TOPEKA, Kan. (AP) Organizers of today’s Farm-City Days parade decided Friday night that they won’t stop Republican candidate Kris Kobach from having a replica machine gun on a jeep after initially objecting to a key symbol of his campaign for governor and support for gun rights.
The organizing committee for Iola’s Farm City Days previously told Kobach’s campaign that it would have to remove the replica gun. But Kobach, the Kansas secretary of state, said Friday that requiring him to ride without the machine gun mounted on back would violate his free-speech rights.
Daniel Schowengerdt, attorney for the parade’s organizing committee, said Kobach “was coming regardless” to Saturday’s parade with the jeep and the committee’s volunteers never intended to “forcibly prevent him from entering.”
