In tough Kansas congressional race, one side has raised and spent more than double the other
Democratic Rep. Sharice Davids has raised and spent more than twice as much as Republican challenger Amanda Adkins, as the two are engaged in a tight contest to represent Kansas’ 3rd Congressional District that could determine which party controls the House for the next two years.
Davids, a Democrat who has held the seat since 2018, raised $2,050,835 between July and September, bringing the total she’s raised over the course of the campaign to $6.8 million. She’s spent about $5.9 million on the election so far, which is 2.5 times the $2.2 million Adkins, a former state Republican chair, has spent.
Adkins, a former Cerner executive, raised $899,605 between July and September for a total of $3.1 million over the course of her campaign. She’s spent about $2.2 million on the election.
Davids had a slight cash advantage heading into the final months of the campaign, with $1.5 million on hand compared to Adkins’ $928,790.
“It has been great watching our team grow in size and support as we head into election day,” Davids said in a press release. “I’m grateful for the continued grassroots energy in this campaign, and look forward to making progress on the issues that matter to our community, from lowering costs to protecting reproductive rights.”
Adkins’ campaign said her nearly $1 million on hand made the race more competitive.
“We look forward to electing a congresswoman who puts the needs of Kansans first, not one who is bought by out-of-state dollars while voting for policies that harm her constituents,” said Anna Mathews, Adkins’ campaign manager.
The 3rd Congressional District is one of the most competitive races in the country and will help determine which political party controls the House for the next two years. While Davids beat Adkins by 10 percentage points in 2020, the lines of the district were redrawn to cut out part of Wyandotte County and add Republican voters in the south, shrinking Davids’ advantage.
With control of Congress at stake, the two political parties have poured additional money into the race in attack ads. The Congressional Leadership Fund, a political action committee aligned with House Minority Leader Kevin McCarthy, has spent more than $2.1 million on the race, according to the site Open Secrets, which tracks money in politics.
The group launched a new ad on Sunday criticizing Davids over the economy and high prices.
The Democratic Party’s equivalent organization, the House Majority PAC, has spent $441,114 helping Davids, while the Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee has spent more than $1.5 million on her behalf.
While national Democrats haven’t matched the spending of national Republicans in the race, Davids has gotten help from outside groups like the National Association of Realtors, a climate advocacy group called the LCV Victory Fund, a Democratic group called SHIELD PAC and the abortion rights group EMILY’s List.
The National Republican Congressional Committee has not spent any money on behalf of Adkins. She does, however, have the support of a political action committee called Heartland USA which is backed by wealthy Kansas donors, among them David Kensinger, who was a longtime adviser to former Gov. Sam Brownback. Adkins managed Brownback’s 2004 Senate campaign.
In 2020 Democrats criticized Adkins because her father, Mark Landes, donated $400,000 to the PAC. In the 2022 campaign, Landes, a retired president of St. Joseph-based Herzog Construction has not donated to the PAC, though he could have put in money in October, when the PAC picked up its ad spending. Campaign finance reports filed this weekend only cover fundraising through Sept. 30.
More than $3 million has been spent attacking Adkins, while $1.7 million has been spent attacking Davids.
About a quarter of Davids’ fundraising has come from political action committees and other political organizations making transfers to her campaign. She’s gotten support from airline groups, like the American Pilots Association, from other Democratic members of Congress like Rep. Jamie Raskin, who led the argument for the second impeachment of President Donald Trump, and NARAL, an abortion rights group.
She’s also gotten support from the Human Rights Campaign and the Equality Project, as one of only 11 members of Congress who are openly LGBTQ, and from Native American groups, as one of only five Native American members of Congress.
Adkins has also raised about a quarter of her money from political action committees.
The candidates are backed by competing interests in the battle over campaign finance reform. Davids received money from the group End Citizens United, which pushed for campaign finance reform, while Adkins got money from Citizens United Political Victory.
Citizens United was a 2010 U.S. Supreme Court ruling that put campaign donations in the same category as free speech and has led to an outpouring of hard-to-track money in elections. A recent effort at campaign finance reform failed in the U.S. Senate on party lines, with Democrats voting in favor and Republicans opposing the bill.
Adkins made two trips to the Washington, D.C. area, according to hotel expenses, and held an event at the Capitol Hill Club, a membership only club for Republicans just blocks from the Capitol. She also paid for hotel rooms in Dallas, Texas and Omaha, Neb., typically a sign of a campaign fundraising event. Davids paid for hotel rooms in San Francisco and Los Angeles during the same period.
This story was originally published October 17, 2022 at 12:48 PM.
