.

And the fact is, the judge in that case had to overrule the deal to give some jail time.

He said that the fine in the case amounted to paying for his freedom.

That was the judge's own words.

And Kobach won't even take responsibility for the work that his office is doing when I'm attorney general.

We make sure that we go after offenders, no matter how powerful they are.

Kris Kobach, 30s.

My opponent lives in this mystical La-La land where you can just declare what the penalty will be.

My, I have full confidence in my prosecuting team.

Rarely does the attorney general interfere in negotiations when he's not actually in that particular case.

Now, I argue many more cases than previous attorneys general do, but I can't be in every one of the 150 cases that we have at any given moment.

And so we push for the hardest penalty we could get.

And that's what our prosecuting attorneys got.

And we think that that was the appropriate penalty in the case.

Other people can disagree.

But that's what the prosecutors felt.

Well that's it for a segment two.

We'll take a short break.

And when we get back, the candidates will take questions from you, the audience.

So stay with us.

For intelligent, insightful reporting.

The last month has proven to us that President Trump still has juice within the party.

It is not clear at the moment what side the United States of America is on.

Join moderator Jeffrey Goldberg and the country's top journalists for incisive analysis of the most consequential stories.

Did we make promises that we just simply have not kept?

Military power can do a lot of things, but it can't force political change.

I love you just as your.

We quickly became family.

I need you around with a murder case.

You come to the right place.

He appeals to the American underdog.

We love that.

It's a real honor to be here and to sing the songs of this great lady Theres more.

Oh, good.

Charming as ever... We look forward to it.

Welcome back to the 2026 KTWU Kansas Attorney General debate between Kris Man and Kris Kobach.

In this final segment, the candidates will answer questions from viewers and the audience.

Candidates will have one minute to respond to allow for as many questions as we can get in.

And so we have a question right off the bat from the audience.

We'll start with Chris Mann for one minute again.

What should be done to prevent the misuse of flock cameras in Kansas?

Yeah.

Thanks.

I hear this question.

Every community that I go to, and I hear it from both sides.

Community members are concerned about data privacy and law enforcement's concern, because these tools have helped them find missing persons and abducted children.

Frankly, we need to have guardrails in place.

Our legislature needs to enact some guardrails to make sure that these corporations are acting in the best interests of Kansans There are real data privacy concerns.

How long the data is stored?

Who has access to the data and are there third party, data sharing going on?

Those are real concerns that need to be addressed.

It's the legislators job to make those rules.

And then the attorney general's job will be to enforce the rules and make sure that corporations are held accountable.

Kris Kobach, well, a responsible attorney general goes to the legislature and provides information because they will ask the attorney general, what do you think?

And I'll tell them what I think in that is, although there is a threat to privacy, and we have to have some guardrails up to protect privacy.

These these cameras do have real value.

One recent case of a car was stolen, and, in the backseat was a very young child in Ohio.

And it popped up on the Flock cameras in Manhattan, Kansas.

And the Riley County Sheriff's Office was able to get there and make an arrest in five minutes, and everybody was safe.

So there are values for it, but I'll be more specific what we need to do.

We do need to protect privacy.

One thing we have to do is establish limits on how long the data can be kept.

Number two, we need to establish a standard, a reasonable suspicion standard or something similar so that the officers using the flock technology have to registe and record what their suspicion was in order to even begin using it.

And then third, we have to impose significant penalties on any law enforcement officer that misuses that information or the cameras for his own purposes.

Thank you.

We've had a there's a couple of questions here about marijuana, so I'll try to combine them.

And I do remember, there was a poll from Emerson College a couple of years ago that showed 73% of Kansans support the legalization of medical marijuana.

And so I'll two questions here.

We'll start with Kris Kobach.

Do you believe medical marijuana should be legal in Kansas?

And the other question that came in is, what are your thoughts on the enforcement of marijuana laws, given that in many states they're not enforced, but it is federally against the law?

Kris Kobach.

Well, I'll start with the second question.

Sure.

I fully support enforcing the laws we have on the books.

And right now, marijuana is illegal.

In addition, many THC products are illegal.

THC THC vapes are per se illegal.

There's no, you know, quantity restriction or some sort of way you can get out of jail on that one.

And we will continue to enforce the law.

And KBI has been assisting the locals around the state in enforcing those laws.

The second part of the question was about, medical marijuana.

And would I support a change to Kansas law?

I will enforce whatever Kansas laws on the books, whatever the legislature chooses to do.

But we should be aware that full legalization has been a nightmare for law enforcement in Oklahoma, with lots of youth use of marijuana way up and with traffic traffic accidents.

So I oppose full legalization with regard to medical marijuana only.

The problem is, I would only support that if there were some method or process where you could ensure that the system wasn't gamed by people are just using a medical excuse to gain marijuana for recreational purposes.

