Get to know the two candidates aiming to be the next mayor of Independence

Independence’s top office is among the most important races on this spring’s crowded Jackson County ballot.

Two mayoral candidates, Bridget McCandless and Kevin King, will go head to head, having beaten out two other challengers in February’s mayoral primary.

Early voting, also called “no excuse” absentee voting, began Tuesday, March 24 and will be open from 8:30 a.m. - 5 p.m. weekdays and 8:30 a.m. - 12:30 p.m. weekends. Independence residents can vote early at the election board’s Independence office, 110 N Liberty St, or at Woods Chapel Community of Christ in Lee’s Summit, 500 NE Woods Chapel Rd.

Additional information is available at jcebmo.org.

Bridget McCandless

Incumbent? No

Campaign website: mccandless2026.org

About the candidate

Bridget McCandless has been on the Independence City Council since 2022, when she came out of retirement and won an at-large seat during a special election. A physician and double Mizzou grad who grew up in Independence, McCandless ran a free clinic for uninsured adults in northern Independence from 2000 to 2015. She is endorsed by the Kansas City Medical Society.

McCandless, a mother of three, has served on the American College of Physicians Health and Public Policy Committee, the Missouri Medicaid Oversight Committee, the Missouri Women’s Health Policy Council and the board of the Truman Library Institute.

As a City Council member, McCandless recently led the city’s search for its next city manager. She previously sat on the city’s Public Utilities Advisory Board and currently serves as the Executive Director of the Health Forward Foundation, a Kansas City nonprofit focused on equity in health care.

She’s running as an independent and sees local government as a bipartisan issue: “Is the pothole a Republican or a Democrat? It’s not,” she said.

What else to know

McCandless’ campaign priorities include installing smart meters for utilities, improving property code enforcement, funding home repairs for older residents and reinvesting in parks and bus services.

She has spoken about taking steps to attract more businesses to Independence and the region and plans to focus on fixing or rebuilding empty and decrepit buildings across the city. Her approach would involve incentivizing residents to get their own neighborhoods in shape without selling to large residential developers.

McCandless hopes to tap into the city’s “unrealized potential for economic development” without promising debt services to outside buyers. She plans to form a 10-year plan for the future of Independence Power & Light, which has avoided raising rates for residents for many years.

She also plans to further invest in a city program paying homeless residents to complete highway clean-up projects, and to create a public dashboard monitoring city processes on stormwater and power line improvements.

McCandless was one of five current City Council members to vote for a $6 billion tax break package for an incoming 400-acre AI data center. She has described the incoming payments in lieu of taxes associated with the data center as a transformative investment in Independence, which she hopes to use to fix roads and advance bridge repair projects.

Kevin King

Incumbent? No

Campaign website: kevinkingformayor.com

About the candidate

Kevin King, a lifelong Independence resident, was previously the business manager for Roofers & Waterproofers Local 20, a Kansas City construction union. Since March 2022, he’s been a representative to the United Union of Roofers, Waterproofers & Allied Workers, an international organization.

A father and grandfather, King has coached youth baseball, basketball and football in Independence, and has led Scouting America troops for several years. However, King has not held a formal political office outside of his work with the roofer’s union.

King has secured endorsements from the Independence chapter of Fraternal Order of Police and the Independence firefighters’ union, along with numerous KC-area labor unions.

What else to know

After the Independence City Council passed a $6 billion series of tax breaks for an incoming $150 billion, 400-acre data center, King made statements in support of the data center on social media.

Though King has said he feels as though city leaders could have gotten a better deal from Nebius, the Dutch AI company behind the project, he has acknowledged that the center will bring a necessary infusion of cash into schools, libraries and other taxing jurisdictions. The union-backed candidate has also praised the data center’s potential to create hundreds of temporary, but lucrative, job opportunities in construction.

On March 13, King signed a citizen-led petition calling for a public vote on the tax breaks, which a judge has since struck down. King has repeatedly called for increased transparency from council members surrounding the planned data center.

King’s other campaign priorities include revitalizing vacant homes and buildings, streamlining the permitting process for local businesses and “promoting family-friendly housing through zoning updates.”

While volunteering as a coach with the Pop Warner Football League in 2001, King underwent a background check that inaccurately flagged him as having a prior conviction for “the sexual maltreatment of a child” in two incidents in 1995. King, and the Missouri Department of Social Services, has said those incidents never happened.

The Pitch reported in 2003 that the state had affirmed that King’s record was clean, and the charges were erroneously linked to his name. However, King was temporarily disqualified from working with the Pop Warner league. King sued the league for defamation and the city of Independence for violating his civil rights. He later settled with both.

This story was originally published March 28, 2026 at 5:55 AM.