A GOP-aligned group has emerged in Kansas to mount a massive ad campaign to stop the candidacy of Kris Kobach, an anti-immigration firebrand and voter-fraud crusader whose primary campaign has sparked fears among GOP leaders that he could jeopardize a seat crucial to keeping control of the chamber.

Plains PAC filed with the Federal Election Commission on July 1 and has booked more than $2 million in television and radio ads to air from now until August 3, the day before the GOP primary, according to Kantar’s Campaign Media Analysis Group. The group has informed television stations that it plans to drop negative ads against Kobach, according to sources familiar with the effort.

{snip} The group said it will launch a multimedia campaign — worth $3 million — with its first ad emphasizing Kobach’s “ties to white nationalists.”

“Kris Kobach gave Kansans the most liberal governor in our history,” Plains PAC Executive Director CJ Grover said in a statement. “Kansas Republicans support President Trump and his positive vision for America, but not Kobach’s consistent affiliation with a toxic ideology explicitly rejected by the President and Kansans of all stripes. Plains PAC’s mission is to remind primary voters why a vote for Kobach is too big a risk for our future.”

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The group’s FEC filing says its first report is due on August 20.

The group’s media buyer, Mentzer Media Services, has worked on behalf of Republicans, including Senate candidates and the Senate Leadership Fund, a super PAC affiliated with Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell of Kentucky.

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Kobach is facing 10 Republican candidates including his top rival, Rep. Roger Marshall, an obstetrician-gynecologist {snip}

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