Kansas Democrats seek to shed state's 'red rectangle' reputation

Like the tornado that plucked Dorothy Gale from her farmhouse in this state and dropped her in Oz, the Americans are currently staring down at an electoral storm threatening to flip their political assumptions on their heads.

Housewives in this year's midterm elections, but perhaps nowhere as uniquely as in Kansas, where two competitive districts sit, but where the races – while occupying the same political atmosphere – are sharply different in complexion, like the indigos and oranges lying parallel to a Sunflower State sunset.

The uninterrupted block of the president of the President of the United States Donald Trump The President of the House of Commons Republican "states, particularly in Kansas, with an independent streak that manifests in wave cycles. 2018 appears no different.

Charlie Riedel / AP

"Said Sharice Davids, the Democratic candidate for Kansas' 3rd Congressional District.

Davids' campaign has been extensively covered by the national media as the personification of a number of 2018's multicolored waves rolled into one. She is a Native American lesbian woman who graduated from Cornell Law School, competed professionally as a mixed martial artist and earned a White House Fellowship.

But even if the six-candidate was elected, the suburban Kansas City district still appeared to be on the cusp of change.

"I think people who do not have a lot of experience with the state of the art. educated, trending-Democratic Communities, with hundreds of thousands of people who live in them, "said Patrick Miller, an assistant professor of political science at the University of Kansas.

"There's a real breadth of diversity in the state."

Charlie Riedel / AP

Wyandotte, Kansas's fourth-most populous county, is a blue speck on Trump's red map, but it's Johnson County, the state's most populated, including the bulk of the 3rd district. Johnson County preferred the president to Hillary Clinton by less than 8,000 votes and the district as a whole went to Clinton by 1 percentage point, even as it returned Rep. Kevin Yoder, R-Kan., To Washington for his fourth term by a 10-point margin.

One of 25 districts nationwide won by Clinton but represented by a Republican, and with a growing population of young and diverse voters, the next prime has become a Democratic target in 2018.

"That's the suburban stereotypical that we're seeing now that Donald Trump is not particularly fond of," Miller said.

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I think we're resetting expectations this year about who runs for office.

The transformation of eastern Kansas is illustrated in the parking lot of a Sonic Drive-In, where the likes of Wyandotte put their supporters on their ballots on Wyandotte's first day of early voting.

After the election of the voters, an array of men and women, young and old, black and white – the first-time candidate something that was less than a year ago, and was colored by her own varied experiences.

"I think we're resetting expectations this year about who runs for office, about who we support as candidates," Davids said. "We are resetting expectations on what we expect from our congress.We want a Congress that's more reflective of the experiences we have in our country."

But while the Trump is back in a demographically changing Clinton district may be enough to carry Democrats to victories in a number of House breeds (Derived from the ABCs of ABC News partner 538), the calculus is more complex as one travels west down the Kansas Turnpike.

As the suburbs give way to wheat fields, the red deepens, but not so much that Democrats are totally uncompetitive.

In the state's 2nd District, a much larger district of the Nebraska-Missouri, Oklahoma to the south, the party capitalized on the George W. Bush backlash of 2006 – a year when Democrats cleaned 31 House seats – to elect Rep. Nancy Boyda, whose single, two-year term interrupted what would have been otherwise 24 years of GOP dominance.

John Hanna / AP

Less affluent and more socially conservative than the 3rd District, it was less likely that it could have been successful, where Trump won by 17 points and Rep. Lynn Jenkins, R-Kan., Cruised to her fifth term by 28 percent. But Jenkins, one of the top GOP women in the House after the House of the Republic of the House of Representatives, announced the opening of the door.

Enter Paul Davis, a 12-year member of the Kansas House of Representatives and a leading minority, and the state's Democratic Gubernatorial nominee in 2014, where he fell less than four points shy of unseating then Gov. Sam Brownback. Davis' experience makes him something of a first-time congressional candidate in his party, many of whom, like Davids, have never held elected office, but it is also a tangible asset in the 2nd District where he built a base of support four years ago.

"It's really easy for someone to stand up and say, 'I'm an outsider and I'm going to do all of these things.' But they've never done them before. I've actually done them, "said Davis in an interview, adding that his bipartisan work and his attitude towards the United States. time around.

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They want Washington to work, but they want to work for them.

Davis' pragmatism, a quality that might turn off the most liberal Democrats in the nation's far-left enclaves, may be exactly the same as the cycle's final week. FiveThirtyEight rates the race to "toss-up." To the former state representative, who said he was proactively reached to Trump voters and found common ground – "They want to 'drain the swamp,' I want to 'drain the swamp' "- It's about changing the tenor in DC, but also providing tangible results for Kansas.

"They want to go to work, but they want it to work for you," said Davis of 2nd District residents.

"The only balance I'm looking for is what's in my pocketbook," said Tim Hersh, 57, of Topeka, a lifelong GOP voting and volunteer for Davis' opponent, Republican Steve Watkins. Hersh said it was Davis' track-record – one of raising taxes, he claimed – that sealed his embrace of the widely unknown Watkins.

Pablo Martinez Monsivais / AP

On experience alone, the 2nd District is a country where it's a fresh-faced Democrat challenging an entrenched Republican. Watkins, who had never been able to come to terms with the state of the art. Watkins denies that was the love of the encounter.

Trump and Vice President Mike Pence is slow to win their applause to Watkins 'candidacy after a hard-fought seven-candidate primary, but, as Davis' bipartisan support shows, there are many others in the party who are skeptical of the 42-year-old Army veteran. Much of the hesitancy is due to the multitude of controversies courted by the Republican.

The Kansas City Star reported in September that Watkins' position is that it was "started" and "owned" by an engineering and security company, statements that were untrue. The CEO of the parent company of the organization Watkins referenced went so far as to say that the candidate was "nobody that I've heard of."

Watkins campaign has moved back to the story by Watkins, but it has not been seen yet. "Tweets stating the contrary" – "erroneously by a junior staffer," the campaign said – and pointed to a coworker's statement that asserted Watkins and a small team started and grew the firm's international operations. Watkins himself told ABC News that the Star article "did not accurately reflect the reality of the situation."

"It's fake news," Watkins said.

$ 1 million that Watkins father injected into a super PAC to support his son, his disputed claims of heroism during a deadly earthquake on Mt. Everest and performance in the Iditarod sled dog race, and the open letter signed by 40 local Republicans denouncing his candidacy during the primary.

Watkins chalked up the negative attention to campaign tactics.

"These allegations of being untried are simply not true. They are unsubstantiated and they are trying to win an election," he said.

Brian Hayes / The Wichita Eagle via AP

Whether it's because of the question marks around Watkins or Davis' efforts to short Republican voters, the 2nd district could be one of the closest races in the country next week.

Kris Kobach, Secretary of State, Kris Kobach, Secretary of State, Kris Kobach, and Kansans mayor of the United States. One Democratic official predicted that the outcome of the two races would be in sync with crossover voters considering individual candidates rather than voting down their usual party line.

Even before winners are declared, the concept of its competitive races playing a role in a national political transformation has become a point of pride in this pocket of the Sunflower State.

"I think that because of this way, I think it's a good thing that we're going to be in the world, and we're really going to be able to do that, and I think it's happening in our district. and in Kansas is not any other than that, "Davids said.

So they are excited that they are leaned on their horns as they are thrilled with the Sonic and Davids' early voting rally, with each bust eliciting a cheer from the Democrat's supporters.

"They're honking for democracy," Davids joked.