--- title: Democrat Sharice Davids is Leading in Kansas's 3rd District description: If Democrats win the House in November, it will be due to places like Kansas's 3rd district and candidates like Sharice Davids canonical: https://time.com/5437107/sharice-davids-democrat-kansas/ author: Charlotte Alter article:opinion: false article:content_tier: free article:published_time: 2018-10-29T13:13:52.000Z article:modified_time: 2026-10-13T08:04:21.735Z article:section: Politics og:title: Why Trump Could Lift Democrats to Victory in Kansas og:description: If Democrats win the House in November, it will be due to places like Kansas's 3rd district and candidates like Sharice Davids og:url: https://time.com/5437107/sharice-davids-democrat-kansas/ og:site_name: TIME og:image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blt3074a77bcd8401d6/69893da2656a3f5385bd5d0f/sharice-davids1.jpg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=16:9 og:image:width: 1733 og:image:height: 975 og:image:alt: Sharice Davids og:type: article twitter:card: summary_large_image twitter:title: Why Trump Could Lift Democrats to Victory in Kansas twitter:description: If Democrats win the House in November, it will be due to places like Kansas's 3rd district and candidates like Sharice Davids twitter:image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blt3074a77bcd8401d6/69893da2656a3f5385bd5d0f/sharice-davids1.jpg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=16:9 ---  # Donald Trump Could Lift Democrats to Victory in Kansas > Sponsored content. 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Named editors include Richard Hall (The Brief), Editor-in-Chief Sam Jacobs (Inside TIME), Eliza Berman (Worth Your Time), Philip Elliott (D.C. Brief), Justin Worland (Future Proof) and Harry Booth (In the Loop). Health Matters is written by TIME's health desk. #### How do I sign up for a TIME newsletter? Go to time.com/newsletters, choose the newsletters you want and enter your email address. There is no cost and no subscription requirement. ### Sources * TIME Newsletters: [time.com/newsletters](/c/time-nl-network-2026q3/newsletters?i=031942b7-6feb-45c5-95f4-33c3ac2bf8e2&cr=time-nl-network-2026q3-v1) ## Video: Why Sharice Davids Could Win as a First-Time Democratic Female Candidate in Kansas [Watch (HLS stream): Why Sharice Davids Could Win as a First-Time Democratic Female Candidate in Kansas](https://cdn.jwplayer.com/manifests/FFXYjT23.m3u8) (2:40)  _Published 2018-10-29. In Kansas's 3rd congressional district, Sharice Davids could be one of the first Native American women in Congress, and Kansas's first openly LGBTQ representative._  by [Charlotte Alter/Overland Park, Kans.](https://time.com/author/charlotte-alter/)  ## Charlotte Alter/Overland Park, Kans. Senior Correspondent Oct 29, 2018 1:13 PM UTC In Kansas's 3rd congressional district, Sharice Davids could be one of the first Native American women in Congress, and Kansas's first openly LGBTQ representative.  by [Charlotte Alter/Overland Park, Kans.](https://time.com/author/charlotte-alter/)  ## Charlotte Alter/Overland Park, Kans. Senior Correspondent Oct 29, 2018 1:13 PM UTC Mary Joyce of Overland Park, Kans., is a lifelong Republican. Her husband Dave has voted for both parties, but idolizes Richard Nixon as one of the nation’s greatest presidents. Two years ago, the couple did what they usually do: voted a straight Republican ticket, including a vote for Donald Trump for President and Kevin Yoder for Congress. Thanks to voters like the Joyces, Trump won Kansas by more than [20 points](https://www.nytimes.com/elections/2016/results/kansas-president-clinton-trump), while Yoder won the state’s 3rd Congressional district by [more than 10](https://www.nytimes.com/elections/2016/results/kansas-house-district-3-yoder-sidie). But on a sunny day in late October, as yellow leaves fanned off late-autumn trees, the Joyces walked into their local early-voting location and voted for two Democrats: Laura Kelly for Governor and Sharice Davids for Congress. “I got tricked into voting for Trump,” says Mary Joyce, 55\. “I’m sorry I did.” And while Yoder has been her Congressman for nearly a decade, Joyce wants to replace him with Davids, a 38-year old lesbian attorney who would be one of the first Native American women in Congress if she’s elected. “I want Yoder out of there,” she says. If Democrats win the House in November, it will be partly because of people like Mary Joyce: Trump voters who aren’t part of his rabid base; suburban women who are fed up with the President’s antics; and conservatives who have less loyalty to the GOP than party leaders would like to believe. It will be, in short, because of places like Kansas’s 3rd district, where [Yoder is trailing Davids](https://www.realclearpolitics.com/epolls/2018/house/ks/kansas%5F3rd%5Fdistrict%5Fyoder%5Fvs%5Fdavids-6653.html) in a district that now leans Democratic, according to the nonpartisan Cook Political Report. Meanwhile, Davids is just the kind of candidate Democrats are counting on Nov. 6\. She’s part of [a group of first-time Democratic female candidates](http://time.com/magazine/us/5107476/january-29th-2018-vol-191-no-3-u-s/) running for office in record numbers this year. Davids has the support of groups like Emily’s List, which works to elect pro-choice women Democrats. She’s moderate enough to attract voters like the Joyces: she wants to work within the current health care system instead of rushing to implement Medicare for All, and she supports immigration reform but not abolishing ICE (a position she clarified after first suggesting she did want to get rid of the agency.) While some progressive voters are drawn to her campaign because of the possibility of electing the nation’s first Native American woman to Congress—as well as Kansas’s first openly LGBTQ representative—Davids talks less about her heritage or her sexuality than her experience as a first-generation college student. “We don’t have enough people in Congress who know what it’s like to go to community college,” says Davids, who went on to