After evading numerous debates, Davids to finally face Reddy on Kansas City PBS Thursday

KANSAS CITY – After sidestepping three opportunities to face off with her challenger and discuss policy in front of live voter audiences, 3rd District incumbent Kansas Congresswoman Sharice Davids, a Democrat, will finally meet Johnson County oncologist Republican Dr. Prasanth Reddy in a head-to-head debate at 3:00 p.m. this Thursday in an in-studio event on Kansas City Public Television.

The event will be live streamed at 3 p.m. Thursday with moderator Nick Haines, then broadcast Friday night at 7:30 p.m. on the Kansas City PBS station. 

The Youtube livestream can be found at: 

Two previous debates, one sponsored by the Johnson County chapter of the NAACP and the other hosted by the Johnson County Bar Association, were both canceled after Davids declined those invitations. She was scheduled to appear at a third candidate forum with Reddy in Ottawa October 9 after having secured concessions from the Ottawa Chamber of Commerce organizers that she not appear on stage with her opponent nor answer questions from the audience. Davids cancelled around noon the day of the event. Her campaign declined to answer queries from the Informer as to a reason for the cancellation.

Henry Lyons, local chapter director of NAACP, said Davids also dodged that organization’s event in 2022. He called her repeated refusals to take questions from area minority newspapers and media insulting.

“Black voters primarily look to Black media first for news on how they’re going to vote, and we had several Black newspapers and media set to be here to cover it but she won’t be there again,” Lyons told the Informer at the time.

“It’s an insult, really, is what it is,” Lyons said.

Davids’ campaign strategy appears to emulate one being pursued on the national stage by Democrat presidential candidate Kamala Harris, who’s been broadly criticized for avoiding open question or unscripted media appearances. A suspicious CBS edit of her interview recently on “60 Minutes” has prompted a lawsuit by the Trump campaign seeking to produce the actual interview transcript for comparison, something CBS has so far denied. A supposed town hall-style meeting hosted by celebrity Maria Shriver this week conditioned up front that only “predetermined questions” would be allowed of Harris. 

Davids has been a stalwart legislative supporter of President Joe Biden’s policies now widely blamed for economic struggle, increasing crime tied to the administration’s open border initiatives as well as efforts to re-engineer American culture to a more progressive landscape. Even with the largest population of her district keyed in liberal enclaves of Johnson and Wyandotte counties, Davids has never been publicly tied to such a controversial president during a more divisive national election environment. Though neither she nor her campaign will comment, that heat may be convincing Davids to keep her profile low on the radar. 

A direct example came recently when law officers in Anderson County arrested an illegal immigrant, Porfirio De La Cruz, age 33, for an alleged attack on a 64 year-old female bicyclist from Ottawa on a remote section of the Prairie Spirit Trail. Though the attack occurred in Davids’ district with obvious implications to ongoing national border concerns, Davids refused comment on the incident.

The tactic is one that hasn’t gone unnoticed by her opponent.

“Avoiding tough questions, ducking voters and hiding behind attack ads sums up what people don’t like about politics,” Reddy said when Davids stalled to respond to the NAACP invitation. “She knows she can’t defend her record of driving up our costs and opening our border.”