Opinion

GUEST COLUMN, Dane Hicks, kaninfo.com

A spokesman for 3rd District Kansas Congresswoman Sharice Davids’ campaign refused to say Thursday why the embattled congresswoman skipped out of an Ottawa political forum Wednesday night after demanding and winning specific conditions from the organizers –  including that she not have to share the stage with her Republican opponent Prasanth Reddy or take questions from the live audience.

Dr. Prasanth Reddy, Republican candidate for Kansas 3rd District U.S. House race, makes a point during his presentation to an audience at the Ottawa Chamber of Commerce political forum Wednesday night. Incumbent Democrat Sharice Davids cancelled out of the event after winning several concessions from organizers./Ottawa Chamber of Commerce

Davids’ communications director Zach Donley acknowledged Davids’ pull out earlier in the day Wednesday, but refused to comment as to what supposed scheduling conflict superseded the Ottawa event that had been on the books for weeks. Davids is vastly unpopular in the Republican-heavy southern reaches of the 3rd District in Franklin, Anderson and Miami counties, where her staunch support of the Biden legislative agenda is rigidly criticized. But she enjoys huge margins in progressive and liberal-minded realms of Johnson and Wyandotte counties. Davids usually only visits the southern areas of the district on short, unannounced hops for photo ops with local officials or small, Democrat-friendly groups – never among mixed crowds or subject to media exposure.

Davids and Reddy were the top of the ballot contenders at Wednesday’s event. The three-term Democrat was the only candidate who didn’t show up after having agreed to attend, notably After having issued conditions to chamber organizers that she would not share the stage with Reddy nor except any open, unmonitored questions from the audience. Her absence was much the topic of discussion among the 120 audience members who attended.

“So she issues these ultimatums and they (the Ottawa chamber) cowt-ows to her, and then she still doesn’t show up,” one unidentified man was overheard saying to a group in the lobby during a break. “Shows you how much she thinks of Ottawa.”

Reddy, solo in one of two chairs on stage arranged for opposing candidates to address the audience, spoke for his allotted time detailing his personal journey as an immigrant with his family from Chennai, India, his schooling, college at K-State and and later medical school and eventually his enlistment in the U.S. Air Force after 9/11.

Responding to a moderator’s question, Reddy specifically refuted debunked claims by Davids’ campaign that he supports a nationwide abortion ban.

“I can tell you what you’re hearing is patently false,” Reddy said. “My position on abortion is very straight forward – I believe in exceptions. Based on Dobbs it’s a state’s rights issue. I respect the will of the Kansas voters and I’m not going to support a national ban. It’s that simple for me.”

The Ottawa forum would have been the first and possibly only policy discussion between the two candidates of the campaign, since Davids turned down an invitation by the Johnson County area NAACP to the organization’s October 14 debate. That debate would have been before a live audience and members of the KC area minority media. Davids is said to have agreed to an October 25 in-studio debate to be televised by Kansas City Public Television, but Donley did not confirm that she would still attend in a reply to questions from the Kansas Informer on Thursday.

With news of Davids’ pull-out several hours before, Reddy pulled no punches in a statement issued shortly before the Ottawa event.

“Sharice Davids had the chance to face voters and answer their questions,” Reddy said, “but backed out when it became clear she couldn’t control the narrative. Voters in this District deserve a representative who will listen to their concerns and answer their questions.”

“I’ll take questions regardless of someone’s party affiliation,” Reddy said. “Why is Sharice Davids hiding?”

The event was moderated by former Ottawa Mayor Blake Jorgenson and sponsored by the Ottawa Chamber Legislative Action Committee, KOFO 1220 Rado and the Franklin County Farm Bureau.