(Updated to include Kobach’s fundraising totals)
Democratic attorney general candidate Chris Mann has more than doubled his fundraising from his unsuccessful bid to be the state’s chief law enforcement officer in 2022.
Mann filed a report showing that he raised about $537,000 during 2025, compared to roughly $205,000 that he’d raised at this point in his 2022 race for attorney general.
He had about $257,000 in cash on hand at the end of the year.
Mann is likely the beneficiary of a new state law that increased fundraising limits for governor and other state officers to $4,000 from $2,000 for the primary and the general election each.
Mann is challenging Republican incumbent Kris Kobach, who is completing his first term as attorney general.
Kobach reported raising about $337,300. He had about $502,000 in cash on hand going into the new year.
“Kansans want an Attorney General who is focused on protecting communities, upholding the law fairly, and delivering real results, not playing politics,” Mann said in a statement.
“The record level of support we’re seeing makes it clear that people are ready for a new direction in the attorney general’s office,” he said.
Kobach and Mann are poised to rerun the same race from 2022.
Mann came up 15,892 votes short, out of almost 1 million cast, against Kobach in that 2022 election.
During the 2022 election cycle, Mann raised about $1.6 million compared to about $1.2 million for Kobach, who had to battle through a three-person primary that included current KBI Director Tony Mattivi and Republican state Sen. Kellie Warren of Leawood.
The last high-profile race for attorney general in Kansas — before 2022 — was 2010, when Democrat Steve Six defended the seat against Republican Derek Schmidt.
By comparison, Six raised $1 million in 2009 and 2010 in losing to Schmidt, who went on to hold the seat for the next 12 years. Schmidt raised $724,846.
In 2022, Mann carried six Kansas counties in his race against Kobach, winning Douglas, Wyandotte, Johnson, Riley, Shawnee and Lyon counties, according to data compiled by researchers at Wichita State University.
By comparison, Gov. Laura Kelly carried eight counties in a four-person field when she was reelected governor in 2022, winning the same six counties as Mann plus Sedgwick and Geary counties.
Mann outperformed Kelly in Douglas, Wyandotte and Johnson counties, although he ran in a two-person field in the general election.
He reached 60% in Johnson County, 68% in Wyandotte County and 77% in Douglas County.
But he came up short in Sedgwick and Geary counties while also underperforming the governor in many of the less populated western Kansas counties, where Kobach was able to secure enough votes to win the campaign.
Even in western Kansas counties where Kelly collected between 30% and 40% of the vote, Mann came up short of those numbers against Kobach.
