GOP Attorneys General Tout Crime Crackdown as Democrats Push Bail Reforms

Republican attorneys general noted steep declines in violent crime and drug overdose deaths as they gathered in Washington on Wednesday.

The Republican Attorneys General Association released findings ahead of the press conference touting numbers that Iowa has seen a 46% reduction in fentanyl deaths since its 2022 peak, while violent sex crimes are down 50% in the state.

In Kansas, fentanyl deaths dropped 17% since 2022, while in West Virginia deaths dropped by 25%.

Overall, crime hit a historic low in Kansas, Kansas Attorney General Kris Kobach said at the National Press Club. The event was held by the Republican Attorneys General Association.

He also noted state law enforcement is working with the U.S. Department of Homeland Security to remove illegal immigrant offenders.

“We immediately started looking for aliens, illegal aliens hiding in plain sight. We looked at our offender registries,” Kobach said. “Every state has tens of thousands of sex offenders who must register where they are living. And these people are available on the internet, public record. We started going through those things, and we had found an alarming number of people who have committed serious crimes like rape, sex crimes against children, crimes of violence, and they are deportable. They should have been deported during prior administrations when they were released from state custody after finishing their sentence. But they were not. We are now going out and arresting them.”

The association also pointed to a decline in child exploitation and trafficking cases, with 331 children rescued in Mississippi and more than 60 rescued in Louisiana.

The attorneys general paid tribute to law enforcement during National Police Week.

“Police deserve our support. With law and order comes safer communities,” Mississippi Attorney General Lynn Fitch said. “With safer communities comes better education, comes stronger economic development, and infrastructure.”

With 30 state attorneys general races in 2026, some noted a contrast with Democratic state attorneys general, who are often interested in “sound bites” policy, for suing various administration policies, Iowa Attorney General Brenna Bird said.

“As attorneys general, we uphold the laws and Constitutions. So we file lawsuits when we need to uphold our constitutional values, and then we also work hard to fight crime,” Bird told The Daily Signal

“So when you look at the choice, the choice couldn’t be clearer. We put boots on the ground, we put prosecution in the courtroom, and real support behind victims of crime as attorneys general,” Bird said. “And it makes a really big difference to whether a park is safe for a child to play in, what kind of safety your neighborhood has, and whether you’re concerned about being a victim of violent crime.”

Democratic Attorneys General Association co-chairs Kwame Raoul of Illinois and Keith Ellison of Minnesota have supported policies such as cash bail reform in their states, which Republicans characterize as soft on crime.

The Democratic Attorneys General Association did not respond to an inquiry from the Daily Signal for this story by publication time.

Fighting fraud is a priority as well, noted West Virginia Attorney General J.B. McCuskey.

“People can’t enjoy the benefits that they’ve earned when it’s being stolen and shipped overseas,” McCuskey said. “Probably more importantly, is all that money is funding terrorism, all that money funding cartels. There is no good end to money that is gotten that way. When we start to talk about cutting off the head of the snake, for these drug cartels, finding the ways that they’re scamming Americans and ruining our programs, and retrieving this money, is wildly important.”