Conservative We The People group wants seats on every Kansas City-area council, board
Jackson County Republicans held a meet the candidates forum last Monday night and the hall inside the Lake Lotawana Sportsmen’s Club in Lee’s Summit was packed with people fired up about God, country, and “taking back” their county from “the liberals” — folks they say are making their kids wear masks in a pandemic and who they believe might teach “critical race theory” in their public schools.
But more important, the display was a clear sign that this group of area Republicans are gearing up to do political battle, if it comes to that, to claim seats primarily in local races in the Spring 2022 elections.
The maskless group of more than 100 came together under the umbrella of “We The People of Jackson County,” a private, conservative Facebook gathering, touting the slogan, “enough is enough.”
This is a group organized by Chuck Quezenberry, a Lee’s Summit real estate broker I reached out to after the meeting. He had no desire to talk with me because, well, he doesn’t like “the liberal media.” No hurt feelings here. We’ve heard that before.
Apparently We The People has no problem getting its like-minded followers to travel across the county along the narrow, hilly and dark roads through Lake Lotawana to meet, at what Jackson County GOP Chairman David Lightener said is “in the middle of nowhere.” The meeting there the week before drew more than 200 people. “I haven’t seen anything like this in all my 25 years” working with political campaigns, Lightener said.
Yes, the weekly gathering of grassroots organizers is impressive and Democrats should pay more attention, but really they’re not.
I’m told though that behind the scenes, “there is a movement within the Democratic Party where we are seeing a rise in progressive voices and they are diverse, new and fresh,” said Manny Abarca, secretary of the Missouri Democratic Party and a Kansas City Public Schools board member .
Abarca believes most of the newly formed grassroots Republicans are single-issue candidates who are “fighting themselves to get more conservative.”
And some of that may be happening. One woman at the Lake Lotawana meeting — I didn’t catch her name — stood up to ask the gathering “How will we know if some of these new candidates are real MAGA conservatives?”
Justice Horn, a Kansas City Democrat running for the Jackson County Legislature District 1 seat, is concerned about the momentum of fringe groups like We The People.
Horn thinks local Democrats are too comfortable with the moderately liberal political climate in the county. Nearly 60% of the county voted Democratic in the last presidential election. Not so across the state, which voted Republican in the past six presidential elections.
And We The People, Lightener said, is set on flipping the political majority conservative, in as many school boards and city councils as they can. That may not happen in an urban area such as Kansas City, but the group’s real interest is in the surrounding suburbs anyway — Blue Springs, Lee’s Summit, Independence, Oak Grove and Clay County.
“They are organized and I suspect they are going to grow and get more popular,” Lightener said. “They are getting the word out through social media and word of mouth and are being educated enough to know that the change they want begins at the lowest level,” on local school boards, city councils and in a mayor’s seat.
In Lotawana, the offer was made to everyone in the room, to get involved in some capacity; door knocker, campaign worker, fundraiser or handing out fliers. They announced upcoming training sessions to help their 10 candidates — eight women, two men, who have never run for public office — learn the campaign ropes.
“If you are ready to do something to take back power from the politicians and elites for We The People,“ click here, their website says.
“They are organizing against us in the municipal elections where there is no R or D next to anybody’s name,” Horn says. “Democrats are just doing too much gatekeeping” when it comes to recruiting people to run for these seats. “Republicans are running anyone and everyone with any interest.”
He’s right. Monday night, a couple of the candidates supported by We The People said they are in the arena because they don’t like how their schools are run and want parents to have more say in the curriculum. They want an end to COVID-19 mandates and they feel like decisions by their city leaders don’t reflect their “family values.” A couple said that God, friends or neighbors told them to run.
Kansas City 1st District Councilwoman Heather Hall, whose four-year term is up in 2023, spoke to the gathering as proof, she said, that you don’t have to have political experience to win. She passed out cards recruiting folks to join her “Build Our Bench” volunteer group.
I was there just to listen, and had planned to slide inconspicuously into the room. Turns out that wasn’t possible since I was the only Black woman at the meeting where there was standing room only.
They even tried to recruit me. Well, not me really, but rather someone I was mistaken for — a Black woman lawyer Republican leaders want to back for a judgeship. Not once, but three times in the hour I was there, people assumed: “Oh, you’re the lawyer.” Nope, not me.
I felt a bit like I was privy to something clandestine, even at this public meeting where obviously they hoped the lawyer, whoever she is, would show up. It was clear those attending are excited about having their voices heard and also about a chance to speak from a political seat. They’re preparing to push hard for that. I couldn’t help wondering: Are Dems ready for what’s coming?
