Attack ad questions Marshall’s loyalty to Trump in effort to boost Kobach for Senate
A political action committee bankrolled by the California billionaire Peter Thiel has launched an ad attacking Kansas Republican Rep. Roger Marshall, the principal opponent of Kris Kobach in the GOP primary for U.S. Senate.
Free Forever PAC has paid roughly $70,000 to air ads on Fox News in Kansas City, Wichita and other television markets in the region. The spot depicts Marshall as initially skeptical of President Donald Trump’s proposed border wall and a supporter of then-Ohio Gov. John Kasich in the 2016 Republican presidential primary.
Marshall, who represents western Kansas, has sought to closely align himself with Trump during his campaign to succeed retiring Republican Sen. Pat Roberts. The television ad — airing on the favorite news source of conservatives — attempts to undercut that effort.
The PAC, formed last year, is primarily funded by Thiel, the co-founder of PayPal and an early investor in Facebook. He contributed $100,000 to the PAC in December, 95 percent of the group’s total funding as of its January filing with the Federal Election Commission.
Thiel hosted a fundraiser last year for Kobach, former Kansas secretary of state and the party’s 2018 nominee for governor. Kobach told The Star in February that he’s known the tech billionaire since 2005.
“He reached out to me back then because of my activity on illegal immigration,” Kobach said last month.
The ad features footage from a speech Marshall delivered at the Wichita Pachyderm Club in 2017 in which he said he wasn’t “sure a wall’s the best way” to secure the border or “if it’s even feasible.”
The ad also features 2016 footage of Marshall discussing his support for Kasich during the primary and then jumps to a clip from a 2019 CNN interview in which Kasich expressed support for Trump’s impeachment.
But the clip Marshall of speaking about Kasich is out of context. It’s from a 2016 primary debate with then-Rep. Tim Huelskamp in which Marshall expressed his support from Trump as the party’s presumptive nominee.
“I supported John Kasich from Day 1. He was not the person who the people elected. I’m going to support my Republican Party. I can support Donald Trump. I came out weeks ago saying I can support him. I look forward to working with him and turning this country around,” Marshall said at the debate with Huelskamp.
Marshall’s campaign spokesman Eric Pahls blasted the ad as desperate and deceptive.
“This ad buy shows Kobach knows Dr. Roger Marshall is winning. That’s why he’s calling in favors from Hollywood. It’s just more of the same from a desperate politician,” Pahls said in a statement, noting Thiel’s recent move from San Francisco to Los Angeles.
Pahls noted that Marshall has voted with Trump 98 percent of the time and co-sponsored a 2018 bill to begin construction on the proposed border wall with Mexico. “Dr. Marshall has voted for the wall every time he’s had the chance,” he said.
Kobach said in an email that he saw the ad for the first time Thursday night while watching Fox News.
“It uses Marshall’s own words to show him criticizing the wall and backing Kasich over Trump in 2016. I have called for construction of the wall for the past two decades, and I supported Trump from the very beginning,” Kobach said. “Conservatives have a clear choice.”
Marshall has trounced Kobach in fundraising with $1.9 million cash on hand compared to Kobach’s $190,000 as of January. But the Thiel-funded PAC’s investment in the race could help offset the gap.
“Well if you consider $70k significant, then it’s significant,” said Ryan Girdusky, Free Forever PAC chairman, in an email when asked if the PAC planned to spend significant money in Kansas between now and August.
“And as far as total future spending, I cannot say at this point. Roger Marshall has claimed time and time again that he walks in lock step with the President when in truth he opposed his agenda until he decided to run for the US Senate,” Girdusky said.
Both Marshall and Kobach have sought Trump’s favor in recent weeks, but Kobach’s ties to the president go back longer. He was the first statewide official in Kansas to endorse Trump 2016, advised his campaign on immigration and played a role in the Republican National Committee adopting the border wall as part of its platform in 2016.
However, White House sources have indicated that Trump is wary of supporting Kobach’s Senate campaign after his 2018 loss in the race for governor.
