Incumbent Sharice Davids (D), Amanda Adkins (R), and Steve Hohe (L) are running in the November 8, 2022, general election for Kansas’ 3rd Congressional District.
This race is a rematch of the 2020 general election, when Davids defeated Adkins 53.6% to 43.6%. Hohe also ran that year and received 2.8% of the vote. Davids was first elected in 2018, when she defeated then-incumbent Rep. Kevin Yoder (R) 53.6% to 43.9%. Yoder had been in office since 2011.
The Kansas City Star’s Daniel Desrochers said, “After Adkins lost to Democratic Rep. Sharice Davids by 10 percentage points in 2020, the Republican-controlled Legislature redrew the district. … [It] went from one Democrats won in the presidential race in both 2016 and 2020 to boundaries that former President Donald Trump would have won in 2016 and President Joe Biden would have narrowly flipped four years later.”
The Cook Political Report’s PVI (Partisan Voting Index) for the old district was D+2, while the score for the redrawn district is R+1. President Joe Biden (D) would have carried the redrawn district in 2020 with 51.2% of the vote to former President Donald Trump’s (R) 46.7%, while Trump would have carried it in 2018 with 48.2% of the vote to Hillary Clinton’s 42.9%.
Davids, a member of the Ho-Chunk Nation, worked as a lawyer and non-profit executive serving Native American communities before coming into office. Davids was one of the first two Native American women elected to Congress, alongside former Rep. Deb Haaland (D-N.M.), and was the first openly lesbian Native American elected to Congress.
Adkins is a former congressional staffer who served as chairwoman of the Kansas Republican Party from 2009 to 2013. Adkins also served on the executive committee of the Kansas Chamber of Commerce and was a vice-president at the Cerner Corporation for 11 years.
Davids has focused on economic issues and said her willingness to work with Republicans on bipartisan legislation would help bring manufacturing jobs to Kansans. “I worked with both parties to boost manufacturing right here in America,” Davids said. “From health care to infrastructure to agriculture, I’ll work with anyone, regardless of party, to do what’s best for Kansas.” Davids has also highlighted her support for abortion rights. “My position is clear: I believe people have a right to make their own health care decisions, not the government, and I have stood up against extreme politicians who want to take away that right,” Davids said.
Adkins said Davids’s voting record is too aligned with the Biden administration and does not reflect the will of Davids’s constituents. Adkins also said the American Rescue Plan Act of 2021, a measure Davids voted for, was responsible for the increase in inflation in 2022. Adkins said, “Paying more for goods and services? Thank Sharice Davids, who voted for the $1.9 trillion spending bill that has fueled inflation to a 40-year high.” Adkins has also focused on immigration and said she supports building a wall on the U.S.-Mexico border.
The outcome of this race will affect the partisan balance of the U.S. House of Representatives in the 118th Congress. All 435 districts in the House are up for election. As of September 2, 2022, Democrats hold a 219-211 advantage in the U.S. House with five vacant districts. Republicans need to gain a net of seven districts to win a majority in the chamber.