Kansas Republican exploits fear of imaginary ‘axis of ballot harvesting' to gain political advantage
Kansas Rep. Pat Proctor, a Republican from Leavenworth, speaks to House members during an April 10, 2025, debate. (Sherman Smith/Kansas Reflector)
TOPEKA — As Kansas Rep. Pat Proctor launched his campaign to oversee state elections, he honed in on a signature phrase that would serve his interest of dismissing critics — and reporting by Kansas Reflector — while appealing to far-right voters.
His ambiguous 'axis of ballot harvesting' serves as a catchall for anyone who challenges his false claims about the hazards of early voting, and signals a vast make-believe conspiracy by foreign nationals to undermine elections.
Proctor frequently repeats the phrase on the campaign trail, and used it in a fundraising message where he suggested a new law could be used to bring criminal or civil charges against Kansas Reflector.
When video surfaced in April of Proctor asserting that women stole the 2022 election on abortion, he falsely claimed the video had been doctored by voting rights advocates at the core of the so-called 'axis.'
And when three nonprofits filed a lawsuit in early May to challenge new restrictions on early voting, Proctor exclaimed on social media: 'The axis of ballot harvesting strikes again!'
The Leavenworth Republican declined to answer questions from Kansas Reflector seeking clarity about his contradictory comments and a definition of 'the axis of ballot harvesting,' echoing President George W. Bush's use of 'axis of evil' to describe nations propping up terrorism in the early 2000s. Proctor, a retired Army colonel serving his third, two-year term in the state House, also declined to identify an example of anything Kansas Reflector has published that is inaccurate.
Instead, Proctor responded with the following statement: 'Here's a quote for you: 'You are a partisan hack and your so-called 'newspaper' is a woke, leftist propaganda rag.' Thanks for the opportunity to comment.'
The response is consistent with Proctor's frequent criticism — including personal attacks on social media — of journalists who accurately report on him.
So far, Proctor is the only Republican to file for secretary of state in next year's election cycle. The job involves overseeing voter registration in Kansas and guiding county-level administrators on election policy.
Republican Rep. Ken Rahjes, of Agra, plans to join the race. In an interview, Rahjes didn't criticize Proctor. Rahjes said he is focused on 'making sure our elections are safe, secure, and that Kansans have confidence that their vote is counted.'
'If you look at the outcomes of the last three presidential elections in Kansas, Donald Trump has won all three,' Rahjes said. 'It looks like those elections have turned out the way that the people in Kansas have wanted.'
In contrast, Proctor calls for restrictions on early voting — even though he acknowledges that he personally enjoys the convenience of voting early. And after launching his campaign for secretary of state in early April, Proctor has criticized voting rights groups — Loud Light, Kansas Appleseed, League of Women Voters and the American Civil Liberties Union of Kansas — who challenge his proposals in legislative hearings and in court.
Loud Light circulated on social media a video clip of Proctor speaking at a June 20, 2024, forum on elections that was published on Rumble, the far-right alternative to YouTube.
During the forum, Proctor recalled the fierce campaign ahead of Kansas' August 2022 vote on abortion rights. Kansans overwhelmingly rejected a constitutional amendment to strip those rights, and post-election audits and recounts affirmed the integrity of the election. Illegal voting is exceedingly rare in Kansas, as a federal judge ruled in 2018, as it is in the rest of the U.S.
But Proctor said he was going around to polling places in advance of the August 2022 election, 'and there's, like, all these, like, women, like 20- to 30-year-old women who, you know, that you never saw at the polls before, and it's like a long line, got a long line, and they're all there to vote, and it's just the — it's they're stealing it fair and square.'
The Loud Light clip was unaltered, but when Proctor was asked during an April 19 town hall in Leavenworth to explain his comments, he replied: 'That'd be really terrible if I'd actually said that.'
'They chopped up a video to make it look like I said that 20- and 30-year-old women were stealing the election by voting, or something like that,' Proctor said.
Melissa Stiehler, advocacy director for Loud Light, said in an interview that she was bothered by Proctor's willingness to 'drift further away from the truth' and 'really embrace things that he knows to be lies.'
'We've had these conversations behind closed doors in the past. He knows that these things aren't true, and yet he's embracing this culture of conspiracy theories for his own political gain, which is desperate and shameless,' Stiehler said.
In an April 12 fundraising email, Proctor warned of 'a shadowy collection of groups I call the 'axis of ballot harvesting.'' His targets included Loud Light and States Newsroom, the parent organization of Kansas Reflector.
