WASHINGTON _ A mailer for Republican congressional candidate Steve Watkins shows President Donald Trump giving a big thumbs up, grinning and wearing his trademark "Make America Great Again" hat.
"Good for Trump, Great for Kansas," the mailer reads.
If you think that implies the president has endorsed Watkins, think again.
Trump has not endorsed anyone in the GOP primary in Kansas' 2nd Congressional District, a source familiar with the operations of the Trump campaign told The Kansas City Star Thursday.
Nor has the president "approved any ads or mailers that might be perceived as an endorsement," the source said.
Seven Republican candidates are seeking the seat after incumbent Rep. Lynn Jenkins, a Topeka Republican, announced her plans to retire at the end of this term.
At a candidate forum in the 2nd Congressional District on Monday, an audience member asked about the flier.
"A mailer has just come out implying that President Trump has endorsed a candidate in the race," the woman asked. "Have any of you actually been endorsed by the president and if not can you clarify?"
Watkins replied that he believed it was his mailer.
"There was no attempt to deceive at all, it didn't say endorse or anything like that," he said. "Donald Trump was on there because he has grown in to become a leader I respect a great deal."
Watkins said he'd read that among Republicans Trump has an 88 percent approval rate.
"I wasn't quite sure what to expect at the beginning but he's been leading from the beginning and I'm proud of that. I'm proud of his stances on low taxes, his slashing regulations, I'm proud of Justice Gorsuch, so I'm proud of the progress that he made and I'm also proud of the fact that he's a political outsider," Watkins said. Trump nominated Justice Neil Gorsuch to the Supreme Court last year.
The Watkins campaign told The Star on Thursday that the mailer was "absolutely not" intended to imply that Watkins had Trump's endorsement.
"It doesn't say that anywhere on that mailer," said Victoria Snitsar, spokeswoman for the Watkins campaign.
"What people take from the mailer is absolutely up to them," she said.
State Sen. Steve Fitzgerald, a Leavenworth Republican, called the mailers part of "a pattern of attempting to deceive and mislead the voters. This is something that we've come to expect from this candidate."
Watkins has repeatedly parroted Trump's promise to "drain the swamp" on the campaign trail, but it's unlikely that he voted for the president in 2016.
The Republican candidate has never voted in a presidential election in Kansas. His first time voting in the state was in last year's City Council elections in Topeka, which occurred the same week he announced his run for Congress, according to the state's voter registration data.
He told The Star earlier this month he could not remember whether he was registered when he lived in Alaska and Massachusetts and could not remember if he had ever voted before 2017. Alaska voting records suggest he was registered as an independent, but never cast a ballot.
Fitzgerald, who previously served as the Kansas Republican Party's treasurer, criticized Watkins for his spotty voting history during a recent forum.
"He's a rank opportunist. I don't think he had any political interest before he decided to run," Fitzgerald said Thursday. "When he says he's an outsider I think that's the only truthful thing he's said that I can trust."
Watkins has faced scrutiny in recent weeks after Kansas Democratic officials revealed that the candidate met with them at Shawnee Democratic Party headquarters several months before he announced his run. Watkins confirmed the meeting took place, but has denied claims that he ever considered running as a Democrat or espoused socially liberal views during the meeting.
