Amanda Adkins wins crowded Kansas 3rd District primary to challenge Sharice Davids
Cerner executive Amanda Adkins emerged from a five-way Republican primary battle Tuesday to take on first-term Rep. Sharice Davids in Kansas’ 3rd Congressional District, the only district in the state represented by a Democrat.
With 98% of precincts reporting, Adkins held a commanding 8-point lead over disability rights activist Sara Hart Weir.
Adkins, who at 10:30 p.m. held 31% of the vote, benefited from a crowded field behind her. Weir sat at 23%, former Roeland Park Mayor Adrienne Vallejo Foster had 20% of the vote and former Burns & McConnell executive Mike Beehler had 19%. Former state Rep. Tom Love had just 7%.
Addressing supporters at Pinstripes in Overland Park’s Prairiefire shopping district after her victory, Adkins vowed to defeat Davids, who she said has “no vision” and “no plan.”
“I’m a freedom-loving capitalist and she supports Nancy Pelosi,” Adkins said of Davids. “She does not share the values or the beliefs of the 3rd Congressional District.”
Weir congratulated Adkins in an email statement Tuesday night.
“As I’ve said from the beginning of this race, the most important thing for the party is that we have a candidate that can defeat Sharice Davids in November,” Weir said. “I look forward to working to help make that happen.”
Adkins is a former chairwoman of the Kansas Republican Party with ties to former Gov. Sam Brownback.
Republican efforts to win back a majority in the U.S. House will hinge on flipping voters in swing districts like Kansas’ 3rd. The suburban Kansas City district, which includes all of Wyandotte and Johnson counties and parts of Miami County, narrowly favored Hillary Clinton in 2016. Davids won her seat in 2018 by 9 points over four-term Republican incumbent Kevin Yoder amid a backlash against President Donald Trump.
Republicans make up about 39% of the district’s registered voters, while Democrats account for roughly 33%. But the Cook Political Report classifies it as a “lean Democratic” district.
The National Republican Congressional Committee has targeted Davids’ seat since early 2019, but the GOP’s campaign arm for House races has not yet committed to spending money in the district for the fall.
Federal Election Commission filings show that Davids had nearly $2.5 million cash on hand as of mid-July while Adkins had almost $427,000.
Kelly Arnold, who served as Adkins’ party vice chair and succeeded her as the state chair, praised Adkins as a “working conservative mom” and “a champion and a fighter” who could reclaim the district for the GOP.
“I was able to spend two years working with her at the Kansas Republican Party, and the amount of leadership she brings to the table, I think this district is going to be lucky to have her as a congresswoman,” Arnold said.
Adkins chaired the state party from 2009 to 2013, overseeing the 2010 election when Republicans, Brownback at the top of the ticket in the race for governor, won every federal and statewide office.
She managed Brownback’s 2004 campaign for U.S. Senate and after he became governor, he appointed Adkins to chair the Kansas Children’s Cabinet and Trust Fund, which oversees a variety of childhood programs.
Adkins was sharply critical of Davids during the primary, even accusing her without evidence of promoting violence against authority by attending a June Black Lives Matter rally in Kansas City.
Davids is one of the first two Native American women to serve in Congress and the first openly LGBT person to represent Kansas at the federal level.
In an email statement after Adkins’ victory, Davids was quick to call on her opponent’s ties to Sam Brownback.
“I’m confident that Kansans will vote to continue the progress we’ve made together, and reject Sam Brownback adviser Amanda Adkins’ plan to double down on the failures of the Brownback Administration that gutted funding for our public schools and decimated our economy, the effects of which Kansas families are still feeling today,” Davids said. “Our country is experiencing an unprecedented crisis, and we need a leader in Washington who will work to move us forward, not drag us back.”
Kansas Democratic Party Chair Vicki Hiatt said 3rd District voters can’t trust Adkins to “stand up for their access to health care, quality public schools and financial well being.”
“Throughout the KS-03 primary, top Sam Brownback advisor Amanda Adkins tried to buy herself the Republican nomination, praised Sam Brownback’s failed tax experiment that she helped execute, and staunchly supported repealing the Affordable Care Act, ripping health care coverage away from 94,000 Kansans and jeopardizing coverage for over 330,000 people in KS-03 with pre-existing conditions,” Hiatt said in an email statement.
Adkins also sparred frequently with Weir, former president of the National Down Syndrome Society.
Last month, a super PAC funded almost exclusively by Adkins’ father, Alan Landes, launched an ad portraying Weir as a child playing dress-up.
The PAC, Heartland USA PAC, received $373,046 this cycle — $313,046 of which came from Adkins’ father. Campaign finance reform advocates say family-funded PACs undermine the requirement that super PACs be independent from a campaign.
Mark Kahrs, Kansas’ Republican national committeeman, cited Adkins’ fundraising ability as one of her strengths.
“Amanda has immense talent, political skill. She is a robust fundraiser and I think Amanda puts that seat back in play for the Republican Party,” Kahrs said.
If elected in November, Adkins would become one of the wealthier members of Congress, candidate disclosure forms show.
This story was originally published August 4, 2020 at 9:41 PM.