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AMANDA ADKINS: WORKING TO BRING BROWNBACK-STYLE EXTREMISM BACK TO KANSAS
Adkins Quarterbacked the Brownback Agenda in Kansas
As a longtime advisor to former Kansas Governor Sam Brownback, Amanda Adkins has spent her career deeply involved in executing his agenda, including the disastrous tax cuts that gutted funding for Kansas’ education system and resulted in teacher layoffs.
Adkins’ relationship with Brownback stretches back decades to 1998, when she worked on his first Senate campaign. She managed his second campaign in 2004. When Adkins ran for Kansas Republican Party Chair in 2009, Brownback endorsed her run and they then worked closely to draft the party’s new strategy to expand GOP control in the state. Once Adkins left her role as Kansas Republican Party Chair, she maintained a close working relationship with Brownback when he appointed her as chair of the Children’s Cabinet and Trust Fund.
As Brownback’s Children’s Cabinet chair, Adkins worked with the governor to cover his attempts at slashing the budget for early childhood programs and even went as far as excluding the rest of the agency’s board in budget discussions with the governor. In this role, she praised Brownback’s economic roadmap as one that promoted “high quality early learning experiences.” Under Adkins’ leadership, the Cabinet suffered millions of dollars in funding cuts to critical early childhood programs.
Throughout Brownback’s governorship, Adkins praised his tax agenda – which resulted in gigantic tax giveaways to corporations and disastrous cuts to education that are still impacting Kansas families. In addition to cutting millions of dollars from public education, the tax policy Adkins supported “tanked” the state’s economy and led to teachers losing their jobs. The tax experiment was so unpopular that in 2017 the Republican-dominated legislature overrode the governor’s veto and rolled back the tax cuts.
Despite his disastrous record, Adkins called Brownback an “incredible governor” and personally contributed over $2,500 to his re-election campaign.
Adkins’ Anti-Choice Crusade
The right for a woman to make her own health care decisions won by double digits in the Kansas primary, but that hasn’t stopped extremist Amanda Adkins from taking radical anti-choice positions that are entirely out of step with the people of Kansas.
As chair of the Kansas Republican Party, Adkins pushed for a plan to make abortion illegal, even in cases of rape and incest. She also backed the disastrous Supreme Court decision to overturn Roe v. Wade and said that she “100 percent” would vote yes on Kansas’ constitutional amendment that could pave the way for the state legislature to enact a radical ban on abortion without exceptions, which voters rejected at the ballot box in record numbers. Adkins also wants to defund Planned Parenthood, which provides affordable health care, including birth control and cancer screenings, to tens of thousands of Kansans every year.
In Congress, Amanda Adkins would be a reliable vote for Republicans in their mission to ban abortion nationwide and eliminate women’s freedom to make their own health care decisions.
Make no mistake: Adkins’ extreme views on reproductive freedom are completely out of step with voters in the Kansas Third, who overwhelmingly support a woman’s right to make her own health care decisions free from interference of politicians.
Amanda Adkins and Special Interests: A Match Made in Devastation
Amanda Adkins’ campaigns have been marred by ethics investigations and questions into her family’s influence in the race since before she even announced her candidacy. In 2020, Adkins came under fire for breaking federal election regulations and conducting campaign activities months before officially filing her candidacy. According to the Kansas City Star, Adkins “skirted federal election law by representing herself as a candidate before filing the appropriate paperwork.” Her father also funneled more than a hundred thousand dollars into a Super PAC that aired months-worth of attack ads against her Republican opponent in a desperate attempt to win the Republican nomination.
Earlier this year, Adkins was called out for opposing suspending the gas tax and saving Kansas’ hard earned money at the pump while raking in thousands from her family and employees of her family’s company, which would benefit from keeping the gas tax in place.
Proud MAGA Republican
Amanda Adkins is a proud MAGA Republican focused on pushing a new, extreme GOP agenda that would devastate Kansas families and undermine our democracy.
Adkins refused to acknowledge the results of the 2020 presidential election, instead siding with her party as they pushed Trump’s Big Lie that fueled the deadly January 6 insurrection, which led to the death of 5 people, injured 140 law enforcement officers, and sowed extreme distrust in our nation’s elections. Adkins is even using her campaign ads to highlight a local sheriff who has been using taxpayer dollars to investigate baseless election conspiracy claims, despite there being “no evidence of widespread voter fraud anywhere in Kansas.” If extreme Republicans like Adkins had things their way, Kansans’ votes could be thrown out just because they don’t like the results.
Adkins and MAGA Republicans’ extreme agenda also includes cutting taxes for corporations and the wealthiest Americans – helping “billionaires pay less taxes than the working class.” Adkins and her Republican allies supported tax plans that cut taxes for corporations and the wealthy and threatened cuts to Medicare and Social Security, all while raising taxes on working families and seniors. Her extreme plan encourages corporations to send American jobs overseas at a time when we are already experiencing supply chain issues that cause prices to rise here in the U.S.
PATH TO VICTORY
While the Kansas Third became slightly more competitive in redistricting, Representative Davids maintains a clear path to victory this November. The highly educated, majority suburban district is the exact kind of seat that has trended blue over time, and has consistently been won by Democrats in past cycles. The registered share of Democrats has grown in recent years, while the share of Republicans declined. In 2020, Representative Davids would still have beaten challenger Amanda Adkins by 3.6 points in the newly configured KS-03.
During Tuesday’s primary, voters in the Kansas Third rejected GOP attacks on their reproductive freedom – voting down the constitutional amendment by a two to one margin. Even in some of the reddest parts of KS-03, voters came out in record numbers to protect their right to reproductive care. In Franklin County, where Biden only won 30 percent of the vote, the amendment failed – showing just how unpopular Amanda Adkins’ anti-choice record will be this November.
Davids also has a strong fundraising advantage over Adkins, raising a record-breaking $1 million in the second quarter of 2022. Davids heads into November with $3.3 million cash on hand and her biggest-ever war chest at this point in the cycle by a significant margin.
With a strong record and the resources needed to communicate on it, Representative Davids will have no problem securing re-election this November and continuing her work on behalf of Kansas families.
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