Democratic U.S. Senate candidate eager to broaden Kansas voice in D.C. politics
Christy Davis, one of three candidates seeking the Kansas Democratic Party's nomination for U.S. Senate, is eager to challenge in 2026 incumbent U.S. Sen. Roger Marshall, a Republican loyal to President Donald Trump. (Sherman Smith/Kansas Reflector)
TOPEKA — Democrat Christy Davis’ campaign for U.S. Senate is steeped in the politics of incumbent Republican Sen. Roger Marshall and President Donald Trump.
But the resident of Cottonwood Falls is also driven by frustration that many folks holding power in Washington, D.C., have been quick to disenfranchise Kansans with no interest in placing a Marshall sign in the yard or branding themselves by wearing a MAGA cap.
“All Kansans are served by their elected officials, or should be,” Davis said on the Kansas Reflector podcast. “When you’re elected to the U.S. Senate, you’re representing everyone in the state regardless of who they voted for.”
“Kansans deserve the best representation, and we’re not getting it in Washington,” she said. “Register to vote, show up at the polls and help however you can.”
Davis said Marshall, who won a competitive race in 2020 and has committed to seek reelection in 2026, chose to be among the Senate GOP’s most partisan members rather than bring civility to the job.
“There’s not enough resources in the world … for us to be spending all of our energy fighting each other,” she said. “Kansans need to know that they’re being heard, not just the ones who are invited to private meetings.”
Davis, who hasn’t held elective office, launched one of three bids for the Kansas Democratic Party’s nomination for Senate. In terms of the August 2026 primary, her rivals would include Michael Soetaert of Wellington and Anne Parelkar of Overland Park.
Christy Davis speaks at the No Kings rally on June 14, 2025, from the south steps of the Statehouse in Topeka, where she announced she would explore a U.S. Senate run as a Democrat against incumbent Republican U.S. Sen. Roger Marshall. (Sherman Smith/Kansas Reflector)
‘Fight for what’s right’
Davis grew up in Harvey County and earned degrees at Kansas State University and Wichita State University. She worked as a preservation planner for the city of Newton and was a preservation officer with the Kansas Historical Society. She moved to Chase County in 2013 to become executive director of Symphony in the Flint Hills.
“The Flint Hills is one of the most endangered landscapes on the planet and so we were really focused on conservation of that landscape,” Davis said.
From 2023 until January, she was state director of rural development for the U.S. Department of Agriculture in the administration of President Joe Biden. The job was to deliver hard-to-fund projects important to communities, she said.
“During the Biden administration, we invested about $1.3 billion in projects in Kansas and worked on housing, local business, energy efficiency in agribusiness and also a lot of hospitals, clinics, child care, those sorts of projects,” she said.
Davis is married with a son. She said her grandfathers served in World War II, one as a surgeon and the other with soldiers who helped liberate concentration camps. She said their service wasn’t easy, but they did it because they “understood the importance of right and wrong, and they believed that it was an American value.”
Davis said her sister was a physician who died while advocating for the Affordable Care Act, the landmark law signed by President Barack Obama that reshaped health care in the United States.
“I tell people I’ve survived 36 hours of labor, and I’ve survived a double mastectomy, and after that, it doesn’t seem so hard to fight, to fight for what’s right,” Davis said.
Christy Davis says one of her strengths as a candidate is that she worked in every county as the director of rural development for the U.S. Department of Agriculture under the Biden administration. (Sherman Smith/Kansas Reflector)
‘It’s an embarrassment’
Davis ran for the U.S. House in 2020 but lost the Democratic primary. That 1st District campaign was won by U.S. Rep. Tracey Mann, a Republican who still serves a district stretching from Dodge City to Lawrence.
The last time Kansas elected a Democratic candidate to the U.S. Senate was in 1932. Both of the state’s Senate seats have been held by Republicans since 1939.
“Sometimes there are other factors at play besides who the best candidate is,” Davis said. “The key is garnering that support, raising enough money early to get, you know, on the ground and begin the hard work.”
She said one of her strengths as a candidate was that she had worked in every county in Kansas and understood issues relevant to a diverse constituency. She said Congress wasn’t fighting battles that needed to be fought for Kansans, including affordable housing and the rising cost of living.
Congress should stand up for fundamental rights, including due process, amid the Trump administration’s immigration crackdown, Davis said.
She said she was an unwavering supporter of public education and was convinced the effort to close the U.S. Department of Education would make education a significant campaign issue in 2026. She opposed appropriation of tax dollars to private schools.
“I believe that we should be doing everything we can to shore up public education,” she said.
Davis denounced the proposed amendment to the Kansas Constitution that would have laid the foundation for more stringent restrictions on abortion. In 2022, Kansas voters rejected the amendment to nullify a Kansas Supreme Court opinion that said the state constitution guaranteed women bodily autonomy and the right to end a pregnancy.
Votes in Congress to remove millions of people from Medicaid could jeopardize dozens of rural hospitals in Kansas, she said.
Davis said work by Republicans to demolish the U.S. Agency for International Development, or USAID, was a tragedy.
“It’s an embarrassment that we have cut funding to USAID, that we have had opportunities to help people who are experiencing food insecurity, and that we have cut those programs off at the knees,” she said.