KS-SEN: Her father just pleaded guilty to raping her, but she hopes that won't define her Senate bid [View all]
Usha Reddi, a Democrat who launched her Kansas Senate campaign Thursday, never meant for her experience as a survivor of sexual assault to be central to her platform.
But when her father pleaded guilty this summer to raping her when she was a child, Reddi, a city commissioner in Manhattan, Kansas, decided she should be the one to make it an issue.
“My personal life and my public life were about to intersect,” she told CQ Roll Call in an interview. “I thought the community needed to hear about it from me first.”
Reddi, 54, is one of several Kansas Democrats vying to succeed retiring Republican Sen. Pat Roberts. Local backlash against the deep budget cuts instituted by former Gov. Sam Brownback has convinced many Democrats that they have a shot at the seat, even though they haven’t won a Senate race in Kansas since 1932 — the longest dry spell for either party in the country.
Those hopes have been compounded by the lack of an obvious Republican front-runner, though Secretary of State Mike Pompeo has been rumored for months to be weighing a bid. Inside Elections with Nathan L. Gonzales rates the race Solid Republican.
https://www.rollcall.com/news/campaigns/her-father-just-pleaded-guilty-to-raping-her-but-usha-reddi-hopes-that-wont-define-her-senate-bid
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