Jay Sidie preps for 2018 congressional campaign kickoff

Democrat Jay Sidie said in an email announcement Thursday he plans to kick off his 2018 congressional campaign next month.

“I’ve told people unofficially that I’m running for awhile,” Sidie told The Star Thursday afternoon. “...I just want to kind of make my announcement when I think I can get the most splash from it, but all my supporters and everything are well aware of what my intentions are.”

The Johnson County Democrat ran unsuccessfully against Republican U.S. Rep. Kevin Yoder in 2016 in the race for the 3rd Congressional District seat in Kansas.

The kickoff event is scheduled for Sept. 25, according to the email.

“I’m running and I’m raising money, but I was going to have an official kind of announcement,” Sidie said.

Sidie lost to Yoder by almost 11 points in 2016, claiming 40.5 percent of the vote to Yoder’s 51.3 percent.

“Last year, many of you believed in me, put your time, money, and energy behind me, and we built a coalition that gave Kevin Yoder a run for his money,” Sidie said in an email. “This coalition is our ticket to success in 2018.”

Sidie indicated earlier this year that he planned to run in 2018, though other Democrats have already lined up in an effort to try to win the Democratic nomination and attempt to unseat Yoder.

Those candidates include Andrea Ramsey, Brent Welder and Tom Niermann. Other candidates, including Reggie Marselus and Chris Haulmark, have also filed to run.

When Ramsey announced earlier this year, Sidie told The Star he wanted the party to coalesce around one candidate to pool resources.

“I was willing to step up and fight the battle when nobody else would,” he said at the time. “Now that I’ve moved the ball down the field and we’ve got the party re-energized, people want to jump on the bandwagon.”

Bryan Lowry contributed to this report.

This story was originally published August 24, 2017 at 5:24 PM with the headline "Jay Sidie preps for 2018 congressional campaign kickoff."