Derek Schmidt

Early life and career

Derek Larkin Schmidt was born on January 23, 1968 in Independence, Kansas. Schmidt is the only child of Barbara Schmidt and Bill Schmidt. He attended the University of Kansas where he received a BA in Journalism in 1990. Schmidt went overseas to the United Kingdom where at the University of Leicester he obtained his Masters in International Politics. He went on to attend Georgetown University Law Center (GULC) where Schmidt received his Juris Doctor. While attending classes at GULC, Schmidt served as an assistant, first to former United States Senator Nancy Kassebaum, and then to Senator Chuck Hagel. Following his graduation he served in several public official roles including Assistant Attorney General of Kansas, and as Special Counsel to the Governor of Kansas.

Legislative career

During his time in the Senate, Schmidt supported:

Legislation sponsored or co-sponsored by Schmidt included:

Major donors

The top contributors to Schmidt's 2008 Senate campaign, according to the National Institute on Money in State Politics: Kansas Association of Realtors $2,000, Kansas Contractor's Association $1,500, Watco Industries $1,500, Koch Industries $1,500, and Kansas Chamber of Commerce $1,500.

2010 campaign

Schmidt was the Republican nominee for Kansas Attorney General, defeating Ralph DeZago in the Republican Primary on August 3, 2010. He won the general election against the incumbent, Democrat Steve Six and took office on January 10, 2011.

A major issue in Schmidt's first campaign for attorney general was based on Six's decision not to join with the state of Florida and 24 other states on appeal in support of the plaintiff in the proceedings in which a state of Florida case challenged constitutionality of the Affordable Care Act(ACA). Six contended that “the cost of getting involved” would exceed any gain realized by Kansas if the ACA was repealed.

Tenure in office

One of Schmidt's first acts attorney general for Kansas was to join the states that oppose the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act on constitutional grounds in the case of Florida et al v. United States Department of Health and Human Services. An Appeals court later ruled that the addition of those 25 states was not necessary for Florida to have standing to challenge the ACA. The U.S. Supreme Court decided that case by upholding most of the ACA as constitutional, while striking down a portion of the law which would have mandated states to implement Medicaid expansion.

Despite numerous judges having rejected challenges to the natural born citizenship of Barack Obama, since before he was elected president in 2008, Kansas Secretary of State Kris Kobach persistently demanded proof of citizenship before allowing Obama's name to appear on the 2012 Kansas presidential ballot. In September 2012, while leading the State Objections Board, and supported by both Kansas Secretary of State Jeff Colyer and Schmidt, Kobach requested additional evidence that Obama was actually born in Hawaii. According to the Topeka Capital-Journal, the three said they lacked sufficient evidence as to whether or not Obama was eligible to appear on the Kansas ballot as a candidate in the 2012 presidential election. They stated a need to review his birth certificate and other documents from Hawaii, as well as Arizona and Mississippi, before they could respond to a complaint alleging that the president was not a "natural born citizen." "Given the cursory response from President Obama, the Board is merely attempting to obtain additional information before making a decision," said Kobach's spokesperson. In an editorial, The New York Times characterized the actions of the Kansas authorities as having "reignited long-running conspiracy theories that the president was not born in the United States." CNN reported that "the Kansas ballot measure is one of several examples of the birther movement's still-persistent presence."

Schmidt also opposed allowing same sex couples from changing names on state drivers licenses, from receiving spousal health benefits, or from filing state taxes as married couples. The ACLU sought an injunction against Schmidt's initiatives to continue bans in most of the state's counties despite adversarial rulings from a federal district court in Kansas and from the U.S. Supreme Court.

Schmidt joined forces with Kansas Secretary of State Kris Kobach, filing briefs which attempted to force the Kansas Democratic party to field a candidate in the 2014 U.S. Senate general election. If successful, it was anticipated to have decreased the chances of independent candidate Greg Orman of defeating incumbent Republican Pat Roberts. The Kansas District Court in Shawnee County declined to issue any such order.

Schmidt, along with the attorneys general of several other states, challenged several federal regulatory actions, during the Obama administration. Schmidt and his colleagues were successful in blocking many of these regulations, particularly those proposed by the Environmental Protection Agency.

In July 2017, Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton led Schmidt and a group of Republican Attorneys General from eight other states joined by Idaho Governor Butch Otter in making a threat to the Donald J. Trump administration that they would litigate if the president did not terminate the Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals policy that had been put into place by president Barack Obama. One, Tennessee Attorney General Herbert H. Slatery III, subsequently reversed his position and withdrew his participation from the proposed suit on August 31st. Slatery went further to urge passage of the DREAM Act. The other Attorneys General who joined in making the threats against Trump included Steve Marshall of Alabama, Leslie Rutledge of Arkansas, Lawrence Wasden of Idaho, Jeff Landry of Louisiana, Doug Peterson of Nebraska, Alan Wilson of South Carolina, and Patrick Morrisey of West Virginia.

In 2017, Schmidt's colleagues elected him to serve as president of the National Association of Attorneys General.