Gay Native American Sharice Davids Reelected to U.S. House

U.S. Rep. Sharice Davids, the first gay Native American in Congress and the only Democrat in Kansas's congressional delegation, has been reelected.

MSNBC and the LGBTQ+ Victory Fund both called the race for Davids about 10 p.m. Central time. In Kansas's Third Congressional District, she had 55 percent of the vote, while Republican challenger Amanda Adkins had about 43 percent.

Davids was first elected in 2018 as one of the first two Native American women in Congress. She defeated an anti-LGBTQ+ Republican incumbent, Kevin Yoder, in that election. The other Native American woman elected at that time was Deb Haaland of New Mexico, who is now secretary of the Interior.

Davids, a member of the Ho-Chunk tribe and an attorney who has practiced law with tribes, told The Advocate last year, "I would never say that I speak for all Native people or even my tribe. ... I think I can bring things up on behalf of other people, but I'm just really careful about the concept of speaking for other people, even talking about it in that way. Like any group, Native people are not a monolith. I think it's helpful to constantly remind people of that and make sure that folks know that I might be an expert on my lived experience or certain parts of legislation or policy.

"Especially in my role as a member of Congress, I have to spend most of my time listening to other people who are talking about the issues and concerns that they have. So I'm doing that for sure, for the Third District. And when it comes to tribal issues, tribal communities, I can ask questions that other people might not even think of because of my experience."