WASHINGTON, D.C. – Kansas Second District Congressional Republican front runner Derek Schmidt received the most weighty endorsement a Republican running in 2024 can get on Friday, with an official nod from former president and GOP presidential nominee Donald Trump.
It came days before Monday’s fresh attack on the former president by lame-duck President Joe Biden, who again sought to impugn the former president in his election bid for another term in the nation’s highest office by asking Congress for a constitutional amendment to “reform” the U.S. Supreme Court. As a former Kansas Attorney General, Schmidt called Biden’s statement “a bad idea,” and that any change should be aimed at preserving the court’s independence.
Schmidt leads the pack among three Republican contenders in the race to fill the second district post that will be vacated by Jake LaTurner. Schmidt picked up 44% of likely Republican voters in a Coefficient poll from May, far ahead of other GOP hopefuls Jeff Kahrs with 4 percent and Shawn Tiffany with 3 percent, but with 49 percent of voters at the time still uncommitted.
Trump said in a social media post last week Schmidt had his “complete and total endorsement.”
“An American First patriot and a true friend of MAGA,” Trump said on social media, “Derek is now running for Congress, where he will work tirelessly to grow the economy, secure the border, uphold the rule of law, support our veterans, strengthen our military, defend our always-under-siege Second Amendment and champion our incredible farmers and ranchers.”
Biden’s call for the amendment was widely viewed as another attempt to tie the January 6, 2021, capital riot to Trump and keep that narrative on the country’s political radar. Biden and Democrats have continued to make baseless claims that Trump incited riots that day that ended in some rioters breaking into the capitol building resuting in its evacuation, and the eventual murder of protester Ashli Babbit by a Capitol Police Officer.
Biden’s call for a Constitutional Amendment specifies an 18 year term limit for justices, additional limits on presidential immunity and a code of ethics for members of the court. Biden and Democrats have railed against changes from the court in recent years after Trump’s appointment of three justices resulted in a more literal interpretation of the Constitution in its rulings – a change that reversed the Roe v. Wade abortion ruling, ended race-based college admission policies and overruled Biden’s attempt to drop $400 billion in taxpayer-backed student loans from the federal books, as well as limiting the authority of federal regulatory agencies. Schmidt said Biden’s plan wasn’t about reform – it was about motivating progressive stalwarts to support Kamala Harris.
“The new Biden-Harris plan is not court ‘reform’,” Schmidt said. “It’s their latest attack on the Supreme Court designed to motivate their far-left base. It’s a bad idea, and it won’t work.”
“What we need is the ‘Keep Nine Amendment,’ which I long have supported, to prevent court packing and similar political maneuvers that attack our democracy by undermining the Supreme Court’s independence,” Schmidt said.
Schmidt’s no stranger to the USSC. He argued three successful cases before the high court as Kansas Attorney General and second-chaired four others.
Dane Hicks is a graduate of the University of Missouri School of Journalism and the United States Marine Corps Officer Candidate School at Quantico, VA. He is the author of novels "The Skinning Tree" and "A Whisper For Help." As publisher of the Anderson County Review in Garnett, KS., he is a recipient of the Kansas Press Association's Boyd Community Service Award as well as more than 60 awards for excellence in news, editorial and photography.
