U.S. Rep. Sharice Davids gives victory speech in Kansas City-area district
TOPEKA — The four incumbents in Kansas’s congressional delegation were on track to hold onto their U.S. House seats, according to unofficial vote totals from the Secretary of State’s Office.
In the Kansas City-area 3rd District, Democratic U.S. Rep. Sharice Davids gave a victory speech, and the Republican incumbents led in each of the other three districts. About 960,000 votes, or 82%, had been counted statewide as of 9:45 p.m.
Davids, speaking in front of a cheering, sign-waving audience at the Overland Park Convention Center, said Kansas has been in the spotlight leading up to Election Day.
“And frankly, good,” she said. “I think it’s about time. I think it is about time that people started paying attention to what’s going on in Kansas. I can tell you, there’s some stuff that Washington and the rest of the country could learn from Kansas.
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“Kansans know how to break through this partisan noise that so many of us are tired of. How to focus on common sense solutions and how to get things done. Because not only are we pragmatic, but we work really hard out here.”
The Associated Press called the race for Davids just after 9 p.m.
The three Republican incumbents have benefitted this year from high-profile campaign visits from national Republicans, including the president and vice president, who came to the state to stump for U.S. Sen. Roger Marshall. The three Republicans are also favored to win, per the Cook Political Report.
U.S. Rep. Tracey Mann was leading by 17 percentage points in the 1st District, U.S. Rep. Derek Schmidt was up 1,000 votes in the 2nd District, and U.S. Rep. Ron Esters held an 8-point lead.
1st District
In the 1st District, Mann, a Salina Republican took the lead over Democrat Lauren Reinhold, an attorney from Lawrence who formerly worked for the federal government. Mann has served in Congress since 2021. The district he is seeking to hold onto covers most of western and central Kansas, and encompasses Manhattan and Lawrence, both of which have gone to Democrats in recent years. Libertarian Steven Jacob, a retired city of Lawrence employee, was also on the ballot and had around 2% of votes, per early totals.
Mann won the district by 39 percentage points just two years ago. He talked about the significance of this election when he took the stage Sunday in Salina before the president arrived for his final rally before Election Day. He said he wasn’t sure if it was the most important election of his lifetime, but “every election these days is really important.”
“It wasn’t long ago, you know, the lines in politics is you were right or you were left, right?” Mann said. “You were a conservative or you were liberal, you were Republican or Democrat. Now it feels to me like you’re normal or you’re crazy, right?”
Reinhold wrapped up her campaign by outlining her priorities for voters.
“My core priorities are Kansans, rewarding the hard work you all do every day with a government that supports you,” she said. “My priorities are making healthcare accessible. Reforming immigration to make our system work for the people in it. Restoring integrity to our government.”
2nd District
President Donald Trump carried the eastern Kansas 2nd District by 20 points in 2024, when Schmidt won the district by 19 points, but this year’s race between Schmidt and Democrat Don Coover has been close. Coover, a vet and veterinarian, led Schmidt, the state’s former attorney general, with 50% of votes compared to Schmidt’s 46%, per unofficial results. Both traveled across the district in the lead-up to Tuesday’s election to campaign, and Schmidt has appeared alongside cabinet members and on stage multiple times during the president’s and vice president’s multiple visits to Kansas in recent months. Schmidt was absent from Sunday’s rally with Trump, however.
In a final email appeal to supporters, Schmidt touted his record of “fighting for Kansas healthcare, higher education, small businesses, and citizens” across the 2nd District.
“And in the next two years,” Schmidt said, “I want to keep up that fight — pursuing policies that reflect our values, strengthen our communities, and help solve problems in communities big and small.”
Coover’s closing message: “More cattle, less bull.”
He predicted an election that has more to do with solutions to problems than party identity.
“It’s definitely going to be a change election because there’s a lot of people, I think, that haven’t been really engaged in the past, and they’re getting engaged now because they see the future and they don’t like the looks of it the way it’s going now,” Coover said Tuesday at the Shawnee County Democratic Party’s headquarters. “This is going to be a change election. I’m confident.”
“Our growing coalition of everyday Kansans — Republicans, Democrats and independents alike — is ready to ditch Derek and send a working rancher to Congress,” Coover said. “We need common sense leadership focused on real kitchen table solutions: lowering grocery bills, and clearing out the political bull in D.C.”
Libertarian John Hauer, an Army veteran from Topeka, had around 3% votes, as of 8:30 p.m.
3rd District
In the 3rd District, Davids, the Democrat, defeated Republican Eric Jenkins, a retired U.S. Army colonel and former member of the Shawnee City Council, and Libertarian Steve Hohe, a U.S. Air Force veteran from Shawnee who has thrice run and lost campaigns for the U.S. House.
Davids, who has held her seat since 2019, toured her district this weekend with a pitch to lower costs for Kansans.
“From young people casting their first ballots to small business owners, local farmers, and working parents across the Kansas Third, the message I heard everywhere was clear: Kansans are tired of partisan noise and corruption,” Davids said in a news release. “They just want practical, common sense solutions that lower everyday costs like groceries and gas.”
Jenkins, a retired Army colonel and Green Beret, reminded voters of his 34 years of military service.
“Those experiences taught me the importance of service, responsibility, and working alongside people from different backgrounds toward a common goal,” he said. “I’m grateful for the opportunities this country has given me and for the people I’ve had the honor of serving alongside.”
4th District
In the south-central 4th District, Estes was beating Democrat Katy Tyndell. Estes has served in the U.S. House for almost a decade, previously working in Wichita as a consultant and in local and state government. Tyndell is an attorney, nonprofit cofounder and works for her family’s oil and gas company in Wichita.
Libertarian Drew Cranmer, a data engineer from Wichita, held about 5,800 votes.
Estes won the district by 20 points in 2024.
Speaking ahead of Trump at Sunday’s rally in Salina, Estes told the crowd the country was safer now than it was two years ago thanks to Trump’s crackdown on immigration. He warned the Democrats of today “aren’t your grandmother’s Democrat Party.”
“If you look at the socialist Democrat agenda that they have out there, you know, they want to close all the jails, they want an open border, they want to eliminate the president, and they want to defund the Department of War,” Estes said.
Tyndell, whose platform doesn’t match Estes’ description, made a closing pitch to voters Monday by praising the “skill, dedication, and hard work of Wichita’s aviation workforce.”
“These are the people who build the planes, support their families, and help power our local economy,” she said. “They deserve more than a thank you. They deserve a representative who will stand up for their jobs, their healthcare, their benefits, and the dignity of their work.”
Sherman Smith and Morgan Chilson contributed to this report.
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: [email protected]. Follow Kansas Reflector on Facebook and Twitter.
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