Republicans have held Kansas’ 2nd District for nearly 30 years. Can Democrats win it back?

The path seemed clear for Matt Kleinmann in the Democratic primary for Kansas’ 2nd Congressional District.

The community developer from Wyandotte County was tapped by the Kansas Democratic Party. He made an introduction video and announced his campaign for Congress. He was the only Democrat in the race.

Then, right before the filing deadline, former Rep. Nancy Boyda threw her hat back in the ring.

For all but two years since 1995, Kansas’ 2nd Congressional District has been represented by a Republican. Boyda is the exception.

In 2006, on the back of a Democratic wave in opposition to the presidency of George W. Bush, Boyda upset former Rep. Jim Ryun by four percentage points. It was short-lived. Republicans reclaimed the seat in 2008 and have held it for the past 16 years.

Now, with the retirement of Rep. Jake LaTurner, Kansas Democrats hope to pull off another upset. But first, Democrats will have to choose between Boyda and Kleinmann in the Aug. 6 primary.

“Boyda ran a great, really successful and smart campaign in 2006,” said Bob Beatty, a political science professor at Washburn University. “But that was a long time ago.”

Already, Republicans are engaged in a crowded primary. Former Kansas Attorney General Derek Schmidt is the early front-runner, but Jeff Kahrs, a longtime Republican staffer who served in the Trump administration, has received endorsements from former Gov. Sam Brownback and former Reps. Todd Tiahart and Jim Ryun.

The 2nd District contains some of Wyandotte County and Topeka, and stretches through rural counties in the northeast to rural counties in the southeast. While Democrats have long struggled in Kansas, over the past decade, the party has struggled especially in rural areas.

Boyda, who works a small farm outside of Baldwin City, is running as a self-proclaimed moderate. She grew up Republican and called herself fluent in both Republican and Democrat.

“There are two separate languages that the right and the left speak,” Boyda said. “And so sometimes people tell me from the right that they actually understand what I’m saying, and they don’t understand some other Democrats.”

Boyda said her campaign is focused on rebuilding trust. She plans on putting out a series of videos that not only identify where institutional trust has frayed but how to rebuild it – complete with homework.

It’s an unconventional approach – candidates generally try to avoid giving people additional work. But Boyda was insistent that she was creating a practical way forward and that if people voted for her, they’d be voting to end the division and distrust that runs through politics.

“We haven’t addressed pressing issues for a decade because of the rancor and the dysfunction, because of just distrust in each other,” Boyda said.

Earlier this week, Boyda put out a press release arguing that transgender girls should not be able to participate in girls sports leagues that match their gender identity. While she criticized Republican lawmakers for picking on transgender children, the statement put her firmly out of step with the platform of the Democratic Party.

“When it comes to trans girls in sports, however, the issue is no longer about a private relationship between consenting adults,” Boyda wrote. “There are others involved and I believe their voices need to be heard.”

In the 2022 gubernatorial race, Schmidt made divisive social issues, like transgender rights, a central tenet of his campaign. He pledged to ban transgender women from youth sports leagues that match their gender identity if he were to become governor.

Kleinmann said he believed the decision about who can participate should be left up to youth sports leagues, not Congress.

The two candidates appear relatively similar on some of the key issues in the election – particularly abortion rights and the economy. But on immigration, Kleinmann appears more focused on legislation that would allow more immigrants to enter the country on worker visas and a pathway to citizenship for some people who entered the country illegally. Boyda said the government should focus on border security before working on a pathway to citizenship.

An unconventional approach

The last time Boyda won the seat, she was similarly unconventional. She eschewed traditional television advertising – featuring low budget clips of man on the street interviews and text heavy inserts in newspapers explaining her policy positions.

It worked. The ads, which often featured people on the street either praising Boyda or criticizing Ryun, helped raise her name recognition – particularly after she had been on the ballot the year before.

But Boyda may not have the name recognition that she once did. Some of the newest voters in the race would have been 2 years old the last time her name appeared on the ballot.

That could serve as an opening for Kleinmann. A former walk-on to the University of Kansas men’s basketball team that won the National Championship in 2008, Kleinmann is a political newcomer.

He said the Kansas Democratic Party approached him about running in the 2nd District and he jumped into the race because he feels like the district lacks federal resources.

“It’s getting us back to where Congress actually works for us, and it’s not just something to yell about on local radio or national media,” Kleinmann said. “And for me, I think a political party that has gone so far to the right that they’re willing to storm the U.S. Capitol building to get their way, I think is bad for democracy. It’s bad for Kansas.”

Kleinmann said while he thinks the race will be difficult, it’s not completely out of reach. He pointed out that Schmidt lost the 2nd District in his 2022 campaign against Democratic Gov. Laura Kelly. And they note that the district supported preserving abortion rights in the vote on the Value Them Both amendment that year.

But the Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee – the chief arm of the Democratic Party in congressional races – hasn’t targeted the 2nd Congressional District. That means the Democratic candidates there won’t get the same type of financial and campaign support that Rep. Sharice Davids, a Democrat from Overland Park, will get in her reelection bid.

David Kensinger, a former aide to Brownback who is volunteering for Kahrs’ campaign, said while the Republican candidates will take a general election seriously, it would be difficult for any Democrat to win the seat.

“Given these two you’ve got Kleinman, who’s new to public office, and you’ve got Boyda, who has a one term track record where she voted with Democratic leadership,” Kensinger said. “So I don’t see that either of these people have either the resources or the background they would need to pull that off.”