DE SOTO, Kan. (AP) — The sheriff in Kansas' most populous county faced no opposition to his reelection four years ago, extending a decades-long Republican
FILE - Johnson County, Kan., Sheriff Calvin Hayden speaks at a news conference, Aug. 27, 2020, in Olathe, Kan. DE SOTO, Kan. — The sheriff in Kansas’ most populous county faced no opposition to his reelection four years ago, extending a decades-long Republican lock on the office despite big gains locally by Democrats during the Trump era. Then he took on election fraud as a cause.
His public doubts about the integrity of local and state elections track with the rise of like-minded leaders in GOP organizations in Kansas and other states and former President Donald Trump’s false narrative that the 2020 presidential election was stolen from him. As in other suburban areas across the U.S., a pro-Trump pedigree is likely to be a political liability in November in Johnson County, a former GOP stronghold where Democratic voter registrations have grown nine times faster than Republican ones since 2016. But the GOP primary electorate in Kansas is far redder and more pro-Trump.
Hayden confirmed his voter fraud investigation in 2022, saying he had been receiving tips about problems since the previous fall. Then, in the summer of 2022, he participated in a conference for a group promoting a dubious theory that sheriffs have virtually unchecked power in their counties, though he says he is not a member.
Bedford suggested the sheriff has broken with a tradition of his office’s 700 employees being “silent professionals” who avoid public attention. “I’m all for investigating crimes,” he said. “But if there is no information to prove a crime, you can’t keep it open.” “You look at what used to be this mighty, dominant Republican base in Johnson County, and it’s just hemorrhaging voters that either unaffiliate or flip Democrat or they just start voting for Democrats,” said Cole Robinson, executive director of the county Democratic Party.
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