Redistricting has caused a Kansas swing U.S. House district to tilt in partisan makeup towards the GOP.
Kansas’ 3rd Congressional District, long-considered a swing district, went from a D+4 partisan rating prior to redistricting to a R+3 according to Nate Silver’s FiveThirtyEight ratings system.
The Cook Political Report currently gives the race a Tossup status.
KS-3 is currently represented by Sharice Davids, who has served in the U.S. House since 2019. Davids was first elected in 2018, defeating then-incumbent GOP U.S. Representative Kevin Yoder by almost 10 percentage points. David became the first Democrat to represent Kansas in the U.S. House in eight years.
Davids voted to impeach President Trump, was a vice-chair of the 2020 Democrat National Convention, and is a rubber-stamp for the Biden agenda. She has voted with the Biden administration 100 percent of the time.
According to FEC records, Davids has raised $2,880,338.43 and has a war chest of $2,384,611.74 cash on hand in the bank as of the December 31, 2021 deadline.
The Republican favorite is former Kansas GOP Chair and 2020 nominee, Amanda Adkins. FEC records show that there are no other significant GOP challengers to Davids at this time. For her part, Adkins has raised $1,272,896.70 and has $1,044,445.37 on hand.
Adkins is participating in the NRCC Young Guns candidate program, having achieved the highest level of Young Gun. The NRCC is targeting KS-3.
On her campaign website, Adkins highlights fiscal responsibility, the China threat, freedom of healthcare choice, border security, national defense, infrastructure, protecting the unborn, the 2nd Amendment, and protecting the U.S. Constitution as issues that are important to her.
The NRCC describes Adkins as “a leader in business innovation, a mother, and health care champion. Adkins is the former chairwoman of the Kansas Republican Party, where she achieved unprecedented election success while serving two terms from 2009-2013.”
It also discusses her work promoting conservative women in politics. “Her tenure in politics is marked by promotion of women in leadership positions. Adkins is co-founder of the Dwight D. Eisenhower Excellence in Public Service Series, whose mission is to prepare Republican women to seek greater involvement in leadership, government and politics.”
The Republicans will decide their official nominee on August 2, 2022.
The NRCC has pushed back against Davids’ recent claim about her work on on gas prices in Kansas, where she said that she has “been focused on concrete solutions to rising prices and to inflation in the long term. Every time Kansans are filling their tank, they know who’s really on their side.”
A release says that “Davids has voted for Biden’s spending sprees that forced Kansans to deal with 40-year high inflation.” NRCC Spokeswoman Maggie Abboud is quoted as saying, “Kansas voters know whenever they have to pay more for gas or groceries, Sharice Davids and Democrats’ reckless policies are to blame.”
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Aaron Gulbransen is a reporter at The Star News Network. Email tips to [email protected]. Follow Aaron on GETTR.
Photo “Amanda Adkins” by Amanda Adkins for Congress. Background Photo “U.S. Capitol” by Carol M. Highsmith.
