Pete Buttigieg stumps for Kelly in Kansas, but she skips as Democrats walk tightrope on Biden

Transportation Secretary Pete Buttigieg – one of President Joe Biden’s top lieutenants – on Wednesday made a case for Gov. Laura Kelly’s reelection during an appearance in Kansas, even as the incumbent Democrat remained elsewhere.

Buttigieg, a former and potential future presidential candidate, rallied several hundred cheering Democrats at a union hall in Kansas City, Kansas, where he urged them to volunteer for Kelly and Democratic Rep. Sharice Davids, whose 3rd Congressional District is one of the most competitive House races in the country.

“This is going to be a razor-thin election,” Buttigieg said. “There’s a reason so many people around the country are looking at Kansas, asking about Kansas, watching what’s happening in Kansas.”

“First of all, you sent a hell of a message to the country on Aug. 2,” he said, referring to the landslide rejection of an amendment that would have stripped abortion rights from the Kansas Constitution. The line drew enthusiastic applause inside the hall.

The vote caught national attention and led Democrats across the country to campaign more heavily on preserving abortion access after the U.S. Supreme Court overturned Roe v. Wade this summer. Democrats in Kansas are now working to get voters who showed up in August to do so again – this time for their candidates.

The get-out-the-vote event, coming less than three weeks before the Nov. 8 election and as early voting begins, marked an appearance by the one of the highest-profile Democrats to publicly stump for candidates in Kansas this year.

Biden has kept a relatively low campaign profile ahead of the midterm elections, which often lead to losses in Congress for the president’s party. His last visit to the Kansas City area came in December 2021, when he spoke about infrastructure in Kansas City, Missouri.

But Buttigieg, the public face of the administration’s implementation of the $1.2 trillion infrastructure law approved by Congress last year, is widely seen as a rising star among Democrats and he has deployed frequently across the country to boost candidates.

“I love Pete Buttigieg. I was amazed that he was coming to Kansas. I follow him because he makes so much sense with everything that he says,” said Vicki Miller, a Democratic precinct committeewoman in Lenexa who said she changed her plans so she could attend Wednesday’s rally.

Still, most major Kansas candidates didn’t attend.

“Governor Kelly was touring Quest Diagnostics, which employs nearly 2,000 people in the KC metro area, to discuss with business leaders ways to grow the economy and strengthen the workforce,” Kelly campaign spokesperson Lauren Fitzgerald said in a statement.

Kelly has distanced herself from Biden at times over the past two years, including opposing a proposed COVID-19 vaccine mandate, and has repeatedly said she is primarily focused on state issues over national ones.

Davids also didn’t attend, but had welcomed Labor Secretary Marty Walsh to the 3rd District earlier in the day. A Davids spokesperson cited a scheduling conflict related to Walsh’s visit as the reason for her absence at the Buttigieg event later that day.

A spokesperson for Patrick Schmidt, the 2nd District Democratic congressional nominee, said earlier he wouldn’t attend.

As Republicans pummel Biden on inflation, a recent poll shows the president is unpopular among Kansans. Biden had a 36% approval rating in Kansas, according to a mid-September survey by Emerson College Polling and The Hill, less than the 42% of the vote he received in 2020.

The campaign manager for Kansas Attorney General Derek Schmidt, Kelly’s Republican opponent, said in a statement that “try as she may to keep it a secret,” Kelly is a “Biden Democrat.”

“She can run, but she can’t hide from the Biden team campaigning on her behalf. Voters still deserve to know whether she’s going to invite Biden himself to Kansas. She can’t seem to answer that simple question,” the campaign manager, C.J. Grover, said.

Buttigieg praised Kelly’s focus on improving highway funding, as well as securing funding for broadband internet expansion. “It’s one more reason I admire your governor because she understands the importance of infrastructure,” he said.

The Biden Cabinet secretary also went directly after Schmidt.

“What is a little bit surprising is that anybody thinks that a disciple of Sam Brownback ought to be the next governor of Kansas,” Buttigieg said, referring to the former Republican governor whose income tax cuts led to severe budget shortfalls.

“I think we know better. I think we know the governor you’ve got is the right one for the future,” he said.

Kansas Republican Party Executive Director Shannon Pahls said in a statement that Kansans are “tired of Biden bureaucrats like Pete Buttigieg who got us into this inflation mess.”

“This visit shows that Team Biden is all in for Laura Kelly and Sharice Davids because they will continue to be another rubber stamp for the Biden agenda,” Pahls said.

Several hours before the Buttigieg rally, Davids visited Edgerton with Walsh in her official capacity as a congresswoman for an event highlighting commercial drivers training programs and efforts to solve supply chain issues that have contributed to inflation. Davids faces a tough reelection bid against Republican Amanda Adkins, a former Cerner executive and former Kansas Republican Party chair.

Walsh emphasized Davids’ role in passing the infrastructure legislation through Congress.

“Your congresswoman played such an important role in major legislation to get America’s economy back and running, to rebuild our roads and bridges and our infrastructure, to lower our prices for healthcare and prescription drugs and also to bring American manufacturing back to the United States in a big way,” Walsh said.