US Midterms 2026
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Derek Schmidt, a Republican who served as Kansas attorney general from 2011 to 2023 and has represented Kansas's 2nd congressional district since 2025, seeks re-election in 2026 against Democrat Don Coover.
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Recent media coverage for Derek Schmidt.
Former Kansas Attorney General Derek Schmidt has entered the race for Kansas’ 2nd Congressional District, signaling a clear strong candidacy and potentially reshaping the field.
Derek Schmidt attended the Kansas GOP bus tour stop for the Shawnee County GOP Eisenhower Dinner, joining Attorney General Kris Kobach at the event.
The article reports that the Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee (DCCC) added eight target districts to its midterm map, aiming to flip seats currently held by Republicans or an open seat.
The article reports on Kansas City, Kansas government news about the debut of the first single-section CrossMod infill homes in a ribbon-cutting near Klamm Park.
Derek Schmidt is the NFIB-endorsed incumbent candidate for Kansas’s 2nd Congressional District (KS-02) in the U.S. House of Representatives.
No story this week names this candidate.
Derek Schmidt was born on January 23, 1968. He graduated from the University of Kansas with a Bachelor of Arts in 1990 and then earned a Master of Arts in international politics from the University of Leicester in England. He went on to receive a Juris Doctor from the Georgetown University Law Center and a Doctor of Juridical Science from the University of Kansas.
Before running for office, Derek Schmidt worked as a legislative assistant to Republican U.S. Senator Nancy Kassebaum of Kansas, as an assistant Kansas attorney general and as special counsel to Governor Bill Graves. Voters elected him to the Kansas Senate in 2000, and he represented the 15th district from 2001 to 2011, chairing the Agriculture Committee and serving as Senate majority leader from 2004 through 2010.
In the 2010 race for Kansas attorney general, Schmidt defeated Ralph DeZago in the Republican primary on August 3 and then beat the Democratic incumbent, Stephen Six, taking office on January 10, 2011. He won re-election against A.J. Kotich in 2014 and Sarah G. Swain in 2018, serving until 2023.
As attorney general he joined other Republican state attorneys general in lawsuits against Obama administration regulations, including the Clean Power Plan, and added Kansas as a plaintiff in the challenge to the Affordable Care Act.
Schmidt was the Republican nominee for governor of Kansas in 2022 and narrowly lost to the Democratic incumbent, Laura Kelly. He has represented Kansas's 2nd congressional district in the U.S. House since 2025.
Derek Schmidt is running for re-election in Kansas's 2nd congressional district, which stretches across much of eastern Kansas from Nebraska to Oklahoma and includes Topeka, Emporia, Junction City and Pittsburg. He won the seat in 2024 with 57.1% of the vote.
In the Republican primary he defeated Chad Young, a candidate for the district in 2024, by 79.9% to 20.1%. In the general election on November 3, 2026, Schmidt faces Democrat Don Coover, a veterinarian, and Libertarian John Hauer.
