A super PAC allied with Senate Republican leaders is dropping another $1 million into the GOP Senate primary for Congressman Roger Marshall.
The Senate Leadership Fund is spending $1.2 million on an ad buy that starts Thursday, marking one more GOP-associated group taking sides against former Secretary of State Kris Kobach in the Republican primary.
The PAC on Wednesday booked an initial $600,000 installment of a media buy that starts Thursday and is planned to run through the day before the primary election.
The purchase comes after a super PAC with ties to Democrats started spending $3.6 million on an ad campaign that criticizes Marshall as a fake conservative while using a theme that shows Kobach as a staunch conservative.
It also is the latest sign that Republican leadership is trying to get Marshall to the finish line, fearing that a Kobach candidacy could lead to Kansas electing its first Democrat to the U.S. Senate since 1932.
Kobach has been bristling over the opposition he has received in recent days, especially over U.S. Sen. Pat Roberts’ decision to back Marshall and the newly minted Plains PAC that is spending $3 million to take the former secretary of state down.
“It’s clear that my campaign has the swamp deeply worried that I will crush their flawed candidate Roger Marshall,” Kobach said in a fundraising email Wednesday.
“Their tactics are no better than the radical leftists who wish to cancel all conservatives and dismantle fundamental American ideals.”
In a separate statement, Kobach questioned whether Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell was using donors’ money prudently.
“Why in the world is he attacking a conservative in Kansas when he could be using that money to help a Republican in danger of defeat in Colorado, Arizona or Iowa?”
Two other PACs have come into the race for Marshall.
The U.S. Chamber of Commerce has pumped in another $296,000 in broadcast ads to help Marshall in addition to the Keep Kansas Great super PAC, which has spent another $185,000.
Marshall spokesman Eric Pahls said Kobach was being hypocritical.
“Democrat Leader Chuck Schumer has spent millions to boost the Kobach campaign, and when asked about it, Kris is silent,” Pahls said.
“A Republican group spends money in the Republican primary and Kris is throwing a tantrum,” he said. “That’s Kris Kobach in a nutshell. They just hurt his feelings.”
