by Mary Rupert
Sharice Davids, who won the Democratic nomination for the U.S. House, 3rd District, today said she would take the voices of her constituents to Washington, D.C.
“We all got into this because we knew that Kevin Yoder needed to be unseated, because he does not represent the 3rd District, he does not represent the things that we stand for, our values, and he certainly wasn’t taking our voices to Washington, D.C.,” Davids said.
Davids attended a unity rally with other Democratic candidates who ran for the office on Wednesday at Park Hall, 711 Osage Ave., in the Armourdale neighborhood of Kansas City, Kansas.
“I’m ready for us to take back the House, and I know that I’m going to work tirelessly and endlessly, the same way I have worked tirelessly my entire life, to make sure we have a strong voice in Congress, that lets them know that we are not about hateful rhetoric that we hear coming out of the White House, that we hear coming from Mike Pence and Donald Trump. We are about inclusion, we are about opportunity for every single person in this district and in this country, and that is what we’re fighting for. We’re going to come together and we’re going to work together,” she said.
She said she will invite the other Democratic candidates who ran for the 3rd District to meet with her so she can learn from them what to take back to Washington.
Davids also said today that in order to represent the diverse interests of people in the 3rd District, her campaign will have to do a lot of door-knocking and just listening to people, meeting with as many constituents as possible before the general election in November.
Davids had 22,891 votes to Brent Welder’s 20,803. In third place was Tom Niermann was 8,740, followed by Mike McCamon with 4,243, Sylvia D. Williams with 2,896 and Jay Sidie with 1,748.
Welder, who had the endorsement of Bernie Sanders, had the most votes in the Wyandotte County portion of the 3rd District, ahead by more than 3,000 votes here.
Campaign finance could be a challenge for the Democrats this fall. During the primary, Yoder was reported to have $1.8 million on hand to spend on his campaign toward the end of the campaign, and it was far more than the individual Democratic candidates had reported. Emily’s List, which helped pay for some independent ads supporting Davids, today pledged to help her in the general election.
“I think everyone in this room knows that Kevin Yoder is unacceptable and needs to go,” Welder said at the unity rally today. “He is a rubber stamp for Donald Trump. Sharice Davids is a fighter. She is going to stand up and bring a voice to so many people in this district, and frankly, people in the country who do not have a voice.”
He pledged to do everything he could to help in her campaign. “We’re going to turn this district blue and America blue,” Welder said.
Tom Niermann, another candidate, said he didn’t remember a campaign that had so much enthusiasm and engagement here.
“This is the beginning of something good in our part of the state,” Niermann said. It’s his hope that what happens here spreads across the state, he added.
“Now the real fight begins, so we need to make sure that we keep working hard and we get it done in November,” Sylvia Williams, another candidate, said.
Mike McCamon, a candidate whose family originally settled in the Argentine area, said he thinks things are going to change in Kansas.
“There’s a lot of evil in this world and we need to fight back,” he said.
Jay Sidie, another Democratic candidate in the 3rd District, did not attend the unity event.
Several elected officials from Wyandotte County attended the rally, among them Rep. Louis Ruiz, Rep. Tom Burroughs, Rep. Val Winn, former Mayor Carol Marinovich, Unified Government Commissioner Mike Kane and Sen. David Haley.
Rep. Winn, who is also the Wyandotte County Democratic Party chair, said she was not really surprised by the outcome of the primary because of the movement of change that all of the candidates represent.
“Any one of them would make a great candidate,” Winn said.
Scott Mackey, former chair of the Wyandotte County Democratic Party, said he was surprised at the election outcome.
“I think she’s got a good start at winning,” Mackey said about Davids.
Voter turnout was over 24 percent in Wyandotte County, up from the estimate of about 15 to 18 percent.
To see an earlier story about the 3rd District campaign, visit https://wyandotteonline.com/six-democrats-running-for-3rd-district-u-s-representative/.
https://wyandotteonline.com/yoder-far-ahead-in-kansas-3rd-district-money-game/
