The national GOP hasn’t endorsed in Kansas’ 3rd District. But its politicians have

Kansas Republicans have not yet chosen which candidate they want to run against Democratic Rep. Sharice Davids this November. The primary is in August and two candidates are actively campaigning for the nomination.

But Congressional Republicans appear to have made their choice.

Prasanth Reddy, a former physician, has received donations from more than 50 members of the House Republican Conference and has been endorsed by two of the House’s four highest-ranking members – Reps. Steve Scalise of Louisiana and Elise Stefanik of New York.

Those are just the formal endorsements. He’s also pulled in support from House Speaker Mike Johnson and Richard Hudson, the chairman of the National Republican Congressional Committee. In all, Reddy’s raised more than $172,000 from sitting lawmakers, nearly 20% of the total he’s raised since launching his campaign in July.

“I think the sort of truest test of who people really want to win is: ‘are they spending money in favor of them?’” said Ian Vandewalker, senior counsel for the Brennan Center’s Elections and Government Program.

The National Republican Congressional Committee typically does not endorse in open primaries and – aside from Hudson’s donations and praise for Reddy on KCMO – has not weighed in on the Republican primary in the 3rd Congressional District.

But the decision from national Republicans to coalesce around Reddy has helped give him a large financial advantage over Karen Crnkovich, a small business owner who has only raised $120,481 over the course of her campaign, including $17,322 of her own money.

While Reddy made trips to Washington last year to meet with the House Speaker and other Republican leaders, Crnkovich told The Star she was never offered a chance to win their endorsement.

“They decided that they wanted to anoint him probably before I even got in the race,” Crnkovich said. “And then they didn’t look back. So it’s not me losing their endorsement, it’s me not even having the chance to get them.”

It’s not unheard of for the national party leadership to quietly offer support for the candidates they believe will have the best chance of winning a seat, particularly in competitive races.

Davids won reelection by 12 percentage points in 2022, building on her 10 percentage point victory in 2020, when the district lines included all of Wyandotte County and were more favorable to Democrats.

Still, the Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee has listed Davids as a “frontliner”, meaning she’s on a list of important seats should Democrats hope to win a majority in the House. The NRCC has listed Davids as one of its 37 top targets in the 2024 election.

Chapman Rackaway, a political science professor at Radford University, said by offering financial support and endorsements, the party is sending cues about which candidate they like best in the race.

“It’s really hard for voters to differentiate between candidates at the primary level,” Rackaway said. “So what they’re looking for are cues that replicate those party signals that we get in the general election.”

It also gives Reddy a significant financial advantage over Crnkovich as the candidates – both of whom have never run for office before – try to build their name recognition in the district.

Along with the money from lawmakers, Reddy has picked up more than $112,000 from Grow The Majority, Johnson’s leadership PAC. He’s also loaned his campaign $57,500 throughout the campaign and had $561,718 in his campaign account at the end of March.

The Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee, eager to define Reddy ahead of the general election, has used the national support to call him too conservative for a district that started shifting toward the Democratic Party with Donald Trump’s election in 2016 and where abortion appeared to be a defining issue in 2022.

The DCCC has tried to highlight Reddy’s support from candidates who support a federal ban and those who voted to overturn the results of the 2020 presidential election, like Johnson.

“Kansas voters only need to take one look at who’s funding Reddy’s campaign to see that he’ll stand with anti-abortion extremists and election deniers over working families,” said Mallory Payne a spokeswoman for the DCCC.

Davids, who as an incumbent has the full backing of the DCCC, has pulled in more than $101,000 from Democratic lawmakers in the three fundraising quarters since Reddy announced his campaign.

While that’s around $70,000 less than Reddy has raised from Republican lawmakers, she also has gotten support from special interest groups, like aviation manufacturers, Amazon, LGBTQ advocacy groups, Nike, and transportation workers.

Asked about his support from Republican members, Reddy said “Members of Congress see every day that Sharice Davids isn’t who she says she is.”

“Her record in Congress is ineffective and extreme,” Reddy said in a statement. “That’s why they’ve joined our movement to flip this seat. It will take a united front to win, grow the House majority, and secure the American Dream.”

But before he’s able to take on Davids, Reddy has to win the primary.

“I do think that there is something of a tension there with a big powerful national organization, putting a thumb on the scale in a primary,” Vandewalker said. “But at the end of the day, there’s still a primary, and voters can vote how they want. Sometimes big spending and national endorsements backfire, where voters say, you can’t tell us what to do.”