Adkins says Biden won 2020 election as she campaigns with Ted Cruz, who tried to overturn it

Republican Amanda Adkins stood by the results of the 2020 presidential election on Friday as she campaigned with one of the key figures who tried to block certification of President Joe Biden’s victory.

“I do believe that Joe Biden won the election,” Adkins said, standing next to Texas Sen. Ted Cruz, the Republican who led a failed effort to contest Arizona’s 11 electoral votes on the same day the Capitol was attacked by a mob of then-President Donald Trump’s supporters. Adkins noted that there isn’t a high incidence of election fraud in Kansas and that the state has strong election laws.

But a moment earlier, Adkins, who is running in Kansas’ 3rd Congressional District, agreed with Cruz when he slammed the House January 6 Committee and its vote Thursday to subpoena Trump. Cruz said subpoena of the former president was an attempt by Democrats to shift the focus away from problems confronting the Biden administration. He called the entire committee a “political operation.”

“I absolutely agree that it’s political theater,” Adkins said.

As Adkins pitches herself as a pragmatic figure who can appeal to moderates and independents in a swing district that went for Biden and is among the most competitive in the country, Friday’s rally with Cruz, one of the most hard-right senators, underscored her need to also turn out very conservative voters.

Cruz delivered a fiery speech, delighting a crowd of several hundred with caustic takedowns of Biden and other Democrats, telling them that Democrats have “managed every single policy to get wrong.”

Condemning inflation, at levels unseen in four decades, and rising costs, Cruz said “it is so bad Hunter Biden can’t afford crack cocaine,” referring to the president’s son who has struggled with addiction. He also joked about Biden’s mental acuity, saying the president “wanders off the stage unless the Easter Bunny guides him back.”

“One party gets in power, they go too far one in direction and the American people pull it back. Every time we see this White House, Biden, Harris, Pelosi and Schumer,” Cruz said, referring to the vice president and Democratic congressional leaders, “do some dumb ass policy, a part of me grieves, grieves for the damage being done to this country.”

“But part of me quietly celebrates because it is accelerating the American people coming back.”

Adkins, who spoke before Cruz, gave her normal stump speech, focused on economic issues, the need to secure the southern border and arguing the flow of drugs has contributed to crime. She said the country “is in terrible shape,” asking the crowd whether they’re better off now than two years ago.

“We need to get back to reducing the deficit, no reckless spending, balancing the budget,” Adkins said.

A former Cerner executive and former Kansas Republican Party chair, Adkins has embraced a standard GOP agenda, focusing especially on inflation and the economy, as she seeks to win over both Republicans as well as the independents she’ll need to defeat two-term Democratic Rep. Sharice Davids.

Cruz, a former and potentially future presidential candidate, and Adkins share the same political consulting firm, Kansas City-based Axiom Strategies. The Texas senator’s appearance may be intended to signal to conservative and hard-right Republicans that Adkins should be supported. Cruz was also scheduled to appear at a Kansas City rally Friday evening with Missouri Republican candidates, including Senate candidate and current Missouri Attorney General Eric Schmitt and congressional hopeful Mark Alford.

Adkins’ appearance with Cruz took place in Franklin County, a solidly Republican area. In 2020, 68% of voters in the county cast their ballot for former President Donald Trump, ahead of Trump’s statewide share of 56% of the vote.

The area was previously in the 2nd District, which included most of eastern Kansas, but when the Republican-controlled Kansas Legislature redrew congressional district boundaries earlier this year, lawmakers moved Franklin and a few other mostly rural counties into the 3rd District, which traditionally centers on the Kansas side of the Kansas City metro. Lawmakers also removed part of Wyandotte County from the 3rd District.

The resulting new 3rd District is more rural and more Republican than it was before. The changes have helped make the Adkins-Davids race among the most competitive in the country. The non-partisan Cook Political Report has rated the race a toss-up.

Steven Foulke, a professor of history at Ottawa University, a private Baptist university located within the city, questioned Adkins’ decision to appear with Cruz. While Cruz will rile up local GOP faithful, Foulke said more centrists live in the area than even a decade ago.

