Seen as an underdog, Amanda Adkins on the attack in debate against Sharice Davids
Republican Amanda Adkins, outspent and trailing in election forecasts with less than two weeks to Election Day, took the offensive in Thursday night’s debate for the Kansas 3rd District congressional seat, attacking first-term incumbent Sharice Davids for voting in lockstep with the House Democratic leadership and supporting big government.
“She votes with Speaker (Nancy) Pelosi 97% of the time,” Adkins said. “I don’t agree with my own husband 97% of the time. “
Meanwhile, Davids spoke about her record and painted Adkins as a politician who would bring the policies of former Gov. Sam Brownback to Washington. Adkins is a former campaign manager and gubernatorial appointee of Brownback’s.
“You deserve a representative who’s going to stand up for your values, for our community’s values and not someone who’s trying to resurrect Sam Brownback’s agenda,” she said.
Brownback left the governorship in early 2018 after a budget crisis triggered by his program of massive income tax cuts in 2012.
By the time the candidates began their virtual debate Thursday evening, nearly a quarter of registered voters in Johnson County, the district’s largest voting block, had already cast their ballots. FiveThirtyEight’s most recent projections gave Davids a 98% chance of winning reelection. As of September 30, she had cash advantage of $1.8 million to Adkins’ $430,000.
The debate was hosted by the NAACP for Olathe, Overland Park and Leawood in partnership with the Olathe Latino Coalition and the Johnson County Latina Leadership Network. It marked the first time in Johnson County history a civil rights organization had hosted a political debate.
Adkins stayed on the attack for virtually the entire one-hour encounter, using nearly every answer to take aim at Davids’ record.
In response to a question on Puerto Rico and DC statehood, Adkins pivoted instead to address repeated comments from Davids about being a bipartisan lawmaker. This claim, Adkins said, was untrue and evidenced by her pattern of voting alongside Pelosi.
“A lot of people in this district view a lot of the policies that are being pushed as socialist, that’s a far cry from freedom loving capitalists,” Adkins said.
Davids refuted that argument, saying her voting percentage relative to Pelosi was nothing more than a “misleading partisan talking point.”
Voters, she said, should look to her work on the Coronavirus relief packages and the USMCA trade agreement for evidence of her bipartisan record.
In the past two years, Davids has voted in line with President Donald Trump’s agenda 6% of the time according to FiveThirtyEight. According to ProPublica. Davids has voted with Pelosi 97% of the time, including bills that had support from Republicans as well as Pelosi.
Adkins also called David’s opening statement attacks on her connection to Sam Brownback deceptive.
“I did not work in the Brownback administration, I did have the absolute honor of serving as chair of the Kansas Children’s Cabinet,” she said.
Adkins was appointed to the Children’s Cabinet by the governor. The cabinet is an advisory board created to assist the governor in serving children and families.
Davids also attempted to link Adkins and Brownback on healthcare. Adkins’ opposition to Medicaid expansion, she said, was unsurprising considering Brownback’s 2017 veto of the measure when it was approved by the Kansas legislature.
Adkins, leveraging her experience as a top executive at health IT corporation Cerner, said government funded healthcare wasn’t the answer. She spoke in favor of provider-sponsored healthcare plans.
The next Congress may be tasked with passing a new COVID-19 relief package if legislators are unable to agree on a plan by the end of the year.
In a discussion of response to the COVID-19 pandemic, Adkins blamed early stay at home orders for the recent economic downturn. She said the path forward would come with payroll tax holidays, limits on legal liability and incentivizing work.
“Some of the COVID-19 packages have focused heavily on incentivizing unemployment, that is a very distinct difference between Miss Davids and myself,” Adkins said.
The measures Adkins was referring to, Davids said, were necessary for people who were “out of work for literally no fault of their own.”
“Getting folks the relief they need right now when people are feeling that anxiety that you get when you don’t know if you’re going to be able to pay your bills or put food on the table, unemployment relief is really important for that,” she said.
