Democrat Nancy Boyda says failure to say who paid for advertisements was result of ‘clerical errors’
TOPEKA — Democratic congressional candidate Nancy Boyda failed to disclose who paid for her advertisements as required by federal election rules, according to a complaint filed by Kansas Republican Party chairman Mike Brown.
Boyda admitted to “clerical errors” but she said Republicans were trying to distract voters from the impact of her opponent’s anti-abortion views. She faces Republican Derek Schmidt in the November election for the 2nd District seat being vacated by Republican U.S. Rep. Jake LaTurner.
Schmidt is a former Kansas Senate Majority Leader and three-term attorney general, and was the GOP nominee for governor in 2022. Boyda held the 2nd District seat for one term after winning a race in 2006.
Brown, who rose to GOP chairman by promoting false claims about election integrity, said he filed a complaint with the Federal Election Commission alleging Boyda failed to include “paid for by” disclosures on billboards, videos, yard signs, campaign communications, and her campaign website. He questioned whether Boyda was trying to hide dark money interests.
“It’s shocking that Nancy Boyda, who previously served in Congress, wants to go back to writing laws for the rest of us while Boyda is unable or unwilling to follow federal rules herself,” Brown said. “The law is clear.”
Under FEC rules, candidates are to include legible disclaimers on printed communications.
Boyda’s campaign, responding to an inquiry for this story, faulted Republicans for talking about “clerical errors” after reports linked Georgia’s strict abortion ban to the deaths of two pregnant women.
“When you run a small grass-roots campaign for Congress, mistakes happen,” Boyda said. “But I refuse to let them change the subject.”
Schmidt has said he opposes a federal abortion ban. But he supported an attempt to remove reproductive rights from the Kansas Constitution, which voters overwhelmingly rejected in August 2022, and as attorney general he was responsible for defending unconstitutional restrictions on reproductive health care that were passed by the Kansas Legislature. His campaign declined to comment for this story.
“We will fix the printing error in our signs, but we won’t stop working to ensure every Kansan knows the truth about Schmidt’s extremism,” Boyda said. “Schmidt wants to impose his extreme views on reproductive rights, even after Kansas voters resoundingly voted to trust women, not the government, to make their own health care decisions.”
Kansas Reflector is part of States Newsroom, a network of news bureaus supported by grants and a coalition of donors as a 501c(3) public charity. Kansas Reflector maintains editorial independence. Contact Editor Sherman Smith for questions: info@kansasreflector.com. Follow Kansas Reflector on Facebook and Twitter.
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Mackenzie Clark/Lawrence Times
