FBI invited Kansas, Missouri leaders to elections briefing. Why it’s raised alarm
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- FBI invited Kansas and Missouri officials to a Feb. 25 elections briefing.
- Invitation, though called routine by some, raised alarm over 2026 midterms.
- Officials expressed mixed reactions about federal involvement in election prep.
The top election officials in Kansas and Missouri last week were among those invited to an FBI briefing to prepare for the upcoming midterm elections, a vague invitation that comes amid growing fears over voting rights nationwide.
Spokespeople for Kansas Secretary of State Scott Schwab and Missouri Secretary of State Denny Hoskins confirmed that the FBI invited representatives from both offices to the Feb. 25 briefing. Officials across the country received the invitation, which has alarmed some of its recipients, according to numerous media outlets.
A copy of Hoskins’ invitation, obtained by The Star, said the FBI, Department of Homeland Security, U.S. Postal Investigative Services and other agencies wanted to meet with election officials about preparations for the 2026 midterms.
Representatives from Hoskins’ office, likely leaders from the Elections Division, are expected to attend the call, spokesperson Rachael Dunn told The Star. Meanwhile, it is “not yet known” whether Schwab will participate, said spokesperson Whitney Tempel, who added that the Republican typically attends similar calls.
It’s not uncommon for state and federal officials to share information ahead of high-stakes elections and some experts have framed the invitation as routine. However, the meeting comes as state and local election officials have grown increasingly suspicious of the Trump administration’s motives ahead of the midterms.
The FBI’s invitation came a week after the federal agency executed a search warrant at an elections office in Georgia and seized ballots related to the 2020 election. President Donald Trump has also recently doubled down on his calls for the Republican Party to “nationalize” voting in U.S. elections, alarming local election officials who fear there could be federal pressure on voting in the coming months.
Jason Kander, a Democrat who served as Missouri’s secretary of state from 2013 to 2017, said in an interview that he never personally met with federal law enforcement when he was the state’s top election official.
“There were occasional one-off meetings with some of those departments, but I don’t remember ever seeing a joint meeting like this,” Kander said when asked about the invitation sent to Hoskins and Schwab.
Kander said the Obama administration avoided large joint meetings because of fears that Republicans would accuse Democrats of trying to nationalize elections. He said he found the FBI’s invitation concerning.
“Given the way that the Trump administration has openly sought to politicize the role of election administration and even lied about fraud and the outcomes of elections — and is actively using the FBI to try and, I’d say, accelerate that lie,” he said, “yeah, it’s pretty concerning.”
Anxieties in Missouri
Hoskins’ and Schwab’s offices, for their part, have cast the upcoming meeting as standard.
“Communication and partnership with federal, state, and local agencies are a common practice for the Missouri Secretary of State’s Office,” said Dunn, the spokesperson for Hoskins.
The FBI letter also comes as Hoskins, a staunch Trump supporter, has recently made headlines for disagreeing with the president’s call to nationalize elections. Hoskins told a Missouri House committee last week that he does not believe elections should be nationalized and would not turn over to the federal government the state’s full voter rolls without a court order.
Despite Hoskins’ comments, the upcoming FBI briefing has raised anxieties around Kansas City.
Sara Zorich, the Democratic Director for the Jackson County Election Board, said that she was unaware of the meeting until she read a news article about it. She said the briefing was concerning and had not heard of similar meetings during her time as an elections director.
“I think we’re in a very different time right now,” Zorich said, adding that she would like to know more about what will be discussed during the meeting.
But not everyone is worried about the upcoming briefing.
Missouri Rep. Peggy McGaugh, a Carrollton Republican, spent more than 30 years overseeing elections in rural Missouri as the Carroll County clerk. McGaugh said in an interview that the communication between federal and state officials was refreshing.
“I think that’s good for security,” McGaugh said of the FBI briefing. “Both cybersecurity and just to make the voters aware that they shouldn’t be afraid to go to (the) polls.”
Kansas elections
Over in Kansas, the tension over voting rights has hit home locally as voters gear up to choose the state’s next top election official. Trump’s comments about nationalized elections have roiled the state’s secretary of state race.
Meanwhile, thoughts on Schwab’s FBI invitation were a mixed bag.
“I believe the Kansas Secretary of State should participate in this federal briefing because Kansans deserve full visibility into any action that could affect the administration of our elections,” said Rep. Kirk Haskins of Topeka, the ranking Democrat on the House elections committee.
“The FBI’s request is unusual and warrants rigorous questioning, but the only way to protect Kansas voters is to be present, demand transparency, and ensure no federal agency attempts to overstep its role,” he said.
The Wyandotte County Election Office did not respond to requests for comment Monday. A spokesperson for the Johnson County Election Office declined to comment.
Fred Sherman, who served as Johnson County election commissioner from 2021 through December 2025, said he understands why “people have anxieties” about federal involvement in this year’s elections.
But he said coordination between local, state and federal officials on election preparedness is commonplace.
“The FBI and certain federal agencies have, in past elections, been engaged as well. It just has not been a front-page story like this,” Sherman said, adding that he’s not in a position to say whether Schwab should participate in the FBI meeting.
Sherman said that during his tenure as the top election official in Kansas’ most populous county, federal agencies played a supportive role but “weren’t actively engaged” in the voting or vote-counting processes.
“They’re not there to dictate or guide in terms of how elections are administered,” he said. “But they have certain levels of security protocol and those kinds of things that a lot of local jurisdictions don’t have.”
