Primary elections are today. Here are 7 big races to watch in the Kansas City area
On Tuesday, Kansas and Missouri voters who have not already cast a ballot in early voting will have the chance to hit the polls in the primary election.
The results will shape important state and local races on both sides of the state line ahead of general elections in November. And they will decide ballot questions with implications for public safety in the Kansas City area.
Missourians are choosing Republicans and Democrats to face off in contests for governor and attorney general, among other offices. They are deciding the future of Kansas City Police Department funding and, in Jackson County, they are making selections in the race for Jackson County prosecutor.
Kansans will be voting for state representatives to serve in Topeka, and in Johnson County they’ll be narrowing the field in the races for sheriff and district attorney.
Polls will be open Tuesday from 6 a.m. to 7 p.m. in Missouri, and 7 a.m. to 7 p.m. in Kansas.
You can check your voter registration, your voting districts and your polling place through the Missouri secretary of state and the Kansas secretary of state. Links to those offices and more are available in the comprehensive online voter guide created by The Star and the KC Media Collective, a group of nonprofit newsrooms in the Kansas City area.
At The Star we believe our democracy is stronger when more people have the information they need to participate in it.
We want to make it as easy as possible for you to make the choices you think will best serve you and your community.
This is our guide to the biggest races in Tuesday’s primary elections.
Missouri Governor
Missouri Secretary of State Jay Ashcroft faces Lt. Gov. Mike Kehoe and State Sen. Bill Eigel of Weldon Spring in the Republican race for governor.
During his time in office, Ashcroft has been willing to acknowledge and elevate those who have promoted conspiracy theories and false claims about elections. And he has engaged in a series of charged political battles over public library books, voter fraud and abortion ballot measures that have helped raise his profile.
As the son of former U.S. Attorney General John Ashcroft, he has both emphasized the family connection while also pitching himself as an aggressive outsider. The senior Ashcroft has been featured in ads rebutting attacks by Kehoe’s camp, and Ashcroft has promised to seek a repeal of a recent gas tax increase and end the state income tax.
Kehoe, the former owner of a Jefferson City car dealership, has campaigned as a supporter of farmers and ranchers, veterans and first responders. He has accumulated endorsements from major statewide groups, including the Missouri Farm Bureau, the Missouri Hospital Association and the Missouri Chamber of Commerce PAC.
The main PAC supporting Kehoe has also received major contributions from St. Louis philanthropist and Republican mega-donor Rex Sinquefield, including a $1 million donation in June.
Eigel, a hard-right senator from Weldon Spring, has developed a confrontational reputation in the Missouri General Assembly.
He has said he would like Missourians to be able to pay their taxes and potentially shop for groceries with gold and silver. He also has said he wants to eliminate the state’s personal property tax and make it harder for citizen-led petitions to pass on the ballot. And he has said he wants to abolish the Missouri Department of Elementary and Secondary Education.
Earlier this month, a TV ad in which Eigel, accompanied by a Spanish translator and western-themed music, promised to deport migrants was condemned as racist.
In a late July televised debate, Eigel and Ashcroft both rejected the idea of public funding to keep the Kansas City Chiefs in the state and entertained freeing the first Kansas City police officer convicted of killing a Black man. They also embraced Christian nationalism.
In comments about abortion, Eigel and Ashcroft both broke with former President Donald Trump, saying they don’t agree with his call to allow abortions in cases of rape or incest. Both also said frozen embryos deserve legal protections, signaling a more aggressive stance than Trump and some Republicans who have broadly said they support protecting in-vitro fertilization.
In the Democratic primary, Missouri House Minority Leader Crystal Quade faces businessman Mike Hamra. Both are of Springfield. During a July debate, both indicated support for local control of the Kansas City Police Department, which has been under state control for most of its history.
Quade, a social worker first elected to the House in 2016, has called for more local control over firearms, which is a priority for Kansas City leaders.
Hamra, who leads a company operating numerous Wendy’s locations and other restaurants, said at the July debate that a majority of Missourians, including gun owners, support stronger background checks and red flag laws, which allow a judge to order individuals to temporarily surrender their firearms if they’re found to be a danger to themselves or others.
