Kansas Office of the Attorney General issued the following announcement on Jan. 14.
In a ceremony on the south steps of the Statehouse, Kansas Attorney General Derek Schmidt today took the oath of office to begin his third term.
Joined by his wife, Jennifer, and their two daughters, Schmidt was sworn in by the chief justice of the Kansas Supreme Court. He used a family bible that was a gift from Schmidt’s great-grandmother to Schmidt’s grandfather.
Reelected in November to a third four-year term, Schmidt today became the second longest-serving of the 44 attorneys general in state history. Only Bob Stephan served longer.
Since taking office in 2011, Schmidt has worked to strengthen the consumer-protection work of the office and has made combating human trafficking and elder abuse key priorities. He has worked to modernize many of the operations and capacities of the attorney general’s office and has advocated for the needs of the Kansas Bureau of Investigation, including construction of a new forensic-science laboratory on the campus of Washburn University and establishment of the Child Victims Unit and the new Northeast Child Victims Task Force. He also has successfully challenged numerous illegal federal regulatory actions such as the EPA’s overreaching WOTUS Rule that proposed new federal controls over large swaths of private property.
Schmidt said in the new term he intends to remain focused on similar priorities.
Before serving as attorney general, Schmidt served 10 years as a Kansas state senator, including four years as chairman of the Senate Agriculture Committee and the last six years as the Republican majority leader. He is a former assistant to Kansas Governor Bill Graves and U.S. Senator Nancy Kassebaum.
Schmidt was elected by his peers nationwide to serve as president of the National Association of Attorneys General and has received numerous awards for his leadership for public safety. He has personally and successfully argued two Kansas murder cases before the U.S. Supreme Court.
A native of Independence, Schmidt is a fifth-generation Kansan.
Original source can be found here.