A new outside group has entered the Kansas Republican primary for governor in a bid to help Insurance Commissioner Vicki Schmidt with an ad buy approaching $1 million.
The Defend US PAC on Thursday rolled out two new ads, both focused on affordability but one that underscores her successful battle against cancer.
The PAC has booked or spent about $977,000 on ads supporting Schmidt’s campaign for governor, including about $933,000 in Kansas City, about $14,000 in the Wichita/Hutchinson market and about $30,000 in nonmetro markets.
The new PAC’s entrance into the race comes as Schmidt is trying to fend off a $2 million ad buy against her from the School Freedom Fund, which is affiliated with the conservative-leaning Club for Growth.
The School Freedom Fund’s ads have been mostly focused on legislation Schmidt supported as a state senator that it says benefits people living in the United State illegally.
The School Freedom Fund started running its second ad against Schmidt on Wednesday reiterating a similar theme as the first ad.
It is largely funded by Jeff Yass, cofounder of Susquehanna International Group, one of Wall Street’s largest and most successful trading firms. Yass gave $10 million to the fund in 2025.
Yass is an ardent supporter of school vouchers and other school-choice initiatives.
Schmidt, meanwhile, has been running her own ads, rolling out a new one last week that focused on a testimonial from someone she helped get insurance coverage for a cancer treatment.
The ad has been running in the Wichita/Hutchinson market as well as Topeka and the Pittsburg/Joplin area.
The new PAC helping Schmidt raised $227,000 during the first quarter of this year and had $722 in cash on hand at the end of the quarter.
The first-quarter report for Defend US was the most recent available and no more recent data is available about where the political action committee is raising its money.
There is no clear pattern to how the PAC gets involved in races, sometimes opposing Republicans and other times supporting them with know clear indication of who it favors.
Most recently, the PAC made independent expenditures on behalf of Joshua McKee, one of several Republican candidates running in the primary for Alabama’s 1st Congressional District. He finished third in the May 19 primary.
South Dakota Public Broadcasting also reported that the Defend US PAC spent $600,000 trying to defeat U.S. Rep. Dusty Johnson in the Republican primary for governor of that state.
Johnson finished third in the June 2 primary, behind businessman Toby Doeden and incumbent Larry Rhoden, who was elevated from lieutenant governor after Kristi Noem joined the Trump administration.
In 2022, the PAC made independent expenditures to help elect Markwayne Mullin to the U.S. Senate in Oklahoma. He is now secretary for the Department of Homeland Security.
The PAC’s contributors this year included $95,000 from the Affordable Energy Fund PAC, $40,000 from Americans United for Values, $15,000 from Building a Strong America, $35,000 from Fund for a Working Congress, $40,000 from the Fund for Ohio Leadership and $2,000 from the Safeguard Liberty PAC, according to its first quarter fundraising report.
Four of those groups – the Affordable Energy Fund, Fund for Ohio Leadership, Fund for a Working Congress and Safeguard Liberty – share the same street address and Alexandria, Virginia zip code as Defend US along with the same treasurer, Dustin McIntyre.
The Affordable Energy Fund PAC has been linked to the natural gas industry.
Four years ago, the Energy and Policy Institute, a nonprofit watchdog of the fossil-fuel industry and utilities, revealed that the energy PAC was an arm of The Empowerment Alliance.
The alliance says it’s goal is to “unleash American energy dominance, ensure our energy independence and support a common-sense approach that guarantees affordable, reliable and clean energy based on evidence and science rather than “Green New Deal”-style political agendas.”
Then there’s Americans United for Values, which received $100,000 from Conservative Agenda for America.
The PAC reported receiving $50,000 from from American Advancement, a Maryland-based nonprofit that “promotes public policies aimed at removing barriers to economic growth and advancing economic opportunity for the American people.”
The Leadership for Ohio Fund worked to defeat Bernie Moreno in his successful bid for the U.S. Senate from Ohio in 2024. Moreno defeated Democratic incumbent in that. U.S. Senate race
Open Secrets described the Leadership for Ohio Fund as a single-candidate super PAC in support of Ohio Secretary of State Frank LaRose in that that 2024 U.S. Senate race in Ohio.
The Safeguard Liberty PAC has made news in other states where it’s been linked to a pair of co-founders of a chain of virtual charter schools in Oklahoma where they were charged in 2022 with embezzlement and racketeering – a case that’s still in court.
The donors – David Chaney and Benjamin Harris – each gave Safeguard Liberty $375,000 in 2022, campaign records show.
