By NICK GOSNELL
Hutch Post
HUTCHINSON, Kan. — Former Kansas Secretary of State and current U.S. Senate candidate Kris Kobach held an event in Hutchinson Friday. The big concern some Republicans have with Kobach is his electability, after losing the 2018 race for Governor to Democrat Laura Kelly. He believes this time around will be different and that it being a Presidential year will make a difference.
"President Trump is going to win Kansas by probably in the neighborhood of a 20% margin," Kobach said Friday. "That means that the vast majority of those people will also vote Republican in the Senate race. Whoever wins the primary is almost certainly going to win the general."
With that said, Kobach knows it is a close race between him and Kansas First District Congressman Dr. Roger Marshall and he's trying to draw some difference between them.
"Last week, Marshall signed a letter with 37 other House moderates calling for an additional 66,000 foreign workers to come in to the United States, when we have 42 million American citizens unemployed," Kobach said. "My position is the opposite. I don't think we need to be bringing in additional foreign workers at this time when so many Americans are struggling to put food on the table."
He also questions Marshall's position on current legislation related to cattle production.
"We've had almost 6000 Kansas ranches go out of business, not since COVID, but in the last 20 years," Kobach said. "The reason for that is the pricing practices of the big packing houses. Right now, ranchers are losing $200 a head on their cattle and the packing houses are making $1500. There's some legislation that would fix that in the House of Representatives right now and in the Senate. I'm in favor of that legislation, but Roger Marshall has not endorsed it."
Kobach also said that it is going to be hard to justify additional government spending beyond what has already been done to help businesses through COVID-19. He believes additional spending would be politically motivated by Democrats to bail out blue states.