[3] The 3rd district is represented by Democrat Sharice Davids, who was first elected in 2018, defeating Republican incumbent Kevin Yoder.

With a Cook Partisan Voting Index rating of R+1, it is the only Kansas district that is not heavily Republican.

[2] Following redistricting after the 2000 U.S. census,[4][needs update] there were 672,124 people, 258,439 households, and 173,022 families residing in the district.

The largest employment by industry was: educational, health, and social services, 19.8%; professional, scientific, management, administrative, and waste management services, 12.0%; retail trade, 11.8%; and manufacturing, 10.4%.

While Kansas's other congressional districts include significant rural territory, the 3rd is almost exclusively urban and suburban.

In recent years, as Eastern Kansas began to grow exponentially, the population has also increased, and has been voting more reliably Democratic.

This led to Republican members of the Kansas House of Representatives and Kansas State Senate trying to gerrymander the district maps into reliably Republican, with growing fears that Democrats could win a second seat by 2026 if they did not take action.

[5] In 2024, Davids, defending against Republican challenger Prasanth Reddy, carried the district by 11 points.