See Blue Springs election results, who won seats on City Council in close races

One incumbent will join a new member on the Blue Springs City Council after Tuesday’s local elections.

Five candidates ran across three positions up for election for three-year terms on the six-member council. A seat in District 1, covering the northern part of the city, and District 2, covering the central part of the city, saw two candidates each.

The District 3 seat, covering the southern part of the city, only had one candidate on the ballot and was won by incumbent Nick Brummel, who was appointed to the seat in early 2025.

Kaylor wins District 1 seat

Incumbent Jerry Kaylor and challenger Jesse Grimm ran for a seat in District 1, which includes areas north of Interstate 70 and the eastern parts of the city.

Kaylor won with 50.7% of the vote, while Grimm received 48.3% of the vote, according to unofficial results from the Jackson County Election Board. One percent of the votes were write-ins.

Kaylor was running for a fourth term on the council and was first elected in 2017. He ran for mayor in 2024, coming in third place.

Before stepping into city politics, Kaylor spent 38 years as a journeyman electrician. The father and grandfather was also previously a reserve sergeant with the Blue Springs Police Department, which awarded him Volunteer of the Year in 2013 and 2016.

Kaylor has also served multiple terms on the Public Safety Citizens Advisory Board and has volunteered as a fundraiser and auctioneer for multiple community organizations, including the Blue Springs PTA, Blue Springs National Night Out Against Crime and the Blue Springs chapter of D.A.R.E.

This would have been Grimm’s first formal political office.

Grimm is a retired Air Force mechanic who spent 24 years on active duty, ultimately achieving the rank of Master Sergeant. Grimm was raised in the Seattle area but retired to Blue Springs following his Air Force career. His two children are graduates of Blue Springs High School.

According to his campaign website, some of Grimm’s biggest priorities were affordability, hearing from and communicating with constituents, and prioritizing progressive taxes like income taxes over regressive forms of taxation like sales taxes in order to “shift the burden away from households with low and fixed incomes like seniors, young adults, and working families.”

Markworth wins District 2

Two candidates ran for the open seat in District 2, which includes downtown Blue Springs and surrounding areas. Incumbent Kent Edmondson did not run for another term.

Brian Markworth won with 51.5% of the vote, while Byron Craddolph received 47.9% of the vote, according to unofficial Jackson County results. 0.6% of the vote were write-ins.

Markworth is currently the vice-chair of the Blue Springs Park Commission. Markworth has worked in construction since the early 2000s, most recently at McCownGordon Construction in Kansas City, where he became a senior quality specialist in February 2025.

He is a Blue Springs School District parent and a member of the United Brotherhood of Carpenters and Joiners of America. He also volunteers with the Blue Springs Citizens Police Academy Alumni Association.

Markworth ran on a four-part platform focusing on infrastructure maintenance, business growth, neighborhood safety and parks improvement. He hopes to turn Blue Springs into “the regional standard for a vibrant downtown,” according to his campaign website.

Markworth is specifically focused on funding improvements to the Woods Chapel Corridor at the intersection of Wood Chapel Road and U.S. Hwy 40. Blue Springs voters have approved several bond proposals for upgrades to the business corridor, most recently as part of a $40 million bond passed in 2024.

Another of Markworth’s goals has to do with making homeownership more attainable for young families in Blue Springs and development projects that create “a range of housing options alongside those that could attract both local and out-of-state businesses to Blue Springs.

He plans to advocate for more frequent usage of local labor in construction contracts citywide and prioritizes supporting Blue Springs law enforcement officers, which he says will require additional investment in both technology and mental health resources for the department.

He also wants to continue the current City Council’s progress on Blue Springs’ parks master plan, including establishing additional sports fields and bike paths along city greenspace.

Byron Craddolph has been on the Blue Springs Planning Commission since 2019, where he served as chair until 2022. He chaired the city’s Solid Waste Commission from 2009 to 2018 and has also been on the city’s Community Development Block Grant Committee and the Kansas City Area Transportation Authority Board of Commissioners.

Craddolph has run unsuccessfully for a District 2 City Council seat three times before. He lost to Kent Edmonson in 2020 and 2023, and to Katie Tholen in 2025.

A former Jackson County park ranger, Craddolph worked as an assembler at Ford Motor Company for more than three decades. Craddolph is running as a nonpartisan candidate, according to state campaign finance records.

Craddolph’s campaign priorities included fixing blighted property around Blue Springs and rebuilding commercial areas in order to revitalize the city’s downtown infrastructure. He believes that construction projects to fix or maintain existing structures should be prioritized over new builds.

Craddolph has said that he feels communication between the current Blue Springs City Council and residents regarding city ordinances and policies has sometimes been incomplete or poorly timed.

He has said he wants to ensure that future developments approved by the council do not have a negative impact on existing traffic patterns, and that school officials have a chance to weigh in before key votes on new construction projects. Craddolph’s other campaign priorities included funding parks and recreation spaces and supporting police and first responders with city resources.

Star reporter Ilana Arougheti contributed to this article.