Why Sharice Davids should run for Kansas senator vs. Roger Marshall | Opinion
Let’s get my rooting interest out of the way early: Sharice Davids should definitely run against Roger Marshall for the U.S. Senate.
Really.
Most Kansans probably have never considered the possibility that Davids, a Democrat who represents the Kansas City-area 3rd District in Congress, might take on Marshall when he defends his seat next year.
But then President Donald Trump started pushing Republican legislators across the country to redraw their states’ congressional maps, to give his party a better chance at defending its slim majority (and his increasingly unpopular presidency) next year.
GOP officials in Texas and Missouri complied. Kansas legislators are considering following suit.
That might put Davids out of a job. Or it might not: She has won her last few reelection campaigns handily, despite vigorous GOP challenges. In either case, she’s not a fan of the gerrymandering plan.
“Kansans deserve fair representation, not backroom deals,” she said in a statement this week.
What does all this have to do with Marshall?
I refer you here to the Law of Unintended Consequences. A redrawn map could also push Davids to look for bigger and better opportunities.
Like challenging Marshall for his Senate seat.
“If Davids’ House seat turns deep red,” Punchbowl News reported Tuesday, “she could choose to challenge him.”
Which was maybe a throwaway line. Except for this: Davids’ campaign website this week highlighted the Punchbowl report — including the part about running against Marshall.
It doesn’t mean she’s campaigning for Senate. But it sure looks like she hasn’t ruled it out.
Marshall: Running scared?
Here’s why Davids should not run against Marshall: Democrats never win Senate races in Kansas. They don’t even come close all that often.
It’s a pretty big hurdle.
But here is why Davids should run: Marshall looks just a little bit vulnerable.
You can see it in the way Marshall has recently — let’s use a charitable word here — refined his messaging on immigration and tariffs in front of Kansas audiences after taking a relentlessly pro-Trump tack in national television interviews.
You can see it in his new decision to limit his public appearances in front of Kansas voters. That’s ostensibly to avoid provoking political violence, but it’s a bad look after he ran out on an angry town hall audience in Oakley earlier this year.
And while Kansans are not polled all that often or thoroughly, you can see hints of Marshall’s weakness in the few surveys we do see. A 2023 poll found that Marshall had the fourth-lowest voter approval rating in the entire U.S. Senate. A 2024 Fox News exit poll found that just 39% of Kansas voters had a favorable opinion of the senator.
This might be the best chance Kansas Democrats get for a long time.
Is redistricting worth it?
Davids, meanwhile, is the best candidate Kansas Democrats have to offer.
Gov. Laura Kelly — the other prominent Kansas Democrat — has made clear that she’s done when her term expires next year. There are several, lesser-known Democrats gearing up to challenge Marshall, but none has the experience or name recognition that Davids has created for herself.
She should run against Marshall. Even if redistricting doesn’t go through.
Why? Because Kansans deserve a choice. While the state indisputably leans to the right, we’ve seen that — even in this hyperpolarized era — Sunflower State voters will elevate a Democrat to statewide office now and again when they’re given a real option. It’s not an accident that Kelly won two terms as governor.
That is especially true if the Republican candidate loses touch with the folks at home — think Kevin Yoder, whom Davids defeated for Congress in 2018 — or is simply too much of a right-wing firebrand for the state’s more-moderate-than-you-think voters. Just ask Kris Kobach about his 2018 run against Kelly.
A Senate run would, admittedly, be a risk for Davids. Under the status quo, she could conceivably keep her 3rd District seat for as long as she wants.
So Kansans Republicans ought to consider their next moves carefully. Maybe they can gerrymander Sharice Davids out of a House seat. Will it be worth it, though, if she ends up giving Roger Marshall a run for his money?
This story was originally published September 25, 2025 at 2:33 PM with the headline "Why Sharice Davids should run for Kansas senator vs. Roger Marshall | Opinion."
