KANSAS CITY, Mo. — Incumbent Rep. Sharice Davids has been elected to a third term in Congress.
She once again topped Amanda Adkins during Tuesday’s midterm election for Kansas' 3rd District seat.
First elected in 2018, Davids, a Wyandotte County native, beat then-incumbent Kevin Yoder by nearly 10% to become one of the nation’s first Native American women and Kansas’ first openly lesbian member of Congress.
Adkins tried to paint Davids as a staunch Biden acolyte and blame her for inflation, while Davids hammered Adkins for her support of former Gov. Sam Brownback’s disastrous tax policy and ultra-conservative view on abortion rights.
The race was projected to be more tightly contested this time around after the Kansas legislature used the 2020 Census to push through the gerrymandered Ad Astra map, which cut Wyandotte County in half and moved the northern part of the county into the 2nd District.
The Ad Astra map survived a legal challenge, which made it to the Kansas Supreme Court.
Gerrymandering is when a political map is manipulated to favor one party over another.
The GOP-controlled legislature sought to make the 3rd District more competitive for Republican candidates, while keeping the 2nd District solidly Republican.
The map also shifted Douglas County, which includes Lawrence, from the 2nd District to the highly conservative 1st District, which includes most of western and northern Kansas.
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