By the Associated Press:
Kansas’ state treasurer has unseated freshman Representative Steve Watkins in the Republican primary with Watkins facing felony criminal charges.
Treasurer Jake LaTurner’s victory in Tuesday’s election came only three weeks after the district attorney in Watkins’ home of Shawnee County filed the charges.
Watkins is accused of voting illegally in a Topeka City Council race in November 2019 and trying to mislead a sheriff’s detective investigating Watkins’ listing of a UPS Inc. store postal box as his residence on a state voter registration form. Watkins has called the criminal charges “bogus” but LaTurner argued that the criminal case made Watkins a vulnerable general election candidate.
Watkins is a former Army officer and military contractor who barely won his seat in 2018 as a political novice. LaTurner is a former state senator who has served as treasurer since 2017.
Topeka’s mayor has easily won the Democratic nomination for the 2nd District congressional seat.
Mayor Michelle De La Isla prevailed in Tuesday’s primary election against University of Kansas instructor and graduate student James Windholz. De La Isla had the backing of prominent Democrats.
Democrats believe De La Isla could turn the seat in the Republican-leaning second district even though President Donald Trump carried it handily in 2016. She will face Jake LaTurner in the November election.
Amanda Adkins has won the Republican primary in Kansas’ 3rd District.
The 45-year-old Overland Park woman is vice president of strategic growth at the medical records firm Cerner Corporation and former chairwoman of the Kanss Republican Party.
Adkins defeated Adrienne Vallejo Foster, Sara Hart Weir, Mike Beehler, and Tom Love and will face first-term incumbent Democratic Rep. Sharice Davids in the November general election.
Adkins stressed her support for President Donald Trump. Her campaign got a boost from a political action committee financed largely by her father. Davids received national attention as a Native American and openly LGBTQ candidate in 2018 and she’s already raised more than $3.8 million for her re-election campaign.
