WASHINGTON, DC – In an interview with Democratic AG nominees journalist Natalie Fertig, Democratic AG candidates Chris Mann of Kansas and Nate Willems of Iowa discussed their approach and campaign priorities as they seek to flip these midwestern AG offices.

“[Nate] Willems, a labor lawyer and former state representative, wants to strengthen the state’s consumer protection division and tackle wage theft. He also plans to take on polluters breaking air and water quality laws in the state,” Fertig wrote.

“‘Kansas is owed over a billion dollars in tax money that’s being withheld by the federal government,’” Mann told Fertig. “Kobach declined to join lawsuits brought by other states that would have pressured the federal government into disbursing that funding, something Mann says he would have done differently.”

Key highlights:

• “Attorneys general have become the vanguard of blue states’ fight against President Donald Trump for the last two years, suing over immigration policies, tariffs, health funding cuts and more.”
• “Sabato’s Crystal Ball on Thursday shifted the AG races in Georgia and Iowa from ‘lean Republican’ to ‘toss-up.’”
• “‘I’m seeing a lot of folks across the state who are tired of politics as usual, and this is in rural communities and urban suburban areas. Folks are just tired of people pushing political agendas,’ Mann said. ‘Candidates who are matching up with that are motivating people in all states to come out and vote.’”
• “‘I truly don’t believe that this office should be Team Red or Team Blue,’ Mann told me. A former police officer, Mann argues he can do better than Republican Attorney General Kris Kobach of supporting Kansas law enforcement on major cases.”
• “‘It’s a top priority for the AG’s office to resume doing its job in working with the Department of Natural Resources to seek meaningful fines against polluters,’ [Willems] said, ‘so that there’s a real deterrent, a real credible deterrent to bad behavior.’”
• “‘I’m not running for Attorney General because I want to sue the government every 10 minutes,’ Willems said. He plans to review federal lawsuits filed by current Iowa Attorney General Brenna Bird, a Republican, and withdraw suits he considers a bad use of Iowa’s resources.”
• “‘Kansas is owed over a billion dollars in tax money that’s being withheld by the federal government,’ said Mann.”
• “Mann added that he would have challenged Trump’s tariffs if he were in office last year. ‘We’ve lost over 700 farms just in the past year, and our producers…. They need open markets. They need affordable inputs. It’s really simple math.’”
• “Willems, meanwhile, said Bird should not have provided Iowa voter rolls to the federal government. ‘Dozens of states … successfully pushed back on that. Brenna Bird did not even try,’ he said, calling it ‘the best example of Brenna Bird [doing] whatever is asked of her by the White House, and not standing up for Iowans.’”

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