A former federal prosecutor appointed by President Donald Trump is backing Kansas Democratic Gov. Laura Kelly over her Republican opponent, state Attorney General Derek Schmidt, citing Schmidt’s support of a lawsuit that attempted to overturn Trump’s 2020 election loss.
Stephen McAllister served as Kansas solicitor general for more than a decade, including seven years under Schmidt, before Trump appointed him the U.S. Attorney for the District of Kansas, the top federal prosecutor in the state. But McAllister says he won’t work for Schmidt again.
The key turning point for McAllister, now a law professor at the University of Kansas, came in the weeks after the 2020 presidential election, when Schmidt endorsed a Texas-led lawsuit that sought to overturn the results in four swing states that went for President Joe Biden.
