By Allison Kite, Kansas Reflector
OVERLAND PARK — Incumbents cruised to victory in three of Kansas’ four Congressional seats Tuesday.
U.S. Rep. Sharice Davids, a Democrat, and Republican Reps. Tracey Mann and Ron Estes will all serve another term. Former Kansas Attorney General Derek Schmidt, a Republican, won the state’s only open seat in the 2nd District.
Davids took the stage at the Overland Park Convention Center around 9:45 p.m. as results kept streaming in. She said she would be a representative for everyone in the district “whether you voted for me or not.”
“I want to make sure that we’re doing what we can to start getting past all of this partisan bickering,” Davids said. “The partisanship, the awful rhetoric — that stuff is not going to get us where we need to go. It’s not going to move Kansas forward.”
Davids said “the fight for a better Kansas isn’t over.”
“There’s still stuff in front of us,” she said. “There’s still extreme politicians who want to take our country backward. We’re facing attempts to strip away basic freedoms, like a woman’s right to make her own decisions about health care without political interference.”
The Associated Press called the race at 10:35 p.m., but Davids’ Republican challenger, Prasanth Reddy, had already conceded in a post on X, formerly Twitter.
Reddy said he decided to run for Congress “because we need leaders who will work every single day to secure the American Dream for future generations.” Traveling the 3rd District and meeting with voters was the “honor of a lifetime,” Reddy said.
“While tonight’s outcome isn’t what we wanted, I’m so grateful for everyone who stood with us on this journey,” he said. “I congratulate Sharice Davids on her victory. The values we campaigned on remain, and this is not the end of our fight.”
Davids’ district includes Johnson, Miami, Franklin and Anderson counties along with part of Wyandotte County.
Davids was first elected to the U.S. House of Representatives from Kansas’ 3rd District in the Democratic wave of 2018, unseating then-Rep. Kevin Yoder, a Republican. She won reelection in 2020 by a 10-point margin. In 2022, despite redistricting that split reliably Democratic Wyandotte County and added more rural areas to the 3rd District, Davids won again with an even wider margin.
Libertarian Steve Roberts, a former Kansas State Board of Education member, was also a 3rd District candidate.
Schmidt, a Republican, won the 2nd District seat over former one-term U.S. Rep. Nancy Boyda, a Democrat, who conceded the race around 9:45 p.m. At that time, Schmidt was winning with 55% of the vote to Boyda’s 40%, according to the Kansas Secretary of State’s Office unofficial vote totals.
The district covers most of Kansas’ eastern third. The incumbent, Republican Rep. Jake LaTurner, decided not to seek reelection.
The 2nd District seat has been held by Republicans since former Rep. Lynn Jenkins defeated Boyda in 2008. Lawrence, a reliably liberal area, was removed from the 2nd District after the 2020 Census.
Schmidt thanked supporters in a statement released after Boyda conceded. He said what’s best for the 2nd District and the nation will be his guidepost in office.
“I will start immediately to prepare so that on day one … we can get straight to work securing our border, reducing the high cost of living, reducing the regulatory burden and addressing the many other priorities Kansans have told me are important for our great country,” Schmidt said.
Boyda said in a statement that she called Schmidt to concede and wish him well.
“I wish him all the best as our next representative,” Boyda said. “For the sake of our democracy, I can hope that the next Congress will get serious about governing and set aside the divisive posturing that has been tearing us apart.”
Libertarian John Hauer — who describes himself as pro-freedom and anti-drug war — was also on the ballot in the 2nd District race.
Incumbent U.S. Rep. Tracey Mann, a Republican, cruised to an easy victory Tuesday in the state’s big 1st District — which covers the whole of western Kansas, along with chunks of central Kansas, and stretches an appendage to include Manhattan and Lawrence. He faced Paul Buskirk, a Lawrence Democrat who works for the University of Kansas Athletics Department.
When AP called the race just before 9:45 p.m., Mann was winning by a two-to-one margin, according to unofficial results from the Kansas Secretary of State’s Office.
In a statement, Mann thanked supporters and called the Big First a “pilot light” for the nation “because the values that make America great are still alive and well in my hometown and across the state.” He promised to keep voting against “big government socialism, wasting taxpayer dollars, open borders and federal government overreach” in his next term.
“We need to get our whole country back on track,” he said. “That starts today, and it’s going to be a long hard road to undo the damage caused by leftist policies.”
Mann won his first term in 2020 with more than 70% of the vote after an unsuccessful run for lieutenant governor in 2018. He won reelection by a 2-to-1 margin in 2022.
Just after 10 p.m., the AP called the 4th District race for incumbent U.S. Rep. Ron Estes, a Republican, who squared off against Democratic challenger Esau Freeman in a district that includes Wichita and south central Kansas. Freeman is a business representative for a local branch of the Service Employees International Union.
Estes led Freeman with 66% of the vote in unofficial voter data at that time.
Estes first won the seat in a special election in 2017 when his predecessor Mike Pompeo left to become then-President Donald Trump’s CIA director.
Launched in July 2020, Kansas Reflector is an affiliate of States Newsroom, the nation’s largest state-focused nonprofit news organization, supported by grants and donations. Kansas Reflector retains full editorial independence.
