June 3, 2018

Kris Kobach Just Went on Parade With a Machine Gun

It was a replica, but the stunt didn’t go over well at a family friendly event.

Pete Marovich/ZUMA

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It is tradition for candidates for political office to spend their weekend mornings marching in small-town parades, shaking hands and kissing babies. But on Saturday, Kansas Secretary of the State Kris Kobach—who is seeking the Republican nomination for governor—did it with a twist: He rode the Johnson County Old Shawnee Day Parade in a red-white-and-blue Jeep…with a five-foot-long replica machine gun on top.

Yes, really:

Kobach’s stunt didn’t go over so well. The city of Shawnee, Kansas, which hosted the parade, issued a statement distancing itself from the secretary of state: “In no way does this or any parade entry or float directly reflect the views and values of the City, the Old Shawnee Days Board or the Old Shawnee Days Society.” A local pastor wrote on Facebook that “[t]here was an audible gasp from the parents seated around us (whom we did not know) when he drove by and attempts to distract their children,” and called the stunt “completely unnecessary and insensitive and out of place at this family friendly event.”

Kobach, an architect of the national self-deportation movement and a leader of voter suppression tactics who was recently held in contempt of court for violating a judge’s order to register voters, is an ardent gun-rights advocate. But the second amendment doesn’t actually cover machine guns, which are highly regulated and extremely difficult to legally own in the United States.

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WHO DOESN’T LOVE A POSITIVE STORY—OR TWO?

“Great journalism really does make a difference in this world: it can even save kids.”

That’s what a civil rights lawyer wrote to Julia Lurie, the day after her major investigation into a psychiatric hospital chain that uses foster children as “cash cows” published, letting her know he was using her findings that same day in a hearing to keep a child out of one of the facilities we investigated.

That’s awesome. As is the fact that Julia, who spent a full year reporting this challenging story, promptly heard from a Senate committee that will use her work in their own investigation of Universal Health Services. There’s no doubt her revelations will continue to have a big impact in the months and years to come.

Like another story about Mother Jones’ real-world impact.

This one, a multiyear investigation, published in 2021, exposed conditions in sugar work camps in the Dominican Republic owned by Central Romana—the conglomerate behind brands like C&H and Domino, whose product ends up in our Hershey bars and other sweets. A year ago, the Biden administration banned sugar imports from Central Romana. And just recently, we learned of a previously undisclosed investigation from the Department of Homeland Security, looking into working conditions at Central Romana. How big of a deal is this?

“This could be the first time a corporation would be held criminally liable for forced labor in their own supply chains,” according to a retired special agent we talked to.

Wow.

And it is only because Mother Jones is funded primarily by donations from readers that we can mount ambitious, yearlong—or more—investigations like these two stories that are making waves.

About that: It’s unfathomably hard in the news business right now, and we came up about $28,000 short during our recent fall fundraising campaign. We simply have to make that up soon to avoid falling further behind than can be made up for, or needing to somehow trim $1 million from our budget, like happened last year.

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