Brian Lowry, now writing for McClatchy, the Kansas City Star parent company, has been doing some good honest reporting of late, most recently his headlined story, “Sharice Davids’ failed business still owes investors nearly $20,000 after court case.”
Lowry’s opening lead is equally strong: “More than two years have passed since a South Dakota judge ordered Sharice Davids’ failed coffee company to repay investors nearly $20,000, but those investors have yet to receive a penny.”
Eight months after the judge’s order, Davids got golden parachuted out of her jam by accepting a White House fellowship authorized by the Obama administration.
Her biography in the White House press release pointed to her launch of the Hoka Coffee Company as one of her accomplishments, following as it did “the development of the entrepreneurship program” at a South Dakota High School. One wonders whether “Skipping Out on Debts 101” was part of the curriculum.
Lowry reports that Davids is running against Kevin Yoder for the 3rd District Congressional seat in Kansas. With a straight face he writes that Davids “could make history as the first Native American woman in Congress if she wins.”
Apparently, Lowry has not been following the news. As the Boston Globe reported hopefully a few days ago, “New DNA evidence proves Elizabeth Warren’s Native American heritage.”
Globe columnist Jeff Jacoby put the Globe’s happy spin in a more realistic light. He writes, “The analysis of Warren’s DNA, which she submitted to Stanford geneticist Carlos Bustamante, suggests that there was a Native American in her family tree somewhere between 6 and 10 generations ago. That would put the American Indian share of her DNA within a range of 1.5 percent and 0.09 percent — just like millions of other white Americans.”
So, yes, Davids would be the first real Native American woman in Congress. She has that going for her, certain preferred ethnicities having weight in the Democratic Party, but what else?
Davids has a sketchy work history, a sketchier voting history–she is still registered in South Dakota–unpaid debts, and an apparently mortal fear of debating Kevin Yoder. With all that, the New York Times insists the election is hers to lose.
Like the proverbial turtle on the fence post, the only thing one knows for sure about Davids is that she did not get to the top on her own.