Missouri Attorney General
In the Republican primary, Missouri Attorney General Andrew Bailey faces challenger Will Scharf, a former federal prosecutor who has been part of Trump’s legal team.
Scharf, a policy director under former Gov. Eric Greitens, worked on the former president’s appeals of gag orders in his criminal cases, as well as Trump’s presidential immunity case at the Supreme Court.
He has made his singular client a key focus of his campaign. He has appeared regularly on Fox News to make the pitch that Trump has done nothing wrong and slams the fines against Trump for violating a gag order as unconstitutional.
Bailey was appointed to office in January 2023 by Gov. Mike Parson after Eric Schmitt resigned to join the U.S. Senate. Before that, he had been Parson’s top legal counsel.
As attorney general, Bailey has also made public his support of Trump. He filed a brief with the Supreme Court supporting Trump’s immunity case, one of at least seven amicus briefs the attorney general has filed in support of the former president over the past year and a half. He has also criticized New York Attorney General Letitia James for efforts to enforce a civil fraud judgment against Trump.
Both Bailey and Scharf say, falsely, that the 2020 election was stolen.
Whoever wins the GOP primary will face Democrat Elad Gross, a St. Louis civil rights attorney.
Kansas City police funding
A 2022 measure that would increase how much Kansas City is required to spend on its police force is back on the ballot this year after the Missouri Supreme Court ruled its original vote invalid this spring.
If passed, the state constitutional amendment would allow Missouri to raise minimum funding requirements for police departments overseen by state boards. The only police department that matches that description is the Kansas City Police Department.
Voting “yes” on Amendment 4 would give Missouri the authority to raise the Police Department’s minimum budget requirement. Kansas City would then have to pay that additional cost out of its general revenue fund.
Voting “no” on Amendment 4 would block the 2022 law and keep the Police Department’s funding requirement at 20% of the city budget — although the city could still choose to spend more than this amount on the police.
Jackson County Prosecutor
Three candidates are running in the Democratic primary to replace longtime Jackson County Prosecutor Jean Peters Baker, who is not seeking reelection.
Stephanie Burton, John Gromowsky and Melesa Johnson are competing in the election. The winner will face Republican Tracey Chappell.
Burton, a defense attorney, earned her law degree from the University of Missouri-Kansas City in 2010. She has worked with the Midwest Innocence Project and the Death Penalty Litigation Clinic. She has trial experience in state and federal courts, focusing on violent crime cases, and has expertise in jury selection and conviction integrity units, which assess past cases to reverse wrongful convictions.
Gromowsky was raised in Kansas City, attended West Point and served in the U.S. Army. He graduated from DePaul University College of Law. Between two stints with the Jackson County Prosecutor’s Office, he spent nearly 16 years as a defense attorney. He is currently an attorney in the prosecutor’s violent crimes unit.
Gromowsky, who is white, was criticized by opponents for comments about “Black-on-Black crime” that he made during a June debate.
Some find the phrase “Black-on-Black crime” offensive, contending that it can contribute to a harmful stereotype and lead to policing and incarceration practices that disproportionately target Black people.
Gromowsky also differed from the other candidates in saying he would consider charging medical providers who perform abortions, in accordance with Missouri’s near-total ban on the procedure.
Baker had all but guaranteed her office would not bring abortion-related charges, saying she would use prosecutorial discretion “to limit the erosion of reproductive rights.”
Burton and Johnson said they would not file cases against abortion providers.
Johnson was raised in Jackson County and earned her degree from the University of Missouri School of Law. She joined the Jackson County Prosecutor’s Office in 2014 and supports a practice called transformative justice. She is Kansas City Mayor Quinton Lucas’ director of public safety and oversees Partners for Peace, a citywide anti-violence strategy.
Kansas House District 35
Three challengers are competing in the Democratic primary to unseat Rep. Marvin Robinson II, a first-term Democrat from Kansas City, Kansas, who has angered some by delivering key votes to Republicans on partisan issues.
