Kansas congressional candidate ‘Big Shawn’ seeks attention through TV ads

In a photo distributed by his campaign, Republican Shawn Tiffany is seen filing as a candidate in the 2nd District congressional race. His campaign has released a series of attention-seeking ads. (Submitted)

TOPEKA — A feedlot co-owner’s bravado-based campaign for Congress projects an image of a brawny cowboy eager to fight transgender children, non-Christians, fake Republicans, “illegals” and socialists.

As a political unknown in a crowded GOP field in the 2nd District, Shawn Tiffany has released a series of TV ads designed to grab attention. They include a dehumanizing attack on transgender children, a parody of the Jimmy Dean country song “Big Bad John” and fearmongering about “the border invasion.”

He appears in a pristine white cowboy hat and button-down shirt tucked into blue jeans, sometimes adding the flourish of mirrored sunglasses, against a backdrop of fields, cattle, horses and a barn.

“In Kansas,” he says in the first ad he released, “we know the difference between a cow and a bull — and Rocky Mountain oysters are a real delicacy. But castration is for cattle, not our kids.”

In reality, castration is the difference between a steer and bull. But Tiffany’s ads aren’t geared for reality.

“In Congress, I will ban boys from girls’ sports and bathrooms and stop the radical left from mutilating children,” Tiffany says in the ad.

LGBTQ+ advocates expressed concerns about the ad’s distortion of gender-affirming care, which for minors involves treatment such as puberty blockers. For transgender adults, surgery is considered a lifesaving treatment.

The Kansas Legislature this year attempted to criminalize gender-affirming care for children but failed to override Gov. Laura Kelly’s veto.

“I’m deeply disappointed and frankly disgusted to see a candidate comparing animal castration to gender-affirming care surgery,” said Taryn Jones, policy director for Equality Kansas. “Kansans have continued to speak out against gender-affirming care bans.”

Tiffany didn’t respond to questions for this story, such as whether he has concerns about his ad harming the mental health of trans kids, if he could point to any evidence of a child in Kansas who has undergone gender-affirming surgery, if he could point to an example of a transgender athlete in Kansas competing with women or girls, or if he has ever met a transgender person.

“Using fear-based disinformation and dehumanizing people is always dangerous and unacceptable,” said Melissa Stiehler, Loud Light advocacy director. “It’s especially concerning in Kansas, where our recent history is riddled with political rhetoric inspiring real violence, as we saw in the Overland Park Jewish Community Center shooting and Garden City bombing plot.”

Tiffany’s second ad, set to the tune of “Big Bad John,” says “Big Shawn” will be a nightmare for RINOs — Republicans in name only — and “stop China from grabbing Kansas land.”

“Every day he’s up well before dawn,” the jingle goes. “Christian, conservative with cowboy brawn. Shawn Tiffany pulls on his boots and gets ready to fight. Big Shawn.”

The narrator assures us Tiffany won’t just build a wall on the southern border. He’ll make it taller, and: “Hell, he’ll build a moat.”

In the third ad, Tiffany says the flood of “immigrants and drugs” across the southern border is “treasonous.” He promises to deport immigrants “faster than you can say ‘adios.’ ”

Tiffany is one of five candidates seeking the GOP nomination in the 2nd District primary. Derek Schmidt, who has considerable name recognition from his 12 years as Kansas attorney general and his 2022 campaign for governor, appears to be the frontrunner. Others in the race include former congressional aide Jeff Kahrs, Michael Ogle of Topeka and Chad Young of Lawrence.

Bob Beatty, a political science professor at Washburn University who has catalogued more than 1,500 TV ads from Kansas political races, said Tiffany’s attention-seeking approach “makes perfect sense.”

Schmidt’s name recognition is “off the charts,” Beatty said, compared with Tiffany, best known as a former president of the Kansas Livestock Association.

“What a candidate like Tiffany has to do is get name recognition, and do it quickly,” Beatty said. “How do you do something quickly? You shock them a bit. And so I’m not actually surprised by this.”

Other Kansas candidates have tried this approach in the past, with rare success. In 2018, Steve Watkins won the GOP primary by dramatically outspending his opponents on TV ads. But Watkins didn’t have a well-known opponent, and the strategy requires a lot of money, Beatty said.

In a gerrymandered district where Democrats face long odds, Republicans can safely push their primary campaigns to the far right — even invoking, for instance, the castration of children.

“Many of the people that are repulsed by this ad will not be voting in the Republican primary,” Beatty said.

Kansas Reflector is part of States Newsroom, a nonprofit news network supported by grants and a coalition of donors as a 501c(3) public charity. Kansas Reflector maintains editorial independence. Contact Editor Sherman Smith for questions: info@kansasreflector.com. Follow Kansas Reflector on Facebook and X.