Tyrone Garner elected first Black mayor of Kansas City, Kansas, after defeating David Alvey
Tyrone Garner narrowly defeated David Alvey in Tuesday’s general election, becoming the second straight challenger to unseat the incumbent mayor in Kansas City, Kansas.
While the votes are unofficial, Garner picked up 8,243 votes to Alvey’s 7,934.
Garner becomes the fifth mayor for the Unified Government of Wyandotte County/Kansas City, Kansas. He is the first Black mayor to oversee the UG since the governments consolidated in 1997.
Wyandotte County officials were expecting low voter turnout once again.
Exactly 16,494 votes were cast, putting turnout at 18.5%. The turnout is less than the turnout in the 2017, where 24.4% of voters cast a vote.
Garner won by just over 300 votes, which shows how close this year’s mayoral election was.
Garner, 52, is a 32-year veteran of the Kansas City, Kansas Police Department, joining as a cadet after graduating high school. He’s also served on the Kansas City, Kansas Community College Board and the Kansas City, Kansas Housing Authority Board.
“I’m engaged on bringing you the change that I ran on, and that’s engaged leadership that’s community driven, that provides a better way forward for Wyandotte County,” Garner said Tuesday after the victory. “We need to make sure we work hard with our commissioners, our staff, the hard working staff with the Unified Government.”
For more than 30 years, an incumbent mayor in Wyandotte County was able to secure a second term. That changed in 2017, when Alvey defeated former mayor Mark Holland, marking the first time an incumbent mayor lost to a challenger since 1975. But Tuesday, Alvey joined Holland in being ousted after just one term.
Garner’s victory has similar echoes to Alvey’s victory in 2017. Four years ago, voters elected Alvey with the hope that he would take the county in a different direction. Voters are expecting Garner to do the same.
Both candidates felt the impatience and frustration from residents during this mayoral election cycle, tired of how things have gone in Wyandotte County for the last few years.
“There was far more, I want to say, anger than we ever experienced before,” Alvey told reporters Tuesday night.
Garner used that anger as a tool, knowing what issues residents were frustrated about including high taxes, a high Board of Public utilities bill and lack of development east of Interstate 635 — especially the northeast.
Garner wants an independent audit of the BPU and the Unified Government so he can identify potential savings for taxpayers. He also wants the payment in lieu of taxes (PILOT) reduced by 2%.
He also campaigned on his support for the Safe & Welcoming ordinance, which comes with two provisions: One would pass a municipal ID and the other would bar local authorities from helping Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE).
While Alvey opposed that provision, Garner supported it, saying he wants a panel of stakeholders — lawyers, federal agencies and community representatives — to review the legality of the ICE provision. He hopes to get the panel within the first 100 of his administration.
At his press conference after the win on Tuesday, Garner said he wants to work with the community in a way that the community hasn’t seen before.
“To make sure that, not so much of what I what I want, but the will of the people is being met,” he said. “And that the goods and services are being delivered equitably throughout all of Wyandotte County.”
Alvey’s advice to Garner was to look at the problems the county faces in a straightforward way.
“The problems will not go away,” Alvey said.
For Alvey, he said it’s too early to tell if he will stay in politics. Alvey said he first needs to get a job.
“I’m not thinking in those terms at this point,” he said.
Before he was done talking to reporters Garner said he will measure the results by what the county’s residents want.
“(So) it drives Wyandotte County to a new form to where we’re a first class city that is second to none,” Garner said.
This story was originally published November 2, 2021 at 8:23 PM.