I have yet to see that method developed and until it is, I won't support it.

Chris Mann.

It it is the Attorney General's job to enforce the laws that are on the books.

And that's exactly what I'll do.

Our legislators, though, should listen to the people of Kansas.

So you set it right.

There are two thirds of people in Kansas support some sort of legalization.

Every state around us have some sort of legalization.

I do support the legalization of medical marijuana.

I've seen the data and statistics that show the effectiveness of medical marijuana in certain patients.

That being said, I'll enforce whatever laws are on the books, but I won't waste our resources.

My opponent's previous KBI director said marijuana is the most dangerous drug in Kansas.

I think there are 2000 families who have lost loved ones to fentanyl who would disagree.

I want to make sure we're putting resources where they matter, and where we can have the most impact on helping the people of Kansas.

Well, I like getting questions from different people.

We have a really interesting one here, and we'll start with Chris Mann.

And I think it's so interesting, actually, that we'll use the moderator's discretion.

You can have up to a minute and a half.

Please tell us about a court case you lost.

And we're assuming you're not Perry Mason and what you learned from losing that case.

I think it might take a minute and a half, maybe, to describe the case.

We start with Chris Mann.

Yeah, absolutely.

I think the case that comes to mind first, it was a, a burglary and Wyandotte County, and it was a difficult case.

We had, evidence problems.

We had witness problems.

It was, old case, over five years old.

And witnesses weren't wanting to show up to testify on the case.

And in fact, some of those witnesses, were concerned to show up back then.

This is back in.

Oh, gosh.

Had to be 2010, 2011.

They were concerned about their, immigration status and that something would happen to them if they showed up to testify.

We had a real hard time, trying to get people in to testify on that case, and ultimately, we lost it.

But it was the right thing to take it to trial and try and get justice for the victims.

In this case, unfortunately, circumstances beyond our control, led to that outcome.

So we what we learned from that is one, we need to make sure that witnesses know that it's it's safe and that we need them to come in and testify and be part of the judicial system.

And, also that, you know, it's it's always good to do the right thing and take cases that are important to people.

Kris Kobach Yeah, I'll tell you the the lesson I learned, first and I'll explain how I got there.

And that is, I think it's important in civil litigation oftentimes to bring a case you think you might actually lose, perhaps because of the judges or perhaps because of some other factor, because there will be other cases around the country and those cases you will win in, and you will actually then have an opportunity to make a difference, potentially getting to the Supreme Court and changing the rule for all of the jurisdictions.

The case, was before I was attorney general.

I can't think of any cases we lost as attorney general.

So I'm going to talk about a loss.

When I was in private practice, I was representing, some cities around the country who were trying to stop illegal immigration within their limits.

And the illegal aliens were taking jobs.

There were the crime rates had gone up in some cities.

And in Hazleton, Pennsylvania, the city council asked me to defend them, when there law was all these, these, statutes and ordinances were sued by the ACLU, and they asked me to defend them, and I did, and we mounted the best defense we could.

It was like two attorneys on our side versus about, six attorneys from the ACLU on the other side.

But in spite of all that, we did lose that case.

And we kind of knew from the beginning that given the factors and the court and everything, we might, but we won nearly identical cases in Fremont,Nebraska and in Valley Park, Missouri.

The Supreme Court was then given the opportunity to take the case, the U.S.

Supreme Court.

They only take about 2% of the cases that are offered them.

If they had taken the case, we almost certainly would have won and that would have equalized it everywhere.

We didn't get the victory, but we showed that you can still persist and win in other jurisdictions and cases like that.

All right.

Thank you.

Another question, concerning ICE agents in Kansas, do you believe they should be allowed to wear masks and not display their federal badge numbers visibly when making arrests?

Kris Kobach here, the first shot at.

And we're back to a minute, please.

I believe absolutely.

They should be allowed to wear masks in the and do not need to display their name and number.

This case that this hypothetical, that Bob is talking about comes out of California.

They had two statutes that did exactly that.

They said ICE officers and no federal law enforcement would be able to wear a mask while conducting their their duties.

And they also said you had to have your name and badge number very prominently, invisibly displayed, on your uniform in the courts, even in California, put into place preliminary injunctions on both laws because there's something called the Supremacy Clause in article six of the United States Constitution, and going all the way back to the 1819 case of McCulloch versus Maryland, the principle has been in place that under our Constitution, a state cannot stop the federal government from enforcing federal laws.

And that's exactly what these these restrictions on ICE officers were doing in California would have done in California.

And if you try to restrict in one manner, then you're essentially saying the state can tell the federal government how to implement its own laws and how to enforce its own laws, and that's unconstitutional in our system.

Look, the recent decision in California is in line with the privacy clause of the Constitution, but this is actually a larger issue about transparency and communication.

