Democratic and Republican nominees in 3rd District hit voters with new ads
BY: TIM CARPENTER
Kansas Reflector
TOPEKA —Third District congressional candidates Prasanth Reddy and Sharice Davids escalated their policy dispute on abortion rights by presenting voters with clashing campaign ads.
Davids, a Democrat seeking reelection to a fourth term in Congress, positioned her campaign to appeal to voters who rejected an amendment to the Kansas Constitution in 2022 that would have allowed more restrictive state laws on abortion. She’s worked in Congress to codify into federal law provisions of Roe v. Wade, the landmark precedent struck down by the U.S. Supreme Court.
Davids aired an attack ad that opened with a Kansas physician saying she swore an oath to put her patients first, the same oath Reddy pledged to uphold. But, the doctor said, Reddy betrayed that vow by supporting demise of Roe v. Wade and encouraging state politicians to deny women lifesaving medical care.
It closed with the doctor declaring Reddy’s affiliation with conservative organizations and politicians seeking to ban all abortions was “wrong and dangerous.”
Zac Donley, spokesman for the Davis campaign, said the point was to highlight Reddy claimed to respect Kansas voters who defeated the constitutional amendment on abortion rights while simultaneously taking on the political cause of donors eager for Kansas to curtail access to reproductive health care.
“When Prasanth Reddy calls abortion a ‘states’ rights issue,’ he’s endorsing state politicians interfering in Kansans’ most personal health care decisions,” Donley said. “While Reddy tries to mask his extremism and cozy up to Washington politicians advocating for a national abortion ban, Sharice Davids is working to ensure health care decisions remain between a woman and her doctor — not politicians.”
Reddy, the Republican challenger, is a Johnson County physician backed by Kansans For Life’s PAC, the state’s leading anti-abortion organization. KFL helped write the failed constitutional amendment, which didn’t include exceptions for rape, incest or to save the life of a mother.
He entered the home stretch of the campaign ending Nov. 5 with a commercial, “Real Truth,” that accused Davids of misleading voters.
“You’ve seen the negative ads, but what you haven’t seen is the real truth,” Reddy said in the commercial. “Let me be clear. Sharice Davids is lying about me as a cancer physician. My patients’ wishes come first and I respect the decision Kansas made on abortion over two years ago.”
“I’m running for Congress to secure the border, stop inflation and keep fentanyl out of our communities — not ban abortion. And that’s the real truth,” he said.
During the congressional campaign, Reddy said the issue of abortion was “deeply personal and sensitive,” but no federal tax dollars should be used to finance the procedure. He promised to vote against a national ban on abortion. He welcomed the Supreme Court’s decision on Roe v. Wade, because it granted states an opportunity to craft their own provisions on abortion.
Reddy said abortion legislation should include exceptions for rape, incest, to protect the health of the mother and in instances with “fetal abnormalities inconsistent with life.”
He said he didn’t cast a vote on the state constitutional amendment two years ago, because he wasn’t certain of implications of the measure passing.
The issue of abortion is complicated for Republican candidates in the five-county 3rd District, which is dominated by voter-rich Johnson County. More than two-thirds of the county’s voters opposed the 2022 abortion amendment. Amanda Adkins, a pro-life candidate who ran against Davids in 2022, lost by more than 35,000 votes after Davids linked Adkins to an effort to further limit abortion. Davids deployed the same strategy to undermine Reddy.
In September, the Johnson County Republican Party added complexity to Reddy’s campaign by posted to Facebook a statement that said the idea that abortions were medically necessary was false because “the trauma of abortion delivering a dead baby is not less than delivering a live baby.”
The Kansas Democratic Party also urged Reddy to respond to the Johnson County GOP’s claim: “As for rape and incest, how do two wrongs make a right? A woman or girl is raped, so now a murder must also occur?”
“Sharice Davids will continue fighting for the rights of all Kansans, ensuring that personal health care decisions stay between individuals and their doctors, free from political interference,” said Andriy Bilyk, executive director of the state Democratic Party.