Darryl Forté for Kansas City mayor? Jackson County sheriff has ‘had conversations’ | Opinion

For a while now, the common understanding around City Hall has been that three Kansas City council members are preparing to run for mayor next year, when Quinton Lucas reaches his two-term limit.

They are Crispin Rea, who represents the 4th District at-large and much of Midtown; Wes Rogers, the 2nd District councilman from the Northland and Ryana Parks-Shaw, the mayor pro tem who represents the 5th District in southeast Kansas City.

But as the race moves within a year of Election Day, the field is starting to take on a slightly different shape.

Parks-Shaw’s name has recently surfaced in reporting about an ongoing FBI investigation at City Hall, though she has denied wrongdoing. Whether anything comes of that remains to be seen. But it could narrow the field a bit — and there was already room for an outsider.

Enter Darryl Forté.

Recently I received a push poll on my phone asking for my thoughts about the three council candidates: Parks-Shaw, Rogers and Rea. A follow-up question asked about a fourth possibility: Jackson County Sheriff Darryl Forté.

So I texted Forté on Monday to ask if he had been thinking about it.

He didn’t deny it.

“I have had conversations with a number of people about the future of our city,” Forté told me. “I am listening, gathering input, and have not made a decision about running for mayor.”

He added that his focus remains on serving the public as sheriff.

Forté has been a familiar figure in Kansas City law enforcement for decades. A Kansas City native, he joined the Kansas City Police Department in 1985 and rose through the ranks before serving as chief from 2011 to 2017, becoming the department’s first Black chief. In 2018, he was appointed sheriff of Jackson County — the first Black person to hold that job — and later won election to the post. His current term runs through 2028, at which point he can run again for sheriff. He will be termed out in 2032.

Forté would enter the fray with high name recognition, a law-and-order profile and decades of relationships across Kansas City’s civic and political circles. In a race that has so far looked like it might stay inside City Hall, that would be something new.

This story was originally published March 16, 2026 at 3:50 PM.