We recently saw in, southwest Kansas when, ICE came to those communities without telling local law enforcement that they were going to be there, that it caused chaos.

And that's dangerous for law enforcement and innocent civilians.

Look, I've worked in these partnerships with, federal agencies as a police officer and a prosecutor, and I know how they're supposed to work, and they're supposed to work with open communication and transparency between law enforcement agencies.

It's important that we get back to that.

And as I've talked to law enforcement, again, throughout the state, that's what they desperately want, not just from federal partners, but from the attorney general's office.

They want help and communication that they're not getting right now.

I was actually given this question before and they said, please ask this.

I'm going to ask it.

The question is, it seems like we are incessantly, nonstop every day, every hour hit with scams and fraud, phone calls, emails, stolen ID, credit cards.

As attorney general, how would you help protect us, please, from this constant scourge?

And this is not just me, but the question you're asking.

We start with Chris Mann.

Yeah, thanks.

So this is one of my top priorities for the office.

Every community I have been to has a story of someone who has lost $100 or $100,000, and the scams are getting worse with AI.

And, they're attacking our vulnerable populations, especially our elderly.

Like, I've got older parents and they get the toll road scams, and you've got a warrant scam that come out.

I talked to an elderly couple out in Garden City who lost a life savings, to a scam artist and another farmer in, Liberal Kansas who put down a deposit on a tractor online.

It turns out there was no tractor.

And he tried to get help from the attorney general's office, but couldn't.

We need to make sure that we are doing better to help protect our communities.

We're working with partner agencies, state and federal, to go after the bad actors, and that we're educating our population to make sure that they understand what these scams look like.

And that's what I'll do every day.

Kris Kobach.

you know, he keeps repeating the lie that my office does not answer people.

Our consumer protection office is the most diligent consumer protection office in the country that I've ever seen.

They handle over 4000 requests for help in dealing with scam and fraud throughout the state of Kansas.

And you will get a call.

I encourage someone to call call tomorrow if you want.

Just make sure you have something serious to say.

But you will have a human being answer your call and they will address it and they will, if possible, try to recover any funds.

You've been defrauded last year, over 4000 cases.

In the last two years, we've achieved the, comp.

We've been able to recover $4 million in total for people who called our office.

And I want to encourage people to go to ag.ks.gov, get that phone number, and I'm gonna use the remaining part of my time to do a public service here and tell you three things you should remember.

Number one, never answer any phone call from someone you don't know.

Number two, no government agency will text you or email you telling you that you need your money.

And number three, any time anyone on the phone asks you to pay in Bitcoin, hang up the phone.

All right.

The Attorney General office has finite resources as far as I know, the legislature.

And it doesn't just say spend whatever you want, and let us know.

So only so many lawyers, so many investigators, so many office staff.

So what's your process for allocating those resources in terms of state, focusing on what's going on in the state versus what we know now?

Attorney general's do, which is often sue the federal government?

Talk about that a bit.

Kris Kobach, you start you have a minute.

Well, the in the last time we debated, my opponent said, well, we need to focus on the state because we've got to protect Kansans.

What he didn't understand is that principally, the federal government oftentimes has a greater impact on regulating your life than the state government does.

And so when the federal government was denying Second Amendment rights to Kansans, I had to sue the federal government when the federal government was telling Kansas high schools that the girls locker room had to be open to biological males, I had to sue the federal government.

So the question is, where is the threat coming from?

As attorney general, I will make the argument.

And if it's a constitutional question, which most of these are, I will probably argue the case myself and we will continue to win.

So you have to address the threat where it is.

You also have to run the office.

And that's one thing I've been very pleased to say.

We have.

We took an office that was 25 attorneys short when I was sworn in four years ago, and now we're up to full staffing in our office.

And we had to persuade the legislature to give us more money so that we could hire attorneys at a rate they were being paid in the private sector.

So you've got to have the attorneys and you go where the threat comes from.

Chris Mann.

Look, it's important to have a balance here, but we need to look at the harm that's done to the people of Kansas.

My opponent wants to go off and fight culture wars in other states.

While the state of Kansas is owed more than $1 billion from the federal government right now, money that's supposed to be for clean, rural water, to help farmers, to feed kids, to go to victim services and law enforcement.

But he hasn't stood up for the people of Kansas to get that money back.

Attorneys general around the country that did stand up got that money back for their citizens, farmers who were crushed by tariffs earlier this year.

It was attorneys general who stood up and got those tariffs removed.

My opponent didn't stand up for the people of Kansas.

And look, when we're talking about consumer fraud and focusing here on the state, last, year, people over the age of 60 lost 7.5 million to government impersonation scams, up 1,100% over the previous year.

We need to make sure we're focused on the people of Kansas.

Well, we have wrapped up the question and answers phase of this forum.

