Sharice Davids

Rep. Sharice Davids, D-Kan., is reportedly considering a run for the U.S. Senate against Republican incumbent Roger Marshall.

Davids recently met with Sen. Adam Schiff, a leader in the Democratic Senatorial Campaign Committee, to discuss a potential campaign.

The article suggests Davids may be motivated by a competitive nature and anger over past Republican-led redistricting efforts.

Despite Kansas not electing a Democratic senator since 1932, the author argues Davids would be a formidable candidate.

“Be afraid. Be very afraid.” — tagline from the classic 1986 horror movie "The Fly"

The first question is, will she?

The second question is, why would she?

The third question is, can she?

What am I talking about? Nothing less than the subject of 3rd District Congresswoman Sharice Davids, a Democrat, challenging Republican incumbent Roger Marshall for the U.S. Senate. Let’s take the first question, whether she’ll pull the trigger and challenge Marshall.

The short answer is that we don’t know yet. It certainly seems like she’s thinking about it.

In November, Politico reported that Davids met with Sen. Adam Schiff, D-California, to “Talk through the logistics of a Senate campaign and garner advice from a lawmaker who’s transitioned from the lower chamber to the upper one.” This is important, for Schiff is the vice-chair for the Democratic Senatorial Campaign Committee, meaning he's the guy who could tell her how much financial support the national folks in Washington, D.C., would be willing to give her.

Then there’s Davids’ “Kansas Strong Tour” from Jan. 29 to Feb. 1 when she visited Topeka, Wichita, Dodge City and Colby. Davids’ office clearly noted that the tour “aligns with Davids’ work on congressional committees” — and I’m sure it does — but it also gave her a chance to gauge enthusiasm for her outside of the friendly confines of Johnson and Wyandotte counties.

The second question is, why would she run when she has a good thing going in the 3rd District? Well, reports are that Davids is a very competitive person. And if you didn’t know already, she is a former Mixed Martial Arts fighter. As in, she fought in actual MMA matches.

Pause reading this, go to your phone, and watch a video of an MMA fight. Any MMA fight.

Now you get it.

So Davids is someone who seeks out a tough contest. Beyond that though is the fact that when many Kansas Republicans tried to redraw her congressional district a few months ago (called “super gerrymandering”) to get her out of office, they really made her mad. (Actually, she said she was really “pissed off”).

They poked the bear. The final question is, can she win? The answer to that one is yes. We all know that a Democrat hasn’t won a Senate race in Kansas since 1932, but we also know that Davids would be the most formidable candidate to run since 1932.

She comes from a military family and is a member of the Ho-Chunk Nation in Wisconsin. In her 2018 House race, she defeated the Bernie Sanders-endorsed Democrat in the primary and then whipped the incumbent Republican Kevin Yoder in the general election.

A pro-Republican dark money group even ran ads in the primary to help her opponent, suggesting their awareness that she wasn't someone they wanted to see emerge in Kansas politics.

In 2022, she withstood withering negative ads by Republican Amanda Adkins as well as millions of dollars poured into the race by national Republicans to go ahead and win by 12 points. Adkins seemed flummoxed as to how to overcome Davids’ likeability in the Republican-dominated district.

Adkins even ran a TV ad in which she said “So if you know Sharice Davids, you know she’s nice enough … ”

So yes, if you know Sharice Davids, you know she can win if she runs.

And the GOP knows it might have nobody to blame but themselves.

Bob Beatty is a political science professor in Topeka.