In Kansas debate, Republican Adkins attacks Democrat Davids over economy and inflation
Republican nominee Amanda Adkins hammered incumbent Democratic Rep. Sharice Davids over inflation during Tuesday evening’s second and final Kansas 3rd Congressional District debate that focused heavily on the economy.
As Davids attempts to win a third term in the swing district, Adkins has repeatedly tied her to the unpopular President Joe Biden and blamed the Democratic Party for high inflation, a trend that continued as the two argued on stage.
While inflation is high all over the world because of economic disruptions caused by the COVID-19 pandemic and Russia’s invasion of Ukraine, economists say some policies passed by the Democratic Party have contributed to the problem domestically.
“People are scared,” Adkins, a former Cerner executive, said in her closing argument. “They’re scared about the future, they’re looking forward to a recession. I’m a problem solver.”
Davids pointed to efforts the Democrats have made to drive down costs, including legislation to spur domestic manufacturing, allow the government to negotiate for lower drug prices for Medicare recipients and her support for a suspension of the federal gas tax. The latter has not passed one chamber of Congress, but has Biden’s support.
“My mom raised me and my brothers by herself and I know that the anxiety of not being sure if you’re going to be able to feed your kids or fill up your gas tank to get to work, that anxiety is real,” Davids said. “And that’s why I’ve focused on concrete solutions.”
The contest between Adkins and Davids is one of the most competitive in the country and could play a role in deciding which political party controls Congress for the next two years. On Tuesday, the Cook Political Report said the race was leaning in favor of Davids, though FiveThirtyEight calls the race a “dead heat.”
Early voting has already started in Kansas, ahead of Election Day on Nov. 8.
During the debate, which was hosted by Fox 4 and The Star, Adkins criticized Davids for supporting the American Rescue Plan, a $1.9 trillion COVID-19 relief bill that many economists say contributed to high inflation.
Even as Davids tried to stress her moderate credentials by mentioning bills that were passed on a bipartisan basis, she was overshadowed by criticisms of Biden administration policies — from spending bills, to a student debt plan she has criticized to immigration policy.
When the conversation briefly shifted to abortion — an issue that Davids has put at the center of her campaign — Adkins called Davids’ campaign “deceptive” for creating a website that claimed Adkins supports a federal ban on abortion, a claim Adkins has repeatedly denied.
Davids has based the claim on Adkins’ support for a Republican plan that says it would balance the budget in seven years, but also includes support for a federal ban on abortion. Adkins was also chairwoman of the Kansas Republican Party when it adopted a platform that supported a ban on abortion.
When asked whether she would vote for legislation that included a federal ban, Adkins said she would not.
“I have my own solutions and I can support certain provisions of any plan,” Adkins said. “But I’m an independent thinker I may have different opinions on different parts of a plan.”
Adkins said she would try to rein in federal spending and balance the federal budget, though she said she would have supported the 2017 Tax Cuts and Jobs Act pushed by former President Donald Trump, which was projected to add $1.9 trillion to the federal deficit.
When asked if she regretted her vote for the American Rescue Plan, which Adkins criticized, Davids did not answer the question. Instead, she said her focus during the pandemic was making sure she could work in a bipartisan way to keep people healthy and support small businesses. While two major spending bills passed in 2020 were bipartisan, the American Rescue Plan was passed with only Democratic votes.
“You can’t have a healthy economy without healthy people,” Davids said. “And there is a lot of work to be done.”
Meanwhile, Davids pointed to Adkins’ connections to more conservative members of the Republican Party. Adkins managed a 2004 Senate campaign for Sam Brownback and served as state party chair when he was elected governor in 2010.
“You’re not going to get a bipartisan approach from my opponent,” Davids said. “She continues to align herself with extremists.”
Earlier this month, Adkins campaigned in Franklin County with Texas Sen. Ted Cruz, one of the senators who sought to overturn the 2020 presidential election.
When the debate touched on the pandemic’s effect on student achievement, Adkins said she urged Brownback to provide more funding for early childhood education. But she wouldn’t answer when she was asked whether she thought the federal Department of Education was necessary. Davids immediately attempted to connect Adkins to former Education Secretary Betsy DeVos, who argued for cuts to federal education spending.
Adkins also didn’t call for a federal plan to address gun violence, saying she believed the response should be focused around law enforcement, increased support for mental health and more secure schools. Her answer came in the aftermath of a shooting at a St. Louis high school where two people were killed and another seven were injured.
This story has been updated to include additional information from the debate.
This story was originally published October 25, 2022 at 9:32 PM.