It's time for our candidates to now make their final case, at least in this debate, directly to the voters.

They have two minutes and 30s to do so.

Kris Kobach, your time starts now.

The attorney general is the only statewide office for which there are objective qualifications, where you can say one attorney is actually better for the office than the other.

The two of us are applying for a job and you, the voter, get to decide which one of us to hire as your attorney.

Think of this debate as a job interview.

Which one of us answered all the questions directly?

Which one of us was able to better present facts supporting his case?

Which one of us would you prefer to have representing you in court?

Now look at my record as attorney general in the whole country, there are only two attorneys general who routinely argue cases themselves.

Marty Jackley of South Dakota and I. I've personally argued a total of nine cases as attorney general in federal district court, Kansas district Court, and in the Kansas Supreme Court.

We prevailed in seven of the nine cases, and the other two were either not decided or was set aside on ripeness grounds.

So I've not only managed a winning office, I've personally won some of the biggest and most important cases in the country.

I have a record, and Kansans have seen that record.

The lowest crime rate in 57 years.

Protecting our kids against social media, apps and AI chat bots and bringing $134 million to Kansas, in our case against meta defeating the federal government in case after case when it violates the Constitution.

That's proven performance on the job.

Now look at my opponent, My opponent, the only time he was in a public position where he could make decisions and cast votes, so to speak, was when he was on the sentencing commission of Kansas.

When he was on that commission, he missed 57% of the votes.

The majority of the meetings, he didn't bother to show up.

And then when he did bother to show up, his votes were consistently soft on crime.

So he tells you he was a police officer very early in his life, and that somehow means that he's tough on crime.

Well, when he's when he's actually got the opportunity to vote, he's not.

His worst vote was when he voted to increase the early release opportunities for prisoners in Kansas through good time credits.

Those votes have consequences, often deadly consequences.

One person who was released early was Hugo Morales.

He was sentenced in 2013 to 7 years in prison, but he got out because of early release in good time credits over nine months early.

Subsequently, in October of 2019, at a bar in Kansas City, Kansas, he shot and killed four people.

He was again convicted, this time for murder, in April 2025.

There is a real contrast here between someone who has a proven record of reducing crime and going after criminals, and also going after others who prey on our kids, and someone who actually, when he had a chance to be the decider, his decisions were wrong.

All right.

Thank you Chris Mann.

Yeah, I'm just going to start by, talking about that lie.

Look, I was on a volunteer committee.

I was a volunteer for the sentencing commission, and we were an advisory committee.

The legislation legislators had to pass, the laws that, that they wanted to and they didn't actually pass any of the early release laws, that he's talking about.

Look, I've spent my entire life running towards the problem, and I'm not done yet.

When a drunk driver ended my career as a police officer, I could have walked away from public service, but I didn't.

I went back to law school to keep fighting for Kansans.

I've stood toe to toe with violent criminals on the street and in the courtroom.

That is why the Kansas State Fraternal Order of Police has endorsed me over my opponent in this race.

Tonight.

You did hear from two very different candidates, a lifelong public servant and a lifelong politician.

As your attorney general, I will fight to protect you and your family with everything I've got.

My opponent has never worn a badge or tried a murder case.

He spent the past two decades running for nearly every office in the state of Kansas, and we've seen exactly what that's gotten us.

He testified to the legislature that his own office is so short staffed, it can't fulfill its core mission of helping prosecutors put criminals behind bars.

Yet somehow, he's found the time and your tax dollars for national lawsuits and culture wars.

When a gas company overcharged Kansans for, family's $50 million during Winter Storm Uri.

He inherited that case, and he walked away from it.

There are school districts in this state still paying off those heating bills.

In Kansas, as you heard, is owed more than $1 billion in federal funding for clean rural water to help farmers and law enforcement for victim services.

But he refused to fight for it because it didn't fit his political agenda.

He takes campaign donations from the same industries he's supposed to regulate.

He runs a private law firm on the side with clients he doesn't have to disclose, and he was held in contempt of court yet again this year.

Kansans deserve better, attorney general, who answers to you not to donors, not to a party, not to political ambition.

So here's my promise.

I'll pick up the phone.

When law enforcement calls, I'll go after anyone who preys on Kansas families, scam artist predators, price gouging corporations.

No matter how powerful or wealthy they are, it's time to take this office away from one man's political agenda and bring it back to the people of Kansas.

You've been watching the candidates asking for your vote for Kansas Attorney General Kris Kobach and Chris Mann.

Thanks so much for being part of this very important element of the democratic process.

On behalf of our debate partners, the political science department at Washburn University, and from all the production crew and volunteers here at the studios of KGW in Topeka, I'm Bob Beatty.

Thanks for watching.

And remember, please, please vote on November 3rd if you haven't already.

Goodbye.