AP) — Former state Sen. Jean Schodorf plans to launch her campaign for Kansas secretary of state with an event in Wichita this week.

Schodorf has scheduled a news conference Wednesday at the Drury Plaza Hotel Broadview in downtown Wichita. She’ll be running as a Democrat, hoping to challenge incumbent Republican Kris Kobach in the November 2014 general election.

The former lawmaker from Wichita served 12 years in the state Senate as a Republican and chaired the chamber’s Education Committee.

But Schodorf was a GOP moderate, and conservatives successfully targeted her for defeat in the Republican primary in August 2012. She later switched parties to run for secretary of state.

Mission Hills businessman Randy Rolston also has filed for the Democratic nomination in the August 2014 primary.