Amanda Adkins’ dad pumps $50,000 into Kansas congressional race against Sharice Davids
Amanda Adkins’ father, Alan Landes, pumped $50,000 this month into a political action committee supporting her campaign to represent Kansas’ 3rd Congressional District.
Landes’ October cash infusion is the largest among the 10 people who have donated to Adkins’ super PAC, Heartland USA, this election cycle. It has helped the group launch nearly $140,000 in ads supporting Adkins and attacking her Democratic opponent, Rep. Sharice Davids.
A representative for the PAC did not respond to a request for comment.
The group has spent much less than the national Republican and Democratic organizations pumping money into the campaign, which is considered one of the most competitive races in the country.
In the past week, the House Majority PAC, the campaign arm of the House Democrats, spent $676,610 on direct mail and digital and television ads attacking Adkins. Its most recent ad criticizes time Adkins spent lobbying Congress.
“The big corporations are all sticking it to the little guy right now,” the ad says. “The last thing we need is Amanda Adkins in Washington.”
Over the course of the campaign, the House Majority PAC and Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee have combined to spend more than $3.4 million on the race, according to the site Open Secrets.
When asked about her father’s donation, the Adkins campaign pointed to the outside money that has been spent in support of Davids’ campaign.
“Outside groups and mega donors have spent more than $6 million trying to prop up Sharice Davids because she votes with Biden 100% of the time,” said Anna Mathews, Adkins’ campaign manager, citing a statistic from the site FiveThirtyEight that Davids has said doesn’t represent all of her votes in Congress.
The spending comes as the Congressional Leadership Fund, a Republican group closely aligned with House Minority Leader Kevin McCarthy, hasn’t launched any ads attacking Davids or supporting Adkins in the past week, according to independent expenditure reports filed with the Federal Elections Commission.
The Congressional Leadership Fund has already spent more than $2.5 million on the race, but lately more of its money has been used to go after vulnerable Democratic incumbents like Reps. Henry Cuellar of Texas, Abigail Spanberger of Virginia, Jared Golden of Maine and Sean Patrick Maloney of New York. It last launched an ad attacking Davids on October 14.
“Joe Biden’s economic agenda came to Congress, Davids was all in,” the ad said. “Davids backed Biden’s reckless spending and taxes.”
Heartland USA’s campaigning has focused more on billboards and lower cost ads. Wingert signs donated two billboards to the PAC, allowing them to run a little less than $20,000 in ads as people drive on I-35 and US-69.
This isn’t the first time Landes has stepped in to help his daughter’s campaign. The former president of Herzog Construction in Missouri, Landes donated more than $300,000 to help Adkins win the 2020 primary election.
His spending has been more limited in the 2022 campaign. Adkins did not face a serious primary opponent and the group began picking up its activity in October, closer to the election. It still has not spent all of the $159,200 it has raised this cycle, far less than the $544,182 the group spent in 2020.
Its most recent purchase is a billboard ad for $3,300.
This story was originally published October 31, 2022 at 1:41 PM.
