Secretary of State Scott Schwab wins again after vouching for Kansas election integrity
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Incumbent Republican Secretary of State Scott Schwab won another four years in office after vouching for the integrity of Kansas elections during the campaign.
Schwab's reelection comes after surviving a primary challenge from an election conspiracy theorist even as election deniers won Republican secretary of state nominations in Nevada, Arizona and other states.
"We're thankful for the next four years," Schwab said. "We will continue to move this office forward, not only with election integrity and security and cybersecurity, but we're going to take e-government to a new generation to make it easier to start a business in Kansas."
Schwab, R-Overland Park, has been overseeing the office, which runs state elections and the business registry, for the past four years after previously serving as a lawmaker who worked on election issues. He defeated Jeanna Repass, D-Overland Park, and Cullene Lang, L-Paola.
Schwab claimed victory at a Republican watch party in Topeka shortly before 10:30 p.m. At that point, he was pulling in about 58% of the vote to Repass's 40% and Lang's 3%. Election results are neither final nor official.
Despite the loss, Repass made history.
"For the first time in our state's 151-year history, we have nominated an African-American Latina woman to either major political party for statewide office, so I want to say thank you for that," Repass said.
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The Democratic and Libertarian challengers were on pace to muster a combined 43% of the vote, putting up less of a fight than Republican primary challenger Mike Brown. Brown captured 45% of the GOP vote compared to Schwab's 55% in the Aug. 2 primary, keeping the race closer than expected.
"I have said for a long time that I think the secretary of state's office at the state level is the most misunderstood and important office maybe that we have in America in government, because the secretaries of state are in charge of the voting apparatus," said former Democratic Gov. Kathleen Sebelius.
The Kansas secretary of state is also in charge of appointing election commissioners in the four most populous counties: Johnson, Sedgwick, Shawnee and Wyandotte, and Douglas could soon join that list.
That means the secretary of state "sets up the voting apparatus really for about 30% of the voters in this state, just single-handedly," Sebelius said.
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Scott Schwab cruised in general after surviving primary
In a closer-than-expected GOP primary, Schwab fended off Brown, who openly espoused conspiracy theories about the 2020 election, including baseless claims of fraud nationally and in Kansas. As the state's top election official, Schwab has defended the safety and security of Kansas elections.
That puts Schwab at odds with some members of his own party. The 2020 election, and former President Donald Trump's refusal to publicly accept the results with his Big Lie, has divided Republicans on how to broach election integrity.
"He's more just playing it straight, so to speak, without undermining electoral authority, without undermining citizen confidence in the elections," said Kansas State University political science professor Nathaniel Birkhead. "That is a bit out of step with with the party, but I think it's more in step with where the party has traditionally been.
"It was not until Donald Trump that people really started contesting elections and the validity of elections. But longer term, the Republican Party has just understood as well that these are the rules of the game and if you lose, then you lose."
Secretaries of state have gained a new public interest since Trump's 2020 electoral defeat after previously flying relatively under the radar down ballot from more hotly-contested political offices.
"We can thank Donald Trump for that ... suddenly people began to understand the importance of this role," Repass said.
Scott Schwab's work on elections
Schwab has since convinced lawmakers to pass new measures that he said would beef up election security on election equipment, audits, voter rolls, ballot watermarks and chain of custody. But he also helped talk down legislators from restricting voting by mail and ballot drop boxes.
"Just because he hasn't come out as an election denier does not mean that he is a defender of democracy or believes in expanding the electorate," Repass said.
Despite defending the election system, Schwab has been criticized by voting rights advocates. Among the criticisms are Schwab's support of the unconstitutional proof-of-citizenship law pushed by Kris Kobach, slow-walking implementation of a law allowing voters to vote at any polling place and violating open records law by denying release of provisional ballot data to groups trying to help voters correct deficiencies.
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Schwab grew more forceful in his defense of elections after the primary, which saw an expensive and ill-fated recount attempt. The same election conspiracy theorists used the recount as "evidence" in a federal lawsuit attempting the ban ballot drop boxes and throw out the results of the 2020 election. A federal judge rejected a temporary restraining order request last month.
"Election integrity is, in general, something that we need to hear more about, because people need to feel confidence in the vote and feel confidence in the electoral process," Birkhead said. "He did have this competitive primary, but ultimately, I think it's probably a fairly sound electoral campaign strategy."
This article originally appeared on Topeka Capital-Journal: Republican Secretary of State Scott Schwab wins Kansas election 2022
