Is Kansas City’s mayor running for Congress? The clock is ticking
AI-generated summary reviewed by our newsroom.
- Mayor Quinton Lucas is weighing a congressional run with a fast-approaching deadline.
- Flipping the district would be an uphill battle.
- A roster of other Democratic candidates is already prepared to challenge Alford.
When Missouri joined a nationwide redistricting frenzy last year, Kansas City Mayor Quinton Lucas immediately began flirting with a run for Congress.
Lucas, a Democrat in the twilight of his final term as mayor, at the time pointed to his ability to fundraise, his strong name ID in western Missouri and a deep understanding of the political issues affecting Kansas City.
Eight months later, the clock is ticking. The deadline to file for the 2026 election expires on Tuesday, offering Kansas City’s two-term mayor a short window to decide whether to set his sights on Washington or carve a different path after he leaves office in 2027.
Lucas told The Star this week that he’s still considering a run for Missouri’s 4th Congressional District. A sporadic barnstorming tour of sorts — recent trips to Springfield and St. Louis and national TV hits in Washington — has only increased speculation about the mayor’s plans.
“Short answer to your question is yes,” Lucas said when asked this week whether he was still weighing a run. He quickly pivoted to Kansas City’s fraught relationship with the federal government and his opposition to U.S. Rep. Mark Alford, his Republican opponent if he were to run.
“While they try to marginalize our voices, if not eliminate them, I think it is important that at least in the 4th District congressional race, if, in fact, the 4th District congressman is representing the hundreds of thousands of Kansas Citians, there should be clear Kansas City voices within that election,” Lucas said.
While Lucas continues to publicly weigh a congressional campaign, there are several political realities that the mayor will still have to consider. The first is the district itself. Missouri’s congressional map, which Republicans passed under pressure from President Donald Trump, faces an onslaught of legal challenges and could be struck down.
If the map is upheld, political experts and polling obtained by The Star have long suggested that Democrats would still face an uphill battle under the state’s new district lines. The GOP-led poll commissioned by Alford’s campaign last year showed Alford beating Lucas by 15 percentage points.
A potential Lucas campaign could also run into some national fundraising issues. A Democratic campaign aide who works on U.S. House races told The Star this week that national Democrats do not view the race for the 4th District as competitive.
Lucas, for his part, acknowledged that he’s still undecided about a potential run. He pointed to a laundry list of local issues affecting Kansas City — the World Cup, the April 7 earnings tax vote, the city’s budget — and signaled that he would still be comfortable with time away from elected office after his term ends.
“It’s not on my bingo card to have run for Congress in the 2026 cycle,” he said. “I don’t need it for anything in particular and it doesn’t scare me to have a little bit of time off after I would be done being mayor. So this isn’t just a sort of professional development idea.”
Still, if he were to file to run on Tuesday, Lucas would likely be able to quickly build a broad coalition of groups — from organized labor to business community leaders — that could support his candidacy.
A strong challenge against Alford from an established candidate would be a welcome sign for many Kansas City-area Democrats. Lucas also has the backing of national Democrats and was recently chosen by his colleagues to lead a national organization representing Democratic mayors.
“As a successful sitting mayor who has also chosen to use his platform to push Democratic policies, he will have no trouble getting key members of the establishment in Kansas City behind a fast race for him for Congress,” said Geoff Gerling, a longtime Democratic leader in Jackson County.
Alford weighs in
Alford has, in recent months, run into criticism from constituents, largely due to his staunch support of the Trump administration. That criticism has seeped into several contentious town halls that have gone viral online.
While Missouri congressional candidates are not required to live in the district they seek to represent, Alford briefly had his own redistricting issues when he first ran in 2022. A congressional map approved by state lawmakers at the time carved him out of the 4th District and he shifted his residency to Cass County to remain in the district.
When asked about the possibility of a challenge from Lucas, Alford said in a statement to The Star that he would “welcome anyone into the race.”
“But make no mistake, I am in this race to win,” Alford said. “I work every single day to continue earning the trust of those voters with results, rather than empty platitudes, broken promises, and a record of decline.”
The Republican congressman went on to tout his list of accomplishments, including tax cuts and investments in health care, law enforcement and infrastructure.
“I am, and likely will remain, the only candidate in this race who is comfortable and has deep relationships everywhere from the urban core of Kansas City to the beanfields of Barton County to the Lake of the Ozarks,” Alford said. “I look forward to continuing to represent the Fourth District in Congress.”
But if Lucas decides not to run, a roster of Democratic candidates have already filed to challenge Alford.
Democrats challenge Alford
Hartzell Gray, a popular media personality, leads in fundraising among the field of Democratic candidates. Gray, who has built a reputation as a progressive activist, had previously filed to run for the 5th District before flipping to the 4th District after Republican lawmakers gerrymandered Kansas City.
“I know that I am ready for everything involved in this fight,” Gray said in an interview with The Star last August. His campaign did not respond to a request for comment for this story.
Gerling, the Jackson County Democrat, told The Star that Gray “has done a lot of work energizing a younger, more progressive crowd that should not be ignored.”
Another Democratic challenger is Jordan Herrera, an attorney and U.S. Air Force veteran. Herrera also originally filed for the 5th District, but moved to the 4th District after the mid-decade redistricting.
In an interview with The Star earlier this month, Herrera said his background in constitutional law and the military gives him a leg up in reaching voters in the district.
“This isn’t a district that’s hard red, as others might want you to believe,” he said. “It is very much a flippable district and we just need to have the right candidate to get that work done.”
Meanwhile, three other Democratic candidates have filed for the seat: Wayne Russell from Columbia; Jeanette Cass, a farmer from southwestern Missouri; and a candidate listed only as “G Rick” from southwestern Morrisville.
Russell’s campaign did not respond to a request for comment. A spokesperson for Cass said she was not available to comment on Wednesday.
This story was originally published March 26, 2026 at 4:29 PM.