Among those were votes to deny Medicaid expansion, limit access to food assistance, add abortion restrictions and undo diversity and equity policies at publicly funded colleges. Those moves, his political opponents contend, were made at the expense of the residents Robinson represents.
Robinson acknowledged in an interview that he has made decisions that were poorly received by Democratic leaders, but said his objective remains helping to improve the lives of the residents in his district. He told The Star he believes in “survival of our people” above party loyalty.
Challenger Wanda Brownlee Paige retired after teaching social studies in Kansas City, Kansas, Public Schools for 30 years. She has served as an elected member of the school board since 2018.
Paige won the support of Kansas Gov. Laura Kelly’s newly-formed political action committee Middle of the Road PAC, which Kelly has said will support moderate candidates regardless of party affiliation. Paige also has the backing of area organized labor groups, including the local chapter of the United Auto Workers, which represents employees of the General Motors plant in Fairfax.
Also running is lifelong Kansas City, Kansan, Kimberly DeWitt, a business consultant who unsuccessfully campaigned for the seat once before in 2016.
DeWitt is a specialist in information technology and runs her own consulting firm. She recently enrolled in law school and aspires to open a coffee roastery in her hometown.
In her first bid, DeWitt in 2016 challenged in the Democratic primary retired state Rep. Broderick Henderson, who served in the House from 1995 until 2022. Henderson is Robinson’s cousin.
The third challenger, Michelle Watley, is the founder of Shirley’s Kitchen Cabinet, an advocacy and education nonprofit dedicated to the advancement of Black women. Watley, who also grew up in Kansas City, Kansas, is running for her first elected office.
Watley worked as a union carpenter at Nebraska Furniture Mart before entering the advocacy world. As head of Shirley’s Kitchen Cabinet, she has lobbied for changes in local and state laws such as the Crown Act, legislation meant to end racial discrimination in workplace settings based on hairstyle. Watley is also a member of The Star’s Black Community Advisory Board.
This year no Republican challenger is on the ballot for House District 35, so whoever wins the primary will ultimately be sworn in as its representative.
Johnson County Sheriff
In the Republican primary, Johnson County Sheriff Calvin Hayden faces challenger Doug Bedford, who previously served as undersheriff.
Bedford’s credentials in law enforcement and as a former Navy SEAL have helped him gain the public endorsements of dozens of sheriff’s department employees and retirees, including former Johnson County Sheriff Frank Denning, Hayden’s predecessor.
Hayden, a staunch Trump supporter, has been criticized for the time and resources his office spent on his long-running and fruitless election fraud investigation, which started after Johnson County broke its tradition of support for Republican presidents in 2020.
Earlier this month, Hayden announced he was pausing the investigation.
Johnson County District Attorney
Johnson County District Attorney Steve Howe is facing his first Republican primary challenge since taking office 16 years ago.
Challenger David Greenwald, an Overland Park native, previously worked in the Wyandotte County District Attorney’s Office, and from 2019 to 2021 worked in the Johnson County DA’s Office specializing in traffic crash cases and fatalities.
In 2021, Greenwald was hired in the Douglas County District Attorney’s Office as a senior assistant district attorney and was recently promoted to deputy district attorney.
Greenwald has said Johnson County should be more aggressive in prosecuting fentanyl distribution and fatal overdose cases. The county has recorded 170 deaths related to the synthetic opioid in the past four years.
An investigation by The Star found only a small fraction of overdose death cases from 2018 to 2022 made it on the prosecutor’s desk for possible charges.
Howe, who is seeking his fifth term, has argued his office has prioritized bringing the uniquely challenging cases to court.
Howe began his career as a prosecutor in 1988. He worked his way up the ranks in the Johnson County District Attorney’s Office before winning the office in 2008.
Two Democrats also hope to advance to the November election.
In that primary, Vanessa Riebli, who spent 21 years in the Johnson County DA’s Office, faces Zach Thomas, a criminal defense attorney who sought to unseat Howe in 2020 but lost with 48% of the vote.
The Star’s Jonathan Shorman, Kacen Bayless, Sarah Ritter, Katie Moore, Bill Lukitsch and Natalie Wallington contributed.
This story was originally published August 2, 2024 at 6:00 AM.