After supporting rejected TX lawsuit, Kansas AG says time to put ‘election behind us’
Hours after the U.S. Supreme Court declined to hear a lawsuit seeking to overturn election results in four battleground states, Kansas’ top prosecutor — who signed onto the suit — reversed course, saying it is time to “put this election behind us.”
Days earlier, Kansas Attorney General Derek Schmidt and Missouri Attorney General Eric Schmitt joined the Texas lawsuit which, using baseless claims of illegal voting, sought to swing the election to President Donald J. Trump by overturning results in Georgia, Pennsylvania, Wisconsin and Michigan. All four states went to President-elect Joe Biden in November.
In a brief order Friday, the Supreme Court said Texas does not have the legal right to sue those states because it “has not demonstrated a judicially cognizable interest in the manner in which another State conducts its elections.”
Schmidt, the Kansas attorney general, said in a statement hours later that he joined an amicus brief organized by Schmitt in order to seek “an answer to an important and potentially recurring federal constitutional question involving the role of states in federal elections.”
Though he spoke in support of the effort Wednesday and said he received thousands of calls and emails from constituents urging him to support the suit, on Friday, he said it was time to move on.
“Today the Supreme Court decided not to become involved in the 2020 election, and the Court’s decision means it is time to put this election behind us,” he said in a news release.
Kansas Rep. Brett Parker, an Overland Park Democrat, pointed to Schmidt’s quick reversal as evidence that the Attorney General, a potential contender for the governorship in 2022, did not believe in the lawsuit but rather joined it in an effort to score political points.
“(The Supreme Court decision) reveals what a colossal waste of time and taxpayer resources it was on the part of the Attorney General to fuel political ambitions,” he said.
In a statement Saturday, the Missouri attorney general’s spokesman Chris Nuelle said Schmitt filed the brief in an effort to “protect the integrity of elections both now and in the future.”
“We will continue to work to ensure free and fair elections moving forward,” he said.
Both attorneys general previously signed onto another lawsuit focused on Pennsylvania’s mail ballots.
The Electoral College meets Monday to formally elect Biden as the next president.
The Associated Press contributed reporting.
This story was originally published December 12, 2020 at 1:28 PM with the headline "After supporting rejected TX lawsuit, Kansas AG says time to put ‘election behind us’."
