A Johnson County physician who migrated to the United States from India announced Wednesday morning that he is running for the 3rd Congressional District seat against Democratic incumbent Sharice Davids.
Prasanth Reddy, senior vice president and global head of enterprise oncology at Labcorp, became the third Republican to get in the race to challenge Davids.
Karen Crnkovich, the owner of a heating, cooling, ventilation and plumbing business in the Kansas City area, has already filed papers with the Federal Election Commission creating a campaign committee.
Also Jonathon Westbrook, a sergeant with the Kansas City, Kansas, Police Department who was a White House Fellow in 2020-21, also filed papers to form a campaign committee.
Reddy, however, is the only candidate of the three to officially launch a campaign.
“As an immigrant, I’ve lived the American dream, and I’ve spent my life trying to give back to the country that gave me everything,” Reddy said in a statement announcing his campaign.
“My whole life, I’ve run toward problems. Whether it was serving cancer patients, or when I became a citizen and an officer in the Air Force Reserve after 9/11, I’ve always sought to be part of the solution,” he said.
“I’m not a politician. I’ve never wanted to run for office. But the unique experiences I’ve had as an immigrant, a military officer, a physician and a businessman put me in a position to help save our country,” he said.
Reddy’s campaign has been anticipated for weeks as he’s made the rounds meeting with various political leaders within the district.
Last Friday, Emily’s List sent a statement to reporters calling attention to Reddy’s likely candidacy.
The organization asked a series of questions about Reddy’s background, including his position on abortion and whether he supported former President Donald Trump and Kansas Attorney General Kris Kobach – two political personalities who would not likely play well in the 3rd Congressional District.
“Voters deserve to know their candidates’ views on a woman’s right to choose and their voting record,” Emily’s List spokesperson Danni Wang said in a statement.
“EMILYs List is confident that, at the end of the day, Kansans will choose Congresswoman Davids’ pro-choice leadership and commitment to her community over an out-of-touch alternate reality that attacks our freedom to choose,” Wang said.
The National Republican Campaign Committee issued a statement about the race but stopped short of endorsing any particular candidate.
“Sharice Davids is an extreme Democrat whose radical soft-on-crime and anti-law enforcement policies are directly related to the rise in crime and fentanyl in Kansas,” NRCC Spokeswoman Delanie Bomar said in an email.
“Republicans look forward to kicking Davids out of office in 2024.”
In addition to his work at Labcorp, Reddy also served as a lieutenant colonel in the U.S. Air Force reserves and as vice president of medical affairs at Foundation Medicine, which conducts biotechnology research involving cancer.
He also worked as the medical director for the Shawnee Mission Cancer Center and as an oncologist at Olathe Medical Center.
He earned his bachelor’s in microbiology and psychology from Kansas State University and his medical degree from the University of Kansas Medical Center.
Elected in 2018, Davids has already beaten incumbent Congressman Kevin Yoder and defeated Republican Amanda Adkins twice.
After her defeat last year, Adkins said that any Republican candidate who wants to win in the 3rd District will need $10 million for starters.
Davids raised about $8 million during the last election cycle while outside Democratic groups spent roughly $6 million on television advertising.
Davids has already raised about $500,706 in the first quarter of this year and had about $402,000 in cash on hand as of March 31.
Davids beat Adkins last year in a newly drawn congressional district that was believed to favor a Republican candidate by replacing parts of Wyandotte County with rural areas further south.
While Adkins won handily in the new rural areas such as Miami, Franklin and Anderson counties, there weren’t enough votes cast there to offset Davids’ margins in Johnson and Wyandotte counties, where she won by more than 40,000 votes.
