The chief billionaire boogeymen for the left and the right flanks of U.S. politics have entered the fight over the Kansas Supreme Court — along with a host of other special interest groups. And both sides are decrying the influence of wealthy donors while spending their money by the millions.

“We’re up against Ty Masterson, Kris Kobach, and an entire machine of billionaire political donors trying to get judges in their pockets who will act as a rubber stamp for their extreme agendas,” an ad purchased by Kansas United for Impartial Courts says.

“Out-of-state billionaires are spending millions to protect a system that works for them,” an ad purchased by Kansas Information Network Action says. “Together, we can stop them — their soft-on-crime judges, their radical agenda.”

The messages are similar, but the two groups are on opposing sides of a proposed constitutional amendment that would allow for the direct election of state Supreme Court justices. And they’re just two of several murky organizations created recently to influence voters.

Wichita billionaire Charles Koch's network of conservative political organizations is pushing for a state constitutional amendment that would overhaul how state Supreme Court justices are selected while Democratic megadonor and billionaire George Soros’ Open Society network has given money to oppose it. Exact amounts are unclear, as only a fraction of the spending is required to be reported and much of what is reported is untraceable because it came from nonprofit organizations that aren’t required to disclose their donors.

They aren't the only billionaires spending on the race. Kansas City native and Tulsa resident Lynn Schusterman, a billionaire philanthropist who has recently donated to state-level campaigns in Colorado and Florida seeking to protect abortion access, gave $1 million to oppose the Kansas amendment.

Koch-backed organizations have spent at least $1 million compared with $400,000 in Soros-backed funding. Other groups that are not primarily funded by Soros but have received funding from him in the past, such as the ACLU and Planned Parenthood, have spent millions. Law firms from across the state combined have also contributed more than a million.

Koch and Soros loom large over national politics, with their billions of dollars in political philanthropy spread out across vast networks of super PACs, nonprofits, foundations and think tanks shaping public policy shifts for decades. Their involvement in a Kansas Constitutional amendment election demonstrates how state supreme courts have become an electoral battleground for partisan political interest groups following recent decisions by the U.S. Supreme Court.

State supreme courts now have the final say on issues with national implications, including redistricting, abortion rights and election rules.

In Kansas, the Republican supermajority legislature — frustrated by rulings on abortion rights and education funding — moved to place a constitutional amendment on the Aug. 4 ballot to abolish the state’s merit-based justice selection system, in place since the 1950s, that requires justices to remain politically neutral and stand for regular retention votes. It would be replaced by direct elections of justices in partisan elections, removing constitutional restrictions on Supreme Court justices’ involvement in political activities.

Justices are currently selected by the governor from three nominees put forth by a nine-person panel that includes five lawyers and four governor appointees. Although Kansas Republicans have held majorities in the Legislature for decades, Democrats have held the governor’s office for almost half of the nearly 70 years the merit-based justice selection process has been in place.

Six of the seven justices on the court were appointed by Democratic governors.

Opponents of the amendment, including the Republican leader of the largest county prosecutor’s office in Kansas, have warned that the changes would turn judges into politicians, compromising the state’s entire legal framework and essentially putting the court up for sale. Supporters say the change would give voters the power to hold justices more accountable.

This isn’t the Republicans’ first try at changing the selection process. Former Gov. Sam Brownback, who often clashed with the judicial branch, proposed a federal model where the governor would nominate a candidate and the state Senate would confirm them — but his efforts fell short of the required two-thirds majority needed in the House and Senate to place a constitutional amendment on the ballot.

The Legislature’s appetite for change has increased in recent years. A month after Kansas voters overwhelmingly rejected a separate constitutional amendment that would have overturned a 2019 Hodes decision that recognized a right to abortion in the Kansas Constitution, Attorney General Kris Kobach told Wichita Republicans that the fallback plan to remove abortion rights in the state was to fill the court with anti-abortion judges through direct elections.

Who’s funding the pro-amendment side?

Koch isn’t the only right-wing figure pushing for the amendment.

Leonard Leo, the Federalist Society judicial activist largely credited as the man behind the conservative supermajority on the U.S. Supreme Court, is also tied to dark money advocating for the amendment.

A former U.S. congressman, two people tied to President Donald Trump’s pick as U.S. attorney for Kansas and a former policy director for an ex-governor are a few of the leading characters in the campaign finance reports.

At least five groups are spending money in support of the amendment, according to self-reported state campaign disclosures:

Kansans for Democracy, Inc. — This organization, with a listed address in “Hutchison, KS,” an apparent misspelling of Hutchinson, had raised $1.7 million and spent $1.2 million by July 20. All of its money came from a single, Tennesee-based PAC called First Principles Action, founded by former head of the Republican Attorneys General Association Peter Bisbee, with funding ties to Leo. It was incorporated in Kansas in August 2025 by Brandon Smith, a Tennessee lawyer who previously worked as a policy director for Gov. Sam Brownback.

