AP is wrong: Sharice Davids is not the first Native American US House nominee from Kansas

Charles Curtis

AP reporter John Hanna reports in a cloying article about yesterday's election victory by Sharice Davids, who Hanna says "shattered the mold for a congressional primary winner from ruby red Kansas," as she is now the "state’s first Native American and gay nominee for Congress."

Not quite.

According to his Twitter bio, Hanna has been an AP correspondent in Topeka, the capital of Kansas, for nearly twenty years. He doesn't know his Kansas history as Charles Curtis, who was vice president under Herbert Hoover, was a Native American. Curtis also served in the US Senate, and, wait for it, he was a member of the US House of Representative from Kansas. Curtis' father was white and according to Wikipedia, the Republican lawmaker was roughly 3/8 Native American.

Curtis was also the first vice president born west of the Mississippi River and only the Kansan to serve as the nation's VP.

"Indian Charlie" grew up on the Kaw Indian Reservation.

On the other hand, perhaps Hanna is reporting that Davids, a Democrat, is a two-fer, meaning that she is the first nominee from Kansas who is both gay and a Native American. If so, then he needs to learn to write clearly---that would make Davids the first gay (or lesbian) Native American nominee from Kansas.

Sheesh.

Hat tip to Chicago Public Square for the AP story.