A proud constitutional conservative or "the GOP at its worst"?

A fiscally responsible steward of the economy, or a xenophobic dog-whistler?

Rising Republican star Kris Kobach is many things to many people and his run for governor of Kansas in the mid-term elections is being closely watched in the United States, not just for what it means for the unpretentious mid-West state, but also the rest of the nation.

Currently Kansas's Secretary of State, he has been dubbed a mini-Trump, or "Trump before Trump" and shares a style and policies with the President, who he advised on the campaign trail and with whom he continues to talk regularly.

Should he win Kansas, it could become a model for some of the most right-wing policies yet seen in the US.

"Kris Kobach is the nation's leading vote suppressor," Dr Micah Kubic, executive director of the Kansas branch of the American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU), told 7.30.

Dr Micah Kubick describes Kris Kobach as an "anti-immigrant extremist". ( ABC News: Madeleine Morris )

"He's an anti-immigrant extremist who uses every tool available to try and make life difficult for immigrants, to restrict the right to vote, and undermine the values that we share as Americans.

"I think you would see not only policies that Donald Trump wants to implement on a national level, but you would also see policies that would go far beyond anything that Donald Trump has ever proposed or suggested."

Making it harder for illegal immigrants: 'I'll be doing that'

Ana Jimenez, an undocumented migrant, is worried about the prospect of a Kris Kobach victory. ( ABC News )

A law graduate of Harvard, Yale and Oxford, the mantle of right-wing conservative is one Mr Kobach wears with pride.

"It's fair to say at the state-wide level I am probably the most conservative, and I certainly don't back down in my principled views," he told 7.30 on the sidelines of a Republican branch meeting in Kansas.

During his career, Mr Kobach has authored various laws designed to rein in America's estimated 12 million illegal migrants.

"We need to deny welfare benefits to illegal aliens," he said.

"Some states, unfortunately, like California and unfortunately Kansas right now, do allow illegal aliens to get welfare benefits, so I'll be denying those benefits.

"There are ways states can make it harder for those working illegally in our labour market to get jobs. I'll be doing that as well."

It is a prospect which strikes fear into undocumented migrants, who worry a Kris Kobach victory would mean co-operation between local law enforcement and immigration forces to deport them.

"It would mean that I can't drive. It means that I can't get a job anywhere," Ana Jimenez, a 25-year-old Kansas resident who is an undocumented migrant, told 7.30.

"I'll be afraid to go to the police and report a crime if it happened to me. It would mean that if I get sick I can't go to a hospital and request assistance."

Because she came to the US as a child under Obama-era laws, Ms Jimenez is entitled to a social security number to allow her to work, and to pay the same college tuition fees as her citizen peers.

Mr Kobach wants to end the right to cheaper tuition for undocumented students who arrived as children.

This means Ms Jimenez could no longer afford university fees and would have to drop out.

She is fearful this would be just the start of a more hardline approach that would spread across the United States.

"They're really just trying to make us so afraid that we leave."

Stopping 'voter fraud'

Kris Kobach says Donald Trump is "very intent on doing something to stop voter fraud". ( Reuters: Dave Kaup )

Mr Kobach's crusade against illegal immigration was born in the ashes of 9/11 where, as an advisor to then-national security advisor John Ashcroft, he says he became haunted by the knowledge that several of the hijackers were illegally in the US.

It is a mission that plays well at Mr Trump's rallies, where chants of "build that wall" continue to echo through the halls and sports stadiums.

And it plays well in Kansas.

At a local Republican Party meeting in the southern part of Kansas City, where Mr Kobach is rallying the troops, one woman tells 7.30 she welcomes immigrants, but on America's terms.

"I welcome immigration to Kansas but I think it should be done legally too," she said.

"I like what he's done as Secretary of State as far as voter ID."

This is the issue for which this native son of Kansas is best known nationally, as the vice-chair of President Trump's voter fraud commission.

It was set up to weed out the millions of illegal voters who the President believed voted against him.

The commission failed to find evidence of widespread fraud and was dissolved. But the issue continues to be a bugbear of both Mr Trump and his advisor.

"[The President] is very intent on doing something to stop voter fraud," Mr Kobach said.

As Kansas's Secretary of State, Mr Kobach authored the most restrictive voter identification laws in the country, requiring all new voter registrants to provide proof of citizenship, usually in the form of a passport of birth certificate, when registering.

It saw tens of thousands of Kansans disenfranchised, including many university students, and some older people who had been born on farms and never received a birth certificate.

After a legal challenge brought by the ACLU earlier this year the law was overturned as a violation of federal law.

Mr Kobach is appealing against that decision and says he will go all the way to the Supreme Court if need be.

With a new, conservative court appointed, the prospect that eventually this law could change voter registration for the entire country is not out of the question.

"Kansas is a relatively small place where you can experiment with a little more flexibility than other places, regardless of their politics," the ACLU's Dr Kubic said.

"It has been that sort of testing ground.

"There is no doubt that Secretary Kobach would continue that sort of tradition and in a way that is really, really harmful to the country at large."

Next stop the White House?

Despite Kansas being a generally Republican state, a Kobach victory is not assured, with polls currently putting him neck and neck with his Democratic opponent.

Many believe Mr Kobach's ambitions do not just stop at the Governorship of Kansas and, in Trump's America, his brand of nationalist conservatism has a wide base.

But Mr Kobach will not be drawn on a presidential run in 2024.

"At this point I just want to get elected to the office of governor in Kansas," he said.

"I'll see what happens down the road, but I'll be absolutely delighted just to be the governor of Kansas."