“I don’t think it’s a very effective mechanism to try to woo centrist Republicans, of which I think there are more and more. I think we saw that in the summer with the abortion referendum,” Foulke said, referring to the overwhelming statewide vote on Aug. 2 to reject an amendment to the Kansas Constitution that would have given state lawmakers the power to severely restrict or ban abortion.

Cruz’s gravitational pull with Republicans was on display in Ottawa, which pulled in people from across the area – even if they can’t actually vote for Adkins. Sharon Roecker, a Baldwin City resident who lives in the 2nd District, nevertheless effusively praised Adkins, saying she believes Adkins is conservative enough for the job.

“I want all the Democrats out, I don’t care who they are. The Republicans, I’ll be voting for every one of them,” Roecker said.

Davids has moved to adapt to the 3rd District’s new makeup, including by talking more frequently about rural and agricultural issues. She has also campaigned in the new areas of the district, such as an early July tour of downtown Ottawa businesses. In September, Davids held an event in Ottawa focused on health care affordability.

As Democrats nationally face pressure over inflation, Davids has promoted her support of efforts to reduce supply chain problems and bolster manufacturing. She has also emphasized her support for abortion access, as well as her actions on health care, such as a law to eliminate surprise medical bills.

Hours after the Adkins-Cruz event, Davids was set to appear in Kansas City, Kan., as part of a bus tour put on by Protect Our Care, an advocacy group that promotes affordable health care.

The Ottawa stop with Cruz is one of the most high-profile public events of Adkins’ campaign. Adkins has spent much of the race campaigning in more intimate settings, such as “Ask Amanda” events that are sometimes hosted at private residences.

The past several weeks have featured increasingly prominent stops, with Adkins barnstorming the district last weekend on the Kansas GOP bus tour. She also held a news conference to promote her support of the “Commitment to America,” a high-level policy roadmap released by House Minority Leader Kevin McCarthy, a California Republican poised to become speaker if Republicans retake the chamber in November.

“I’m very pragmatic in a lot of ways. I’m also very conservative,” Adkins said Friday. “People are supporting me and showed up in droves today because they know we’re on a bad path.”

Democrats have framed Adkins, a former Kansas Republican Party chairwoman, as extreme. Davids and other Democrats have placed particular emphasis on Adkins’ stance on abortion.

Adkins has said she doesn’t support a federal ban on abortion. But Democrats have pointed to Adkins’ support of a Republican Study Committee budget to reduce the deficit, which includes a federal ban on abortion after a heartbeat is detected, which would be earlier than Kansas’ 22-week ban and supports a bill declaring that human life begins at conception.

“Of course Amanda Adkins brought Ted Cruz to Kansas, just like she wants to bring Texas-style abortion bans without exception to Kansas. At the same time Adkins is campaigning on division and extreme partisanship, Rep. Sharice Davids is highlighting how she’s helped Kansans save money on prescription drugs and health insurance—and that tells you all you need to know,” Davids campaign spokesperson Ellie Turner said in a statement.

Two groups of Democratic counter-protesters stood across the street from the Cruz-Adkins rally. Some shouting from one of the groups could be heard during Cruz’s speech, but it was unclear what the protesters were saying.

“What business does Ted Cruz have in Kansas advocating for Amanda Adkins? Why is that his issue?” said Beth Bird, an Ottawa resident who protested Cruz and said she plans to vote for Davids.

Democrats have also highlighted Adkins’ links to former Gov. Sam Brownback, whose signature income tax cuts led to severe budget shortfalls that made him unpopular even among many Republicans. Adkins managed Brownback’s 2004 Senate campaign and as governor, Brownback appointed Adkins to chair the Kansas Children’s Cabinet.

The strategy has alienated some Republican voters, however. Robert Carroll, a Kansas City, Kan., resident who lives in the 3rd District, said he supported Brownback’s policies. If Kansans would have “just held on” to Brownback’s tax cuts, the situation would have turned around, Carroll said.

“I get stuff from the Democratic Party all the time trying to say how bad Amanda is and things like that,” Carroll said outside a Kansas GOP bus tour stop on Sunday. “Well, she has the same values that I have.”