Kris Kobach
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- For articles on other people with the same name, see Kris Kobach (disambiguation).
Kris W. Kobach (born March 26, 1966 in Madison, Wisconsin) is an American law professor, and currently holds the Daniel L. Brenner Professorship at the University of Missouri - Kansas City School of Law (UMKC) in Kansas City, Missouri. He is a prospective politician, who in the 2004 election ran as the Republican candidate for the Congress in the 3rd Congressional District of Kansas.
[edit] Life
In 1988, Kobach graduated with an A.B. with highest distinction in Government at the top of his major from Harvard College. Subsequently, the British Government awarded him a Marshall Scholarship, which allowed him to obtain an M.A. and Ph.D. in Political Science from Oxford University in 1990 and 1992, respectively. He then returned to the United States and attended the Yale Law School, where he graduated with his J.D. in 1995. At Yale, he served as an editor on the Yale Law Journal. During this time, he published two books: The Referendum: Direct Democracy in Switzerland (Dartmouth, 1994), and Political Capital: The Motives, Tactics, and Goals of Politicized Businesses in South Africa (University Press of America, 1990).
From 1995 to 1996, Kobach was a law clerk for Judge Deanell Reece Tacha on the United States Court of Appeals for the Tenth Circuit in Lawrence, Kansas. He began his professorship at UMKC shortly thereafter.
In 2001, President George W. Bush awarded him a White House Fellowship to work for Attorney General John Ashcroft. Once the fellowship ended, he stayed on as Counsel to the Attorney General. There, shortly after the September 11 attacks, he led a team of attorneys and researchers who formulated and established the National Security Entry-Exit Registration System. He also helped reshape the Board of Immigration Appeals in 2002. Subsequently, he returned to UMKC, where he remains in his chaired professorship today.
[edit] 2004 Election
In the 2004 election, Kobach ran for Congress in the 3rd Congressional District of Kansas as the Republican candidate.
Kobach's contenders in the Republican Party primary were Adam Taff and Patricia Lightner. Taff had previously lost the 2002 election for the same office to Dennis Moore, and Lightner was a six-year veteran state legislator. Kobach beat Taff and Lightner in the primary election, but later lost the election to Congressman Dennis Moore with a 55%-43% margin. In November 2005 Taff pleaded guilty to federal charges of mail fraud and of converting campaign funds to his personal use, and in February 2006 was sentenced to 15 months in federal prison. [1]
The election garnered national attention, due to Kobach's strong anti-immigration stance, a stance that resonated especially well with some conservatives and working-class voters. The Republican party clearly sees Kobach as a promising future leader, as evidenced by the fact that he was given a speaking role on the opening day of the 2004 Republican national convention. He used his moments on the podium to call for the U.S. military to be sent to the Mexican border to block illegal immigration. [2]