Proctor's email said Kansas Reflector 'is part of a vast, dark money, left-wing propaganda machine called States Newsroom.' He said 'a significant percentage of that organization's funding' comes from foreign sources, including the Swiss businessman Hansjörg Wyss.
States Newsroom follows all laws regarding nonprofits and does not accept donations from foreign-based entities. The U.S.-based Wyss Foundation's $1.14 million grant to States Newsroom in 2020 has never been a secret. On its website, States Newsroom publishes an extensive list of donors who have contributed more than $1,000, as well as its 990 tax forms. The organization's annual fundraising exceeds $20 million to support nonprofit news operations, including Kansas Reflector, in 39 states.
'As Chair of the House Committee on Elections, in response to this threat, I introduced House Bill 2106 to begin the process of getting foreign money completely out of Kansas politics,' Proctor wrote. 'This first-step bill requires organizations campaigning for or against constitutional amendments to ensure and certify that they have not accepted foreign money over the preceding four years or face serious civil and criminal consequences.'
He then said the law would prevent 'foreign nationals like Hansjörg Wyss from improperly influencing Kansas elections.'
HB 2106 requires any entity 'who engages in any activity promoting or opposing' a proposed constitutional amendment to certify that each donor is not a 'foreign national,' and that each donor has not received more than $100,000 from any foreign national within a four-year period.
Kansas Reflector reports on the stakes of policies and elections but doesn't advocate for or against ballot questions or candidates.
Proctor offered a different interpretation of the law during a Feb. 4 hearing in his committee, where Ohio Secretary of State Frank LaRose appeared via video to complain about States Newsroom.
'We are not about to legislate who can spend money doing news in the state of Kansas, OK. We're not going to touch that with a 10-foot pole,' Proctor said at the time.
The Legislature adopted the bill with veto-proof bipartisan support — 94-25 in the House and 39-0 in the Senate — in advance of next year's vote on a constitutional amendment that would replace the current nominating system for Kansas Supreme Court justices with statewide elections for judicial candidates. Democratic Gov. Laura Kelly allowed HB 2106 to become law without her signature.
An abortion-rights advocacy group has filed a federal lawsuit to try to block the law from taking effect.
Stiehler said Proctor's language in the fundraising email was 'really teetering on the line of at least some dog whistle language of antisemitic, globalist conspiracy theories.'
'This is a lot of hullabaloo,' she said. 'He's making up a fake problem and making up a fake enemy to try and create and drive the fear, to prove that only he is the one to fix it. And it's all based on lies and nonsense.'
Try Our AI Features
Explore what Daily8 AI can do for you:
Comments
No comments yet...
Related Articles
Bloomberg
10 minutes ago
- Bloomberg
Thai Premier Won't Quit to Save Government, Ruling Party Says
Thai Prime Minister Paetongtarn Shinawatra will not resign or dissolve parliament, her party said Saturday, amid reports the leader may step down to keep the ruling coalition in power and to end a political crisis triggered by comments she had made that were critical of the army. Speculation that Paetongtarn would accept proposals from coalition parties to quit or dissolve parliament after the passage of the budget bill 'are completely untrue,' Sorawong Thienthong, secretary-general of Pheu Thai Party, said in a post on Facebook.
New York Post
11 minutes ago
- New York Post
Rhode Island lawmakers pass bill to ban sales of assault weapons
Rhode Island's Democratic-controlled state House on Friday approved legislation that would ban the sale and manufacturing of many semiautomatic rifles commonly referred to as assault weapons. The proposal now heads to the desk of Democratic Gov. Dan McKee, who said in a post on the social platform X on Friday evening that he plans to sign the bill into law. If that happens, Rhode Island will join 10 states that have some sort of prohibition on high-powered firearms that were once banned nationwide and are now largely the weapon of choice among those responsible for most of the country's devastating mass shootings. Advertisement 3 Rhode Island's state House approved legislation that would ban the sale and manufacturing of assault weapons. AP Gun control advocates have been pushing for an assault weapons ban in Rhode Island for more than a decade. However, despite being a Democratic stronghold, lawmakers throughout the country's smallest state have long quibbled over the necessity and legality of such proposals. Advertisement The bill only applies to the sale and manufacturing of assault weapons and not possession. Only Washington state has a similar law. Residents looking to purchase an assault weapon from nearby New Hampshire or elsewhere will also be blocked. Federal law prohibits people from traveling to a different state to purchase a gun and returning it to a state where that particular of weapon is banned. Advertisement Nine states and the District of Columbia have bans on the possession of assault weapons, covering major cities like New York and Los Angeles. Hawaii bans assault pistols. 