Sharice Davids visits KCK’s Jones Bar-B-Q of ‘Queer Eye’ fame to dish food, politics

It was hot, the room was crowded with cameras and a long line of people waited with requests for Rep. Sharice Davids, the Kansas Democrat, who was busy working, head down.

It may sound like Washington, but no.

On Tuesday, Davids was plating food in the kitchen of Jones Bar-B-Q, the now-famous Kansas City, Kansas, hole-in-the-wall made-over by the "Queer Eye" guys. At one point, Davids called out that she needed more baked beans.

It's part of her "Sharice's Shift" initiative, where she spends an hour working at businesses in her district and talking to other workers and customers — and where she's seen by the media doing it.

"I just like to come in and talk to local business owners and get a sense of what it's like to actually be doing the hard work that keeps our economy driving and keeps the folks in our community fed," she said.

As one of the 41 Democrats in the House who flipped a Republican district — hers was red for the previous nine years — this approach seems similar to her no-nonsense approach to navigating Washington.

She has kept her head down, skirting controversy, focusing on committee work and kitchen table issues and earning clout with leadership but also criticism from some on the left.

"Definitely the issues that I want to focus on happen from kind of two different spaces. One is what the community wants me to focus on has to be a huge piece of how I make decisions about where I'm going to focus," she said. "Then, I'm on transportation and infrastructure and small business (committees), so that is the other piece of how I focus my time and energy."

The day before, Davids joined a group of 14 Democrats signing a letter calling for House Speaker Nancy Pelosi to continue negotiating through the current six-week recess the United States–Mexico–Canada Agreement and to ask for a vote on the issue by the end of the year. The USMCA, as the trade deal is called, is a priority for President Donald Trump and the Republicans, but it will also be a boon for agricultural states like Kansas.

"(The USMCA) is really, really important, and it is certainly our way of saying: ‘This is a place where we want to see our leadership in the Democratic caucus spending their time focusing on this kind of issue,'" Davids said.

On Monday, her Democratic colleague and mentor Rep. Emanuel Cleaver called for a formal impeachment inquiry into Trump. Asked whether she supported the idea, Davids skirted the question.

"Well, I think that the Judiciary Committee is — it's really in their purview. It's part of their jurisdiction. I think that we need to let them do their jobs, and that's what I'm doing," she said. "But I've done all my diligence. I'm reading everything and keeping up to date, so when the time comes for the judiciary to put out recommendations then I'm ready to make decisions."

It was very hot in the kitchen and next to the outdoor smoker, but Davids didn't show discomfort. She chatted amiably with the Jones sisters, plated food, turned meat in the smoker and said hello to two constituents: a mother and her young child.

Rebecca Hanley, a resident of Kansas City, Kansas, held her daughter Adelyn, 2, who wore a pink hat, as they smiled for a picture outside of the restaurant with Davids.

Hanley had said previously that she doesn't vote because she doesn't like to follow politics closely, and she hadn't known Davids was planning to visit the restaurant. She does love "Queer Eye," and she said it was just cool to see "someone important" visiting a place so near her home.

As the trio posed, the smoke from the smoker wafted over. Adelyn started crying and rubbing her eyes.

"Making kids cry since 2019!" Davids cracked. Hanley laughed.