Incumbent Democratic Congresswoman Sharice Davids has won reelection in the Kansas Third Congressional District.
Davids defeated Republican challenger Amanda Adkins by 12%.
Davids received 55% of the vote, and Adkins received 43%.
Libertarian Steven Hohe received 2%.
Davids won by a larger margin than I predicted.
I predicted Davids would win by 5%.
Instead, she won by 12%.
I donated $100 to Davids’ reelection campaign in 2022.
Davids won reelection by a larger margin than her previous wins in the district.
In 2018, Davids was first elected to Congress by a margin of 10%.
In 2020, Davids was reelected by 10%.
And this year, she won reelection by 12%.
Davids’ victory is all the more impressive considering the Kansas Legislature redrew the Kansas Third to be more conservative, in an explicit effort to defeat Davids.
In September 2020, Kansas Senate President Susan Wagle, a Republican, told a Republican gathering in Wichita that her party needed to win a supermajority in the legislature to create new electoral maps that would benefit Republicans.
“So redistricting, it’s right around the corner,” Wagle said. “And if Governor Kelly can veto a Republican bill that gives us four Republican congressmen, that takes out Sharice Davids up in the 3rd – we can do that. I guarantee you we can draw four Republican congressional maps. But we can’t do it unless we have a two-thirds majority in the Senate and House.”
Davids is the only Democrat who has represented Kansas in Congress since 2011.
In January, Republicans in the Kansas Legislature approved a map that would make it harder for Davids to win reelection.
In February, Gov. Laura Kelly (D) vetoed the map, and the legislature overrode Kelly’s veto.
In May, the Kansas Supreme Court upheld the legislature’s Congressional map in a 4-3 decision.
In June, the Kansas Supreme Court released the full opinions from the case. The Supreme Court majority found that neither the Kansas Constitution nor Kansas law prohibits partisan gerrymandering.
So the legislature's map went into effect for the 2022 Congressional elections.
But despite Republicans’ best efforts to gerrymander Davids out of office, she won reelection by a larger margin than any of her previous wins.
That’s a victory worth celebrating.
LaTurner reelected in Kansas Second
This year, all four incumbent representatives from Kansas were reelected to the US House.
Jake LaTurner (R) defeated Patrick Schmidt (D) in the Kansas Second Congressional District by 15%.
LaTurner received 58% of the vote, and Schmidt received 42%.
LaTurner’s margin of victory closely matches his previous election to Congress and the district’s recent political history.
LaTurner was first elected to Congress in 2020, when he won by 15%.
The Republican candidate has won each of the four elections in the Kansas Second, from 2014 to 2020, by an average margin of 16%.
Estes reelected in Kansas Fourth
Ron Estes (R) defeated Bob Hernandez (D) in the Kansas Fourth Congressional District by 27%.
Estes received 63% of the vote, and Hernandez received 37%.
Estes was first elected to Congress in 2018, when he won by 19%.
In 2020, Estes won reelection by 27%.
This year, Estes won by 27%, which closely matches the district’s recent political history.
The Republican candidate won each of the four US House races in the Kansas Fourth from 2014 to 2020, by an average margin of 28%.
Mann reelected in Kansas First
Tracey Mann (R) defeated James Beard (D) in the Kansas First Congressional District by 35%.
Mann received 68% of the vote, and Beard received 32%.
I voted for Beard.
A Democratic friend of mine, who also voted for Beard, referred to him as a "sacrificial lamb," in anticipation of how badly he would lose in the deep-red Kansas First.
This year, the boundaries of the Kansas First are slightly different.
The Kansas Legislature added the Democratic city of Lawrence to the deeply-Republican Kansas
First Congressional District when it redrew the Kansas Congressional map.
Tracey Mann was first elected to Congress in 2020, when he won by 42%.
This year, Mann won reelection by 35%, which closely matches the recent political history of the district.
The Republican candidate won each of the four US House races in the Kansas First from 2014 to 2020, by an average margin of 39%.
Turnout
Significantly more people voted in the Congressional election in the Kansas Third this year than other Kansas Congressional races.
Almost 63,000 additional votes were cast in the Kansas Third compared to the Kansas First, where the second-highest number of total votes were cast.
This was likely because the race in the Kansas Third was the only race that was believed to be potentially competitive prior to election day.
District Total votes
Kansas Third 301,294
Kansas First 238,425
Kansas Second 233,358
Kansas Fourth 228,740
Fewer people voted in Congressional races in Kansas than voted in the races for Governor or US Senate.
But more people voted in Congressional races in Kansas than in the statewide races for Attorney General, Secretary of State, State Treasurer, Insurance Commissioner, or on the constitutional amendments.
Postscript: While I celebrate David’s reelection, I find it somewhat distasteful that her campaign has already sent emails to her supporters requesting donations for her next election in 2024.
[Edit: 12/18/22 - The numbers in this article have been modified to reference the certified official vote totals rather than the final unofficial vote totals that originally appeared here.
These edits slightly changed some of the numbers in this article.]