Americans for Prosperity — The Koch-backed, Virginia-based political action committee spent $935,384.94 on direct advocacy by July 20. It does not list any donors. The largest donors to the organization are Wichita-based Koch, Inc. and Koch-funded Stand Together-affiliated nonprofit organizations.

Kansas Information Network Action — Attorney Josh Ney, former law partner with U.S. Attorney Ryan Kriegshauser, formed the Kansas Information Network Action in July 2025. By July 20, it had raised $19,187 from 13 individual donors and $733,000 from Kansas Information Network, Inc., a separate entity also incorporated by Ney as a nonprofit. Its funding sources are unavailable and are not required to be disclosed. In the final days of the campaign, the group has been running video ads criticizing “out-of-state billionaires” who are “spending millions to protect a system that works for them.” The ad prominently features Soros alongside New York Democrats U.S. Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez and New York City Mayor Zohran Mamdani, neither of which has publicly advocated for or against the amendment.

Your Right to Vote Association — This group raised $718,971.60 by July 20 and spent $702,302. Of that, $708,971.60 came from a Virginia-based corporation called Impact Mission Fund. It incorporated in October 2025 and its listed director is Sabra Srader with a listed address at a UPS Store in Fairfax, Virginia. The only living Sabra Srader listed in publicly available databases reviewed by The Eagle is an election administrator in Wise County, Texas. She said in an email that she has “never heard of them.” Another $10,000 donation came from Justin Hill, of Lawrence Paper Company, who serves on the Kansas Chamber of Commerce’s board of directors. The association was incorporated in Kansas in June by Christie Kreigshauser, vice president of political affairs for the Kansas Chamber, whose husband, Ryan Kriegshauser, is Trump’s appointee as U.S. attorney for Kansas; Elizabeth Patton, state director of Americans for Prosperity-Kansas; and Topeka hair-salon owner Hannah Kagay, whose husband, Mike Kagay, is district attorney for Shawnee County.

Do Right PAC — Former U.S. Rep. Tim Huelskamp’s PAC that was responsible for sending misleading text messages to prospective voters in 2022 about the “Value Them Both” amendment has turned its attention to the latest Republican-proposed amendment, raising $25,000 and spending $38,048.81 by July 20. The $25,000 came from a single donor: Vess Oil Corporation owner J. Vess.

Who’s funding the anti-amendment side?

The groups pushing against the amendment include funding from special interest groups for abortion rights, public education and civil liberties along with law firms throughout the region and at least two billionaires.

Kansans United for Impartial Courts — This group reported receiving contributions of $1,500,085 and spending $1,500,056 in 2025 and $0 in 2026. Its largest contributors were the New York-based American Civil Liberties Union Foundation ($750,000); a Washington, D.C.-based dark-money nonprofit run by Democratic operatives called American Opportunity Action ($200,000); ACLU of Kansas ($290,000, of which $200,000 was later refunded); Planned Parenthood Great Plains ($150,000); and dark-money nonprofit Kansas Values Institute ($60,050). American Opportunity Action is a relatively new nonprofit organization that has been spending big on the 2026 midterms and has reportedly spent hundreds of thousands on state-level political causes in Michigan and Missouri.

Kansas United for Impartial Courts — This group shares an address and has the same signatory — Micah Kubic — as the Kansans United for Impartial Courts group. In 2025, it raised $204,737.94 and spent $172,742.42. Thirteen individual donors gave a total of $4,500 while $200,000 came from ACLU of Kansas organizations. This year, through July 20, the organization raised more than $7.6 million and spent $6.6 million, including $1 million from Schusterman, $1 million from New York-based Planned Parenthood Action Fund, $1 million from the New York-based ACLU, $750,000 from ACLU of Kansas organizations, $450,000 from Planned Parenthood Great Plains Votes, $400,000 from Soros-backed Open Society Policy Center and $250,000 from the National Education Association. Its other large donations came from several law firms and legal organizations across the state and in the Kansas City area that gave between $10,000 and $100,000. It also received $175,000 from the Health Forward Foundation, an endowment created when Health Midwest hospital system sold to Hospital Corporation of America.

Several other smaller groups on both sides of the issue are raising and spending money, including anti-abortion Kansans for Life PAC and Kansas Family Voice for the amendment and Kansas Appleseed Center for Law and Justice, Inc. and Loud Light against the amendment. Attorney General Kobach’s Prairie Fire PAC also reported spending money on the “vote yes” campaign after receiving a $50,000 donation from First Principles, the anonymous Tennessee-based corporation that funded Kansans for Democracy.

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