Republican primary winner Steve Huebert is trying to get back into office while Tracy Edingfield seeks elected office. 

Republicans have won this district in the last five elections. This is only the second time since 2014 that the race has included a Democratic challenger. 

Election Day is Nov. 5. Oct. 15 is the last day to register to vote. Early voting starts Oct. 16. You can find your polling place and the races you vote in here. 

Who are the candidates in Kansas House District 90?

Democrat Tracy Edingfield

Edingfield is a former city prosecutor for Mount Hope and a former city municipal judge. 

She has a psychology degree from the University of Kansas. Edingfield went back to KU for law school and was a public defender in Joplin, Missouri, for two years. She then worked at the Dresie, Jorgensen and Wood law firm before starting her own practice — McDowell and Edingfield Charter. 

She focused on divorce and family law there. 

“I don’t like the direction that the state and the country are headed in,” she said. “I don’t like the fact that so many of the bills that come out of the legislature are being overturned because they’re unconstitutional. And I think a person with legal expertise would be able to write a law that was constitutional and save taxpayers money.”

She’s endorsed by the Kansas branch of the AFL-CIO, Game On for Kansas Schools and Rep. KC Ohaebosim, a Wichita Democrat. 

Her campaign website is here. 

Republican Steve Huebert 

Steve Huebert served in the House from 2001 to 2022 and chaired the House Education Committee. He stepped down in 2022 but is running again. Huebert is retired. 

He is endorsed by Kansans for Life, the Kansas Chamber of Commerce, NFIB-Kansas, the Kansas Farm Bureau, Kansas Livestock Association, Kansas Family Voice and the Kansas Rifle Association. 

“I am excited about working hard and showing people that I still have the desire to do a good job and listen to the concerns of my constituents,” Huebert told the Ark Valley News. 

If elected, which of these politicians would you most closely resemble?

Options include: Joe Biden, Sharice Davids, Bob Dole, Nancy Kassebaum, Laura Kelly, Roger Marshall, Jerry Moran, Donald Trump or someone else?

Edingfield: I would probably say Nancy Kassebaum … I admire the fact that she was very strong in her convictions. She was very pragmatic in her solution. She negotiated common sense arrangements, and I think she had integrity.

Huebert: Huebert didn’t respond to The Beacon’s questionnaire. 

If you could pass any bill, what would it be and why? 

Edingfield: The first thing I would want to do is expand Medicaid. There (are) 151,000 Kansans, of which 45,000 are children, who fall in the gap between qualifying for Medicare and qualifying for a subsidy under the Affordable Care Act. That is allowing a lot of people to go without health care insurance. That medical insurance is cost prohibitive for a huge chunk of our citizens, and that’s just not acceptable. 

Huebert: Huebert introduced many bills in his decades-long career. In his final years of office, he introduced legislation to require students pass a civics test to graduate high school. This bill died after it was vetoed by the governor. 

“Just like math students need to learn the basic principles of multiplication in order to study physics and engineering,” Huebert told the Kansas Reflector. “All citizens need to understand the basic principles of how democracy works in order to participate for the rest of their lives. I’m passionate about it. We have a challenge before us.”

How would you have voted on the following bills if you were in office when they came up? You can vote yes, no or pass. 

The Aug. 2, 2022, constitutional amendment on abortion

Voting no meant the state constitution would continue to protect the right to abortion. Voting yes would have meant it can be regulated or banned.

Edingfield: No. “I had a very difficult time in both of my deliveries, and I nearly died each time giving birth. The maternal rate for Black women — they’re three times more likely to die than white women giving birth. And in Kansas, our infant mortality rate and our maternal mortality rate is closer to the numbers you’ll see in Turkey, which is not considered a developed country. So before we go on to a forced-birth agenda, we need to make sure we have the ability to get women to the point of being pregnant, to the point of giving birth, and beyond that, to the point of healing. And we don’t do that. And as I nearly died both times, these are not exaggerations. I can prove it with my medical records. I would not impose that risk on someone else who did not want it or did not need it. I would be considered a pro-choice Catholic.” 

Huebert: Huebert voted in 2021 to put the constitutional amendment on the ballot. The original language for the amendment was that “there is no constitutional right to abortion, and reserving to the people the ability to regulate abortion through the elected members of the Legislature of the state of Kansas.”

Flat tax on income

A flat tax on income was packaged with property tax cuts and eliminating Social Security income tax. Democrats and Republicans agreed on other parts of the plan, but were at odds over a flat tax.  A single rate on income didn’t pass this year.

