TOPEKA, Kan. — On his first day as the Republican nominee for governor of Kansas, Kris Kobach compared himself to President Donald Trump as he looks to November.
On Wednesday, Kobach was in full campaign mode. He said he will not make the same mistakes as former Gov. Sam Brownback.
41 Action News was the only Kansas City station to speak with Kobach one-on-one.
Before getting into the issues, we asked him about problems with the primary election.
"What we saw was a really close race, and so people were looking at the election with more scrutiny and intensity," said Kobach.
The Kansas primary election results were unclear until six days later. Kobach said the problems in Johnson County were mechanical, not procedural.
"Whenever you roll out new machines, there will be some delay, like when you get a new computer. All there was, was a slight delay," said Kobach.
Since there were concerns with the primary, we asked Kobach if he would recuse himself from the November election.
"If it were super close in the general, and one of my opponents asks me to recuse myself I would do it."
Reporter Steven Dial also questioned Kobach on these issues:
Dial: The Supreme Court says the funding for schools is not sufficient. How do you change that under a Kobach governorship?
Kobach: My proposal is we should look at where we are spending the money. I think we should spend 75 cent of every dollar in the classroom, teacher salary, equipment, etc. They are spending the money on huge administrative buildings. That does nothing to education or expanding the number of administrative personnel, that does nothing to a child's education.
Dial: Do you want to bring back the Brownback tax cuts?
Kobach: What the Brownback administration did wrong is they had big tax cuts but spending went up, setting records the next fiscal year and the next year. You can't do it that way. If you are going to cut taxes, which I will do as governor, you gotta cut spending.
Dial: Will your friendship with President Trump hurt you when trying to appeal to all Kansans?
Kobach: My friendship absolutely helps. Kansans know they have a governor that has the president's ear, that speaks to him regularly in person and on the phone. That makes a difference.