3 Two men inspected AR-10s for sale at the Belle-Clair Fairgrounds & Expo Center Gun Show in Belleville, Ill. REUTERS Democratic Rep. Rebecca Kislak described the bill during floor debates Friday as an incremental move that brings Rhode Island in line with neighboring states. 'I am gravely disappointed we are not doing more, and we should do more,' she said. 'And given the opportunity to do this or nothing, I am voting to do something.' Advertisement Critics of Rhode Island's proposed law argued that assault weapons bans do little to curb mass shootings and only punish people with such rifles. 'This bill doesn't go after criminals, it just puts the burden on law-abiding citizens,' said Republican Sen. Thomas Paolino. Republican Rep. Michael Chippendale, House minority leader, predicted that if the legislation were to become law, the US. Supreme Court would eventually deem it unconstitutional. 'We are throwing away money on this,' he said. It wasn't just Republicans who opposed the legislation. David Hogg — a gun control advocate who survived the 2018 school shooting in Parkland, Florida — and the Rhode Island Coalition Against Gun Violence described the proposed ban as the 'weakest assault weapons ban in the country.' 'I know that Rhode Islanders deserve a strong bill that not only bans the sale, but also the possession of assault weapons. It is this combination that equals public safety,' Hogg said in a statement. 3 A crowd of gun-rights advocates filled the State House rotunda in Rhode Island in March to protest a proposed ban on the manufacture and sale of assault-style weapons. David DelPoio/The Providence Journal / USA TODAY NETWORK via Imagn Images Advertisement Elisabeth Ryan, policy counsel at Everytown for Gun Safety, rejected claims that the proposed law is weak. 'The weakest law is what Rhode Island has now, no ban on assault weapons,' Ryan said. 'This would create a real, enforceable ban on the sale and manufacture of assault weapons, just like the law already working in Washington state, getting them off the shelves of Rhode Island gun stores once and for all.' Nationally, assault weapons bans have been challenged in court by gun rights groups that argue the bans violate the Second Amendment. AR-15-style firearms are among the best-selling rifles in the country. The conservative-majority Supreme Court may soon take up the issue. Advertisement The justices declined to hear a challenge to Maryland's assault weapons ban in early June, but three conservative justices — Samuel Alito, Neil Gorsuch and Clarence Thomas — publicly noted their disagreement. A fourth, Brett Kavanaugh, indicated he was skeptical that the bans are constitutional and predicted the court would hear a case 'in the next term or two.'
American Military News
34 minutes ago
- American Military News
Video: Proposed illegal immigrant detention center unveiled as ‘Alligator Alcatraz'
Florida Attorney General James Uthmeier, a Republican, recently proposed that the state create a new detention center for illegal immigrants at an old airport surrounded by the Everglades. Uthmeier suggested that the detention center could be called 'Alligator Alcatraz.' In a Thursday video shared on X, formerly Twitter, Uthmeier told Florida's Voice that the Miami-Dade Collier Training Facility, which he described as an 'old, virtually abandoned airport facility right in the middle of the Everglades,' could be transformed into an illegal immigrant detention center. 'Florida's been leading on immigration enforcement, supporting the Trump administration and ICE efforts to detain and deport criminal aliens,' Uthmeier stated. 'The governor tasked state leaders to identify places for new temporary detention facilities. I think this is the best one, as I call it, 'Alligator Alcatraz.'' 'This 30-square-mile area is completely surrounded by the Everglades,' Uthemeier added. '[It] presents an efficient, low-cost opportunity to build a temporary detention facility because you don't need to invest that much in the perimeter. People get out. There's not much waiting for them other than alligators and pythons. Nowhere to go, nowhere to hide.' READ MORE: Trump tells ICE to focus deportations on 'core' of 'Democrat Power Center' Uthmeier explained that if the Miami-Dade Collier Training Facility was approved as a new detention facility for illegal immigrants, the facility could be 'up and running' within a period of 30 to 60 days. The Florida attorney general explained in the video that 'Alligator Alcatraz' could hold up to 1,000 'criminal aliens' if it is approved as an immigration detention facility. Uthmeier added that the facility could be ready to go in 30 to 60 days. Fox Business reported that the Miami-Dade Collier Training Facility would be Florida's largest detention facility for illegal immigrants if it is approved. 'This presents a great opportunity for the state of Florida to work with Miami-Dade and Collier counties,' Uthmeier concluded in the video. 'Alligator Alcatraz – we're ready to go.' Alligator Alcatraz: the one-stop shop to carry out President Trump's mass deportation agenda. — Attorney General James Uthmeier (@AGJamesUthmeier) June 19, 2025
