Kansas incumbents — 3 Republicans, 1 Democrat — hold onto US House seats
TOPEKA — All four U.S. House members from Kansas held onto their seats Tuesday, including three Republicans who saw their margins of victory shrink considerably from two years ago.
U.S. Reps. Tracey Mann, Derek Schmidt, Sharice Davids and Ron Estes will return to Washington, D.C.
Davids, the lone Democrat in the state’s congressional delegation, told a cheering, sign-waving audience at the Overland Park Convention Center that Kansas has been in the spotlight leading up to Election Day.
“I think it is about time that people started paying attention to what’s going on in Kansas,” she said. “I can tell you, there’s some stuff that Washington and the rest of the country could learn from Kansas. 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.”
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, who lost reelection Tuesday to Democratic challenger Adam Hamilton.
Mann was winning by 21 percentage points in the 1st District, and Schmidt was up by 6 points in the 2nd District. The margin of victory was 22 points for Davids and 9 points for Estes with few votes remaining.
Speaking at a GOP watch party in Wichita, Estes told the crowd, “Not everybody’s going to win that we want to win tonight, and that’s unfortunate because this really is a contrast election.”
He blamed former President Joe Biden for high prices that “will never go back.”
“Inflation is such a scourge, and you know those are the types of issues that we’re trying to address,” Estes said.
1st District
In the 1st District, Mann, a Salina Republican, defeated Democrat Lauren Reinhold, an attorney from Lawrence who formerly worked for the federal government. But his lead was considerably smaller than it was two years ago, when he won by 39 percentage points.
“This race proves that Kansans are ready for change and that grassroots efforts can do big things in the Big First,” Reinhold said in a statement. “I thank my team for an honorable race that sidestepped hyperpartisan nonsense and went to the heart of what people in our district care about: education, healthcare, agriculture. Moving forward, I will continue to work tirelessly to advocate for all Kansans.”
Mann has served in Congress since 2021. The district 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 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?”
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 was much closer, with Schmidt winning with about 51% of the vote.
Coover, a military vet and veterinarian, and Schmidt, the state’s former attorney general, both traveled across the district in the lead-up to Tuesday’s election to campaign. Schmidt appeared alongside cabinet members and on stage multiple times during the president’s and vice president’s multiple visits to Kansas in recent months.
“There’s going to be a lot of uncertainty for a period of time here,” Schmidt said at a GOP watch party in Topeka. “What I hope is that with the change in majority in the House we don’t wind up with two years of gridlock. I hope that we are able to actually continue to get some things done. Part of what you know happened tonight is a lot got done in the last two years, and whenever there’s significant change, there’s also significant reaction to that.”
Coover closed his campaign with the 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.”
Libertarian John Hauer, an Army veteran from Topeka, had around 4% votes.
3rd District
In the 3rd District, Davids 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.
“Growing up, my mom always taught me and my brother that if you want something done right, roll up your sleeves, get to work, put in that sweat equity, and y’all put in the work,” Davids said Tuesday night. “Yeah, and it’s because of you that the Kansas 3rd is sending a clear message tonight.”
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 defeated 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.”
Morgan Chilson contributed to this report.
This article was republished with permission from the Kansas Reflector. The Kansas Reflector is a non-profit online news organization serving Kansas. For more information on the organization, go to its website at www.kansasreflector.com.
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