With city tensions seeming to settle, Prairie Village mayor says time to tap out
After 12 years of working in local government, Prairie Village Mayor Eric Mikkelson announced that he will not be running for a third term and instead will throw his support behind a City Council member who announced that he will run for the seat this fall.
Mikkelson was first elected to serve as one of the representatives for Ward 3 in the northeast Johnson County city. In 2018, he won his first term as mayor and ran uncontested in 2022. As mayor, Mikkelson was able to help double the city’s park land – including building Meadowbrook and Wassmer parks — add miles of walking and biking trails, approve infrastructure improvements and get a highly debated City Hall project across the finish line.
“Looking at a third term… I’ve kind of gotten done 90% of what I wanted to do,” Mikkelson said. “A big variable was: If I didn’t run, is there somebody else great who I have confidence in and that would make it a lot easier for me to step away.”
As mayor, Mikkelson saw the city work its way through choppy waters: Tense debates and resident backlash against city decisions about housing and zoning changes, a community center and — most recently — a new municipal complex.
Residents formed a group, known as PV United, to protest against many city decisions. They filed several lawsuits against the city over its decisions and attempted to recall Mikkelson nine times because they were unhappy with the city’s efforts to address its affordable housing shortage.
“That stuff was not only hard for me personally, but it was really hard for the city of Prairie Village,” he said.
Over the last few months, Mikkelson said Cole Robinson approached him with interest in running for mayor.
“When he said he wanted to run that was a big enough tipping point for me that then the decision became pretty easy for me to say, ‘OK I’m going to hand it off,’” Mikkelson said.
So far this year, Mikkelson said he’s seen the city quiet down after PV United’s slate of candidates lost to more moderate candidates and their petition to abandon the city’s government failed.
The city’s current state helped him make his decision.
“It makes it easier to exit honestly, because if there were some major challenges that I didn’t think we had a good handle on, whether political or otherwise … I would have felt like I needed to roll up my sleeves and get back in there for a few more years,” he said.
Dialing the temperature down
Mikkelson said he feels optimistic about Prairie Village’s future.
“The good thing about those tough elections is sometimes they can settle things,” Mikkelson said. “We know who we are as a city, we know where we are going, and Prairie Village is stronger for having been forged in these difficult times.”
As a mayoral candidate, Robinson said he wants to keep that momentum going and continue building trust with the community.
“I honestly, really see myself bringing, hopefully, stability, calmness,” Robinson said. “It does not matter how you fall in Prairie Village. I think everyone wants to see the temperature dial down. People want to see an increase in civility among neighbors.”
“We all need to play a role in getting to a less divisive and less toxic place, and so that’s my intent with my campaign.”
Robinson, a lifelong Prairie Village resident, first ran for local office in 2021 and won reelection last November. Entering the mayor’s race means he will be running in an election two years in a row.
If he wins the election this fall, the city will have to appoint someone to fill his seat in Ward 1. If he loses his bid for mayor, Robinson would not lose his seat as a City Council member.
As of March 27, no other candidate has announced that they are running for the Prairie Village mayor’s race this fall.
This story was originally published March 27, 2026 at 4:00 PM.
