By BRENT MARTIN
St. Joseph Post
A Congressional race in Kansas is shaping up to be much more competitive that first thought.
State Treasurer Jake LaTurner defeated incumbent Steve Watkins in the Second Congressional District Republican primary and faces Democrat Michelle De La Isla, the Topeka Mayor, in the General Election.
University of Kansas Political Science Department chair, Don Haider-Markel, says De La Isla has emerged as a tough Democratic challenger in a Republican-leaning Congressional district.
“I think she has a strong personal story and she’s certainly played on that in her advertising. She has not used the kind of tactics thus far that we’ve seen, the sort of attack tactics that we’ve seen in a number of races,” Haider-Markel tells St. Joseph Post.
Haider-Markel says LaTurner began with an advantage, simply because he’s a Republican. He adds LaTurner also has name recognition, since he serves as the state Treasurer.
Haider-Markel says normally LaTurner would coast to victory.
“It’s just that this is an unusual year, much like 2018 was an unusual year and we have largely to thank Republicans in the White House and Republicans in the form of (Sam) Brownback in the governor’s office to thank for that,” Haider-Markel says.
The Second Congressional District incorporates not just northeast Kansas, but runs from the Nebraska border all the way down to the Oklahoma border on the eastern side of the state with a carve out for the Third Congressional District of the greater Kansas City metropolitan region.