Yoder courts conservative vote in KC while trying to protect a district mad at Trump

If Kansas’ four-term Republican congressman, Kevin Yoder, manages to keep his seat, Republicans may be able to hold onto their majority in the U.S. House.

That was the prediction of American Conservative Union chairman Matt Schlapp, who along with Vice President Mike Pence came to Kansas City on Friday to urge Republican voters to turn out and support Yoder and other Republican candidates in Kansas and Missouri.

As he brought Yoder up on stage at the newly reopened Hy-Vee Arena, Schlapp asked who thought the U.S. should build a wall along the southern border with Mexico, drawing a huge cheer from the crowd of about 400.

“The point person on paying for the wall is your congressman. He gets an award from the American Conservative Union each and every year when he’s in Congress fighting for our values,” Schlapp said. “It’s my distinct privilege to give you Kevin Yoder.”

Schlapp, Pence and Republican candidates from Kansas and Missouri converged in Kansas City for a conservative rally where they urged voters to show up to the polls on Tuesday. The event was co-hosted by the ACU and Family Research Council Action, a conservative organization that promotes religious liberty and opposes LGBTQ rights.

The council’s website calls homosexuality “by definition unnatural” and “harmful to the persons who engage in it and to society at large.”

Yoder’s Democratic opponent in the race, Sharice Davids, would be the first LGBTQ person to represent Kansas if elected. Yoder said in a debate Tuesday that he opposes discrimination against the LGBTQ community.

But the congressman’s decision to appear at the event may suggest that the Overland Park Republican may be pivoting to focus on ensuring strong turnout from conservatives as he seeks to stave off a tough re-election challenge from Davids. Most polls show her leading Yoder by several points.

In 2016, Yoder’s district, which includes Wyandotte and Johnson counties and part of Miami County, voted for Hillary Clinton. His re-election campaign has been marked by a fight against suburban anger with President Donald Trump.

Yoder has largely avoided campaigning with Kansas gubernatorial candidate Kris Kobach, a hardline conservative, up until this week. And while Yoder has been endorsed by Trump since July, he has sought to distance himself from the administration in recent weeks and point to instances where he has stood up to the president.

Yoder’s campaign didn’t respond to questions about his participation in the event given the Family Research Council’s involvement.

Fellow Republicans’ speeches were marked by hardline stances on keeping the “radical left” from taking Congress and immigration, a topic Trump has been using at campaign rallies to energize his base. But early in his remarks, Yoder focused on low unemployment, tax cuts and investment in the military.

“I’ll tell you our work here is not just about helping Republican Americans or Democrat Americans or Independent Americans,” he said. “These policies are about helping all Americans realize the American dream.”

Later on, he joined fellow conservatives who railed against the “radical left.” Yoder said those Democrats want to “defeat this president and to defeat the United States of America.”

His fellow conservatives focused on a caravan of migrants working its way through Mexico and toward the southern U.S. border.

Republican luminaries at the event made it clear they’re looking to the heartland to maintain their majorities in the U.S. House and Senate and maintain governorships. Schlapp, borrowing a line from Missouri Attorney General Josh Hawley’s stump speech, said control of the U.S. Senate runs through Missouri.

Hawley, a Republican, is running against Sen. Claire McCaskill, the incumbent Democrat.

Pence said he kept hearing about a “blue wave” expected to sweep Democrats into office.

“But if all of us do all that we need to do between now and election day, I’ve got a feeling that blue wave is going to hit a red wall,” Pence said, eliciting a cheer from the crowd.

In his speech, Pence focused on the Missouri Senate race and Kansas’ gubernatorial race between Kobach and state Sen. Laura Kelly, a Democrat.

Hawley and Kobach took the opportunity to stump on conservative issues, including immigration.

Hawley, who has long been critical of McCaskill for co-sponsoring a bill aimed at ending separation of migrant families at the border, called on her to drop it. Kobach said he would send the Kansas National Guard to the border to back up federal immigration enforcement, and he accused Democrats of encouraging migrants to cross the border illegally.

Pence urged support for Republicans, particularly for Hawley and Kobach, claiming they’d be champions for protecting the border and that Immigration and Customs Enforcement would not be abolished if they were elected.

Pence claimed without evidence that “leftist groups” are organizing and driving the migrant caravan.