Current:Home > ScamsThe GOP expects to keep Kansas’ open House seat. Democratic Rep. Davids looks tough to beat -Profound Wealth Insights
The GOP expects to keep Kansas’ open House seat. Democratic Rep. Davids looks tough to beat
View
Date:2025-04-18 15:09:11
Follow live: Updates from AP’s coverage of the presidential election.
TOPEKA, Kan. (AP) — Republicans expected a former Kansas attorney general’s political comeback in Tuesday’s election to keep an open U.S. House seat in GOP hands while the party faced a tougher challenge in trying to oust the only Democrat in the state’s congressional delegation.
Republican Derek Schmidt sought the 2nd Congressional District seat held by retiring two-term Republican Rep. Jake LaTurner. Schmidt, who served three terms as attorney general, was coming off a narrow loss in the 2022 governor’s race and faced Nancy Boyda, making her own comeback bid as the last Democrat to hold the seat.
In the 3rd District in the Kansas City area, Democratic Rep. Sharice Davids faced Republican Prasanth Reddy, a doctor and former vice president of two medical research companies. Most of the district’s voters are in suburbs that have been friendly to Davids.
In the state’s two other districts, Republican Reps. Tracey Mann and Ron Estes were expected to win reelection comfortably.
Democrats have held the 2nd District seat previously, but not since Boyda served a single, two-year term and lost her race for reelection in 2008. LaTurner won both of his two terms by about 15 percentage points and would have likely cruised to victory again, but he announced in April that he wanted to spend more time with his children.
Schmidt is often affable in public, and he worked early in his career for two moderate Republicans, U.S. Sen. Nancy Kassebaum Baker and Gov. Bill Graves, before serving in the state Senate and being elected attorney general in 2010. That’s created lingering distrust among hard-right Republicans.
But Schmidt easily won a five-person primary this year — partly because former President Donald Trump declared in a social media endorsement post that Schmidt was “An America First Patriot” and, “HE WILL NEVER LET YOU DOWN!”
In the 3rd District, Davids gained national attention when she unseated a Republican incumbent in 2018 as a Native American, lesbian and former mixed martial arts fighter. Republicans still lump her in with the most liberal members of Congress. Her vocal support of abortion rights helps in her district, but she’s also positioned herself as a business-friendly and pragmatic centrist.
The key to a 3rd District victory is heavily suburban Johnson County, the state’s most populous county. Trump’s support has waned there since his victory in the 2016 presidential race, hurting Republicans, while Davids’ margins of victory have grown.
The 1st District that Mann represents includes the liberal northeastern Kansas enclave of Lawrence, home to the main University of Kansas campus, but its influence can’t overcome the GOP’s strength in the rest of the district covering the state’s western third and much of central Kansas. Mann is a former Kansas lieutenant governor who’s had no trouble winning his two previous terms.
His Democratic opponent was Paul Buskirk, an academic counselor and adviser for student athletes at the University of Kansas.
The 4th District of south-central Kansas is centered on Estes’ hometown of Wichita, and he’s a former two-term state treasurer. He’s held the seat since winning a special election in 2017 to replace Mike Pompeo, who was appointed by Trump to be CIA director and later U.S. secretary of state.
His Democratic opponent is Esau Freeman, a painter and union leader who is best known for advocating the legalization of marijuana.
veryGood! (72673)
Related
- 'Vanderpump Rules' star DJ James Kennedy arrested on domestic violence charges
- North Carolina native Eric Church releases Hurricane Helene benefit song 'Darkest Hour'
- Ryan Reynolds Makes Hilarious Case for Why Taking Kids to Pumpkin Patch Is Where Joy Goes to Die
- Kourtney Kardashian and Travis Barker's NSFW Halloween Decorations Need to Be Seen to Be Believed
- 'No Good Deed': Who's the killer in the Netflix comedy? And will there be a Season 2?
- Washington state fines paper mill $650,000 after an employee is killed
- After the deluge, the lies: Misinformation and hoaxes about Helene cloud the recovery
- Eminem's Daughter Hailie Jade Shares Clever Way She Hid Her Pregnancy at Her Wedding
- Average rate on 30
- Opinion: Please forgive us, Europe, for giving you bad NFL games
Ranking
- 'Malcolm in the Middle’ to return with new episodes featuring Frankie Muniz
- Love Is Blind’s Hannah Reveals What She Said to Brittany After Costar Accepted Leo’s Proposal
- MLB playoffs: Four pivotal players for ALDS and NLDS matchups
- How Texas Diminished a Once-Rigorous Air Pollution Monitoring Team
- Tree trimmer dead after getting caught in wood chipper at Florida town hall
- Virginia man charged with defacing monument during Netanyahu protests in DC
- Ruby Franke's Daughter Slams Trash Lifetime Movie About Her Family
- Search for missing 22-year-old Yellowstone employee scaled back to recovery mission
Recommendation
North Carolina justices rule for restaurants in COVID
Georgia football coach Kirby Smart's new 10-year, $130 million deal: More contract details
A Texas execution is renewing calls for clemency. It’s rarely granted
California vineyard owner says he was fined $120K for providing free housing to his employee
Most popular books of the week: See what topped USA TODAY's bestselling books list
Mexican immigrant families plagued by grief, questions after plant workers swept away by Helene
Ex-Detroit Lions quarterback Greg Landry dies at 77
What's in the new 'top-secret' Krabby Patty sauce? Wendy's keeping recipe 'closely guarded'