graduate law school and still carries more than $100,000 in student debt. “There are a lot of issues like that that I am probably a little more familiar with than maybe some of the folks who have been in Congress for a really long time.” The race remains close, and Yoder still has a slight fundraising edge in the contest. But Davids has raised nearly [$4 million](https://www.opensecrets.org/races/summary?cycle=2018&id=KS03), mostly from individual donors. And the National Republican Congressional Committee recently [canceled a $1.2 ad buy](https://thehill.com/homenews/state-watch/409149-house-gop-cancels-yoder-ad-buys) for Yoder, an acknowledgement of the incumbent’s vulnerability. “If you asked me six months ago, I would have said that she has a chance but odds are the incumbent will win,” says Don Haider-Markel, professor of political science at the University of Kansas. “It definitely leans in her favor right now.” Haider-Markel says the district is a perfect example of the kind of district that could be hard for Republicans to keep this year: moderate, suburban, full of college-educated women who may have voted Republican in the past but are sick of Trump. The President is still popular in this state that voted overwhelmingly to elect him, but his numbers have gone south here: according to a [Morning Consult](https://morningconsult.com/tracking-trump/) poll, 46% of Kansas respondents now disapprove of the President, up from 32% at the beginning of his term. Not everybody agree that Davids’ momentum is real. “I suspect the same phenomenon that concealed support for Trump in 2016 is probably at play,” writes Paul Johnson, director of the Center for Research Methods and Data Analysis at the University of Kansas, in an email. “I expect there is a silent anti-female, anti-liberal, anti-Native-American, anti-gay segment of the population that does not appear too well in phone polls, but they have a tendency to show up on election day.” But voters outside an early voting location here represented the spectrum of voters that Democrats need to reach in order to pick up seats like this one: suburban women, newly eligible young people, and people with pre-existing conditions who are concerned about the GOP’s plans for the nation’s health care system. Debbie Hawthorne, 64, said she’s voted for both parties in the past but this time she voted for Davids “because she’s not a Republican.” Madison Holloway, who cast her first vote on her 19th birthday, said she voted for Davids because “I’m excited to vote for a woman.” Mary Conley, 62, said that she voted for Davids to get “fresh blood” in Congress. Her husband Tom Conley, 63, has prostate and rectal cancer, and went to vote on Saturday wearing a small black pouch that contained his chemotherapy treatment. “It’s actually a matter of life and death,” says Mary Conley. “If our insurance didn’t cover $120,000 of his treatment per month, he’d be dead in 8 months.” Mary Joyce also has a pre-existing condition: a rare form of muscular dystrophy that requires her to walk with a cane and may ultimately claim her life. But she spoke less about health care coverage and more about putting a check on the President she voted for. “I believed what he said, his campaign promises, to make America great again,” she says. “I feel he’s made a sham of the office.” ## Transcript [00:00] [ MUSIC ] Kansas' third district is a swing district. [00:04] It tends to go for a Republican when Republicans have [00:07] a wave, and Democrats when Democrats have a wave [00:09] and that's because it's a district in a red state [00:13] with you know, a lot of conservatives but it's also [00:15] suburb of a big city so The suburban voters who [00:20] are gonna decide the midterms are the types of [00:22] people who live in this district. Early [00:27] voting in Kansas has started, and this parking lot for [00:31] this precinct in Overland Park is packed. Mary, [00:37] how do you typically vote? I vote usually Republican. [00:39] And I believed what he said. His campaign promises [00:43] that to make America great again. And I thought it was [00:46] time for a person that wasn't with a political [00:49] experience. And how has that turned out? Horrible. [00:51] And how did you vote in this race? Yeah, I voted as a [00:54] Democrat. And why did you pick Sharice Davids? Cuz I [00:56] want Yoder out of there. [ MUSIC ] [01:05] [ MUSIC ] Our first [01:09] stop is Sharice Davids. She is a really interesting [01:14] candidate. She is a ****, [01:18] Native American, former MMA fighter who is also an [01:22] attorney and has represented Native American [01:24] communities. She's running for Kevin Yoder's seat in [01:28] Congress and right now she's up in the polls. I've had [01:30] to fight my whole life because of who I am, who [01:35] I love, and where I started. But I didn't let [01:39] anything get in my way. It's not about just the [01:40] experiences that I have, it's about that we're taking all [01:42] of our combined And experiences, and turning that [01:42] into something meaningful this year. I'm Charlotte. [01:43] Charlotte, Sharice, thanks for being here. Nice to meet [01:43] you, Sharice, thank you [01:50] so much for making the time to do this. There [01:54] are a lot of different aspects of who I am, and what my [01:57] experience has been, that a lot of people connect with [02:00] for one reason or another. I see that around, you [02:05] know, the number of people who want to see more [02:06] women Men running for office. The number of people [02:08] who wanna see more first generation college students [02:10] running for office. It took me four years to get an [02:13] associate's degree because I was working the whole [02:15] time that I was in school, and we don't have enough [02:18] people in Congress who know what it's like to go to [02:22] community college. I mean, I think that's the piece that [02:26] Has really that's the part that I feel has really been [02:32] maybe more interesting or non- traditional about my [02:34] campaign. 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