KS-03: The Battle for House Control Plays Out in ... Kansas?
The district does have some history of electing Democrats. Moderate Democratic Rep. Dennis Moore held the seat for six terms before Yoder’s election in 2010.
“The 3rd has kind of evolved into a classic 50/50 district but it’s got a lot of Republican muscle memory,” said Howard Bauleke, who was Moore’s chief of staff. “Dennis and Kevin Yoder both really had to walk a tightrope there.”
Yoder described the district as “center-right,” noting that Clinton only carried it by 1 point with 47 percent of the vote, while the district backed Mitt Romney by 10 points in 2012.
For Davids, it’s a district that’s ready for a change.
“Kansas is not just [former GOP Gov.] Sam Brownback. It’s not just Kris Kobach,” she told a group of volunteers in Kansas City on a Sunday last month, referring to this year’s GOP nominee for governor.
“We are way more diverse in our experience and our openness and inclusion than people might realize,” Davids said. “We know it and we’re out knocking on doors to make sure everybody else knows it.”
Volunteers had showed up to canvass for Davids, with several first-timers among them.
Dennis Nicely, a 69-year-old retired banker from Overland Park, supported high school teacher Tom Niermann in the Democratic primary, but wanted to hit the streets for Davids for a specific reason.
“The reason I’m here physically working is because during the last votes to repeal Obamacare I went to Kevin Yoder’s office and I told them, ‘If you vote without even trying to do a replacement, I will actively work against you,’” Nicely recalled.
Several House Republicans facing competitive races voted against the GOP bill to undo much of the 2010 health care law. Yoder wasn’t among them. He also supported the Republican tax overhaul. Democrats believe both votes will be damaging.
Yoder said he’s been willing to buck his party and Trump, citing his statement opposing the administration’s actions separating families illegally crossing the southern border.
But he does have to balance between breaking with Trump when necessary while not to alienating the president’s supporters.
So far he had not turned off Terry Ferris, a pastor and ardent Trump backer who attended the parade.
“He is conservative, he is pro-gun, he is pro-life, he is pro-family,” Ferris, 46, said of Yoder. “And he’s for lowering my taxes, so 100 percent, support him.”
Yoder noted after the parade that he works with Trump “to get things done but I always put my district first.”
“And I contrast that with the left in this election that is focused on impeachment and resistance and obstruction,” Yoder said.
https://www.rollcall.com/news/politics/a-battle-for-house-control-plays-out-in-kansas
SHARICE DAVIDS
https://www.shariceforcongress.com
