Why former U.S. Rep. Nancy Boyda is running for 2nd District 15 years after leaving office

Jack Harvel, Topeka Capital-Journal
·2 min read
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Former U.S. Rep. Nancy Boyda filed to reclaim Kansas’s 2nd Congressional District on Monday, entering a primary contest with former University of Kansas Jayhawk basketball player Matt Kleinmann.

Boyda won the 2nd District in 2006 and served for one term before being ousted in 2008.

“I've been down this road," Boyda said. "I have been through the buzzsaw, and believe me, it is a buzzsaw. It takes courage. I have the guts to know that I can do this. I've done it before.”

Nancy Boyda is running for 2nd District in Kansas after more than 15 years outside of elected office.
Nancy Boyda is running for 2nd District in Kansas after more than 15 years outside of elected office.

While in Congress, she embraced moderate Democrats and applied to join the Blue Dog Coalition, a caucus of centrist and conservative Democrats but wasn’t accepted due to its capacity.

The former Armed Services Committee member was appointed to the Pentagon by Barack Obama as the deputy assistant secretary of defense for manpower and personnel in 2009.

In 2019, Boyda campaigned to fill the U.S. Senate seat vacated by Sen. Pat Roberts, but dropped out before any votes were cast. When exiting the Senate race, Boyda said she was going to focus on bridging the political divide among Kansans.

She’s echoing that same message in her latest campaign.

“If our country is going to survive, we've got to reestablish trust in each other and trust in our country," Boyda said. "I'm calling Kansas to take the lead across the country in starting that to reestablish trust.”

Boyda, a Baldwin City Democrat, said her top priorities in Congress would be bipartisan immigration reform, reducing the influence of money in elections, health care affordability and tax cuts for the middle and working class.

If successful in the primary, Boyda would face off against one of five Republicans who are also vying for the 2nd District: Jeff Kahrs, Michael Ogle, Derek Schmidt, Shawn Tiffany and Chad Young.

Jake LaTurner, R-Kansas, announced in April that he wouldn’t seek a third term for the seat.

This article originally appeared on Topeka Capital-Journal: Only Democratic congressperson to win 2nd District in decades files