KS-01, One Of America's Reddest Districts, Gets A Democratic Challenger

Kansas' immense first congressional district, which takes up all of western Kansas and most of the northern part of the state, consists of 61 counties and parts of 2 others. Once a bastion of populism, today it's one of the most rural districts in the country (88%) and one of the most Republican. KS-01 hasn't been friendly territory for Democrats. Obama never got to a third of the vote in the district and Trump beat Hillary there by his widest margin in the state-- 69.3% to 24.3%. The PVI is a daunting R+24, the kind of district the DCCC doesn't ever consider. On the other hand, Bernie crushed Hillary among Democrats there-- 69-31%. (Cruz also crushed Trump among Republicans).

Last year, the Blue Wave didn't much manifest itself in KS-01. Republican Roger Marshall beat Alan LaPolice 153,082 (68.1%) to 71,558 (31.9%), Marshall losing just one county, Riley (home of liberalism Manhattan and Kansas State University)-- and narrowly. Of the other counties, only one was even vaguely close-- Lyon (home of traditionally progressive Emporia). It was a rematch. last year LaPolice raised $210,896 to Marshall's $1,220,562. (Marshall only spent $630,636, banking the rest for a planned Senate contest.) Today Marshall has $1,400,092 on hand and he plans to use it in a race for the open Senate seat of retiring Pat Roberts, leaving KS-01 open.

There are 3 Republicans standing by for when Marshall announces he;'s running for the Senate seat-- two state reps (Ken Rahjes and Troy Waymaster) and a former lt. governor (Tracey Mann). And now there's a Democrat too-- and as of this week, she was no longer waiting for Marshall to bow out. Kali Barnett, a teacher from Garden City who has never run for office (other than for Miss Garden City in high school), was inspired by the teacher strikes in West Virginia and Oklahoma. She is also the daughter of third generation farmers and her two big issues are education and agriculture. She's been telling the media she’s in favor of researching renewable energy, bolstering infrastructure and transportation systems and supporting working families and immigration.

There's nothing much on her brand new campaign website to indicate if she's going to turn out to be a Kansas populist or just another Republican-lite waste of a seat like freshman Sharice Davids turned out to be.