Edingfield: No. It unduly places a burden on the middle class and not enough of a burden on the wealthier people in our society. I think if you have more, you should pay more.  

Huebert: Huebert wasn’t in office during this vote and didn’t respond to The Beacon’s questionnaire. 

Banning transgender women from women’s sports

Banning transgender women from women’s sports. Voting yes would mean athletes have to compete as the gender they’re assigned at birth. This bill was vetoed but the veto was overridden in 2022.

Edingfield: No. That was a culture war issue. I think it was inappropriate for the legislature to even take it up. I’m not even interested in limiting the rights of Kansans in any way, shape or form. I don’t understand the transgender identity crisis, but I have great respect for them … If God made them that way, then God made them in that way. It’s not up for me to understand it. It’s up for me to love them. And that’s not showing love. By ostracizing that group of people. It’s bullying behavior, and frankly, it’s going after what I would consider low hanging fruit. Totally inappropriate, totally unfair and I think it’s cruel.

Huebert: Huebert didn’t vote on this specific bill, but he did vote for two other bills banning transgender women from women’s sports teams. 

Banning gender-affirming care for trans youth

Voting yes means children under 18 can’t get puberty blockers, hormone treatment, and in rare cases, gender-reassignment change surgery. This bill narrowly failed this year and is expected to come up again in 2025.

Edingfield: No. 

Huebert: Huebert was not in office during this vote and didn’t respond to The Beacon’s questionnaire. 

Chiefs and Royals stadium-financing bill

This bill didn’t spend any taxpayer money to attract the teams, but it did set aside future sales tax dollars from future stadium districts to pay off bonds. This law passed by a comfortable margin, and voting yes opens the door to the Chiefs and Royals in Kansas.

Edingfield: Yes. It brings more economic benefit than harm, so I would vote for it. But I would also have a (provision) that if we have tax money going to support stadiums, I would expect the billionaire team owners to chip in some money as well, and I would earmark some of that money for our Department of Corrections and the women’s facilities in particular.

Huebert: Huebert was not in office during this vote and didn’t respond to The Beacon’s questionnaire. 

APEX (Attracting Powerful Economic Expansion)

This bill had billions in tax incentives to bring a Panasonic battery plant to De Soto, Kansas. As it was being passed, lawmakers were not told which company would be coming, but were told the bill is necessary to attract large businesses.  Voting yes approved a massive tax incentive plan for companies.

Edingfield: I don’t like the obfuscation of the identity of the plant because I think it makes a difference. I am for having tax incentives for businesses to promote economic growth, and I think it is essential for Kansans to be attractive for businesses. 

Huebert: No. 

Mail ballot grace period

Currently, any mail ballot in Kansas can arrive three days after Election Day and still be counted if it was postmarked on or before Election Day. Voting yes would eliminate that grace period.

Edingfield: No. A grace period of three days is totally reasonable.

Huebert: Huebert was not in office during this vote and didn’t respond to The Beacon’s questionnaire. 

A bill loosening child care regulations

It would expand allowed child-to-staff ratios and allow teenagers to work at these facilities. Voting yes approves the loosened restrictions. Learn more about this bill here.

Edingfield: Pass. I don’t know. I don’t have the inside of a child care day care owner, so I don’t know if deregulating is an answer to the problem or would exacerbate a problem.

Huebert: Huebert was not in office during this vote and didn’t respond to The Beacon’s questionnaire. 

The Parents’ Bill of Rights

This bill lets parents pull their kids out of classes if they are being taught objectionable material. Republicans say it is up to parents to determine what their children should be learning. Democrats say this bill addresses a problem that doesn’t exist.

Edingfield: No. It was very tactful for Democrats to say this addresses (an issue) that doesn’t exist. I think what this does is it ignores the overriding purpose of a public education …. to prepare each child to become an involved and competent citizen in our democracy … Being exposed to differing points of view is a necessary criterion for being, and that is a necessary skill for every citizen to have and to cultivate so that they can be productive citizens in a democracy. 

Huebert: Huebert wasn’t in office as this bill was debated, but he did support similar proposals. Huebert said the bill was necessary because of “real things going on in this country that need to be dealt with.”

He was frustrated that the governor vetoed the 2022 version of this bill. 

“I appreciate she’s got some high-paid consultants,” he told the Kansas Reflector. “She needs to get some new ones.”