KANSAS CITY, Mo. — Kansas Republican Attorney General Derek Schmidt on Oct. 24 received what could have been a useful development in the extremely close contest for governor: National assessment scores measuring math and reading had fallen among Kansas students.
The drop played right into Schmidt’s criticism of Democratic Gov. Laura Kelly’s decision to become the first governor in the country to switch to remote learning for the remainder of the academic year as COVID-19 spread in the spring of 2020.
But Schmidt and his allies that day were focused on drag shows. Schmidt and the Republican Governors Association seized on a report in a British tabloid that Kansas taxpayer dollars had supported a recent open to all ages event in Wichita that included a drag show.
