A Sixth District upset heads city council election results

By Tyler Schneider

A clash for the Sixth District seat on the Kansas City City Council ended in an upset that saw KC Tenants organizer and VFW Operations Director Johnathan Duncan earn 56.50% (6,884 votes) to best longtime Jackson County Legislator and businessman Dan T. Tarwater III (43.5%, 5,299). 

In a five-way April 4 primary, Tarwater, 59, finished at 45.54% to Duncan’s 24%. Duncan, 37, attributes his success since then to door-to-door efforts, which he says comprised 6,000 total doors knocked.

“We made a concerted effort to knock on as many doors as we could between April 5 and June 19. It was that ground game that made the difference, and you can see it evident in the amount of yard signs in the district,” Duncan said.

Tarwater, who was voted into county office by the south Kansas City constituency for seven terms and heavily favored to win, was surprised, as were those who endorsed him.

“In the end, I do know that my wife and I along with our team did work our butts off and not sure what more we could have done,” he said. “I have enjoyed representing and supporting the people of South Kansas City for over 28 years. I love our city and will continue to be active and engaged so that I can be of service to the people.”

 The Sixth District race was one of the most contentious races of the election season. South Kansas Citians found their mailboxes flooded with flyers from groups associated with each candidate attacking the other.

Duncan, a Newton, Kansas, native who resides in the 49/63 Neighborhood Coalition, believes his campaign tapped into a lesser-heard portion of the newly reorganized Sixth District that reaches from Martin City to Westport.  

Coming out ahead in a competitive race in which two very qualified candidates vied for a single seat, Duncan says he understands the necessity of representing the entirety of his constituent base in the Sixth District.

“We say in community organizing that the people closest to the problem are closest to the solution, and that looks exactly the same way when we try to govern,” Duncan said. “We need to actually be listening, listening to the voices who are crying out to be heard in the southernmost portion of the district, who largely felt ignored by their city government representatives.”

These issues include more widely-appealing improvements to city services, such as sidewalks and street repair. Duncan — who used his personal phone number on campaign handouts and mailers — added that his work will involve “simply having city council people who will return an email or telephone.” 

 “I look forward to doing that, because we are missing out on the genius of our residents every time we don’t listen to them when we’re crafting policy solutions,” Duncan said.

Finally, as a leader with KC Tenants, Duncan looks to bridge the gap between the perception of housing issues and what he sees as a much broader reality. Duncan’s highest priority during the campaign was to push for “municipal social housing that is not for profit, permanently affordable and controlled by its residents.”

“As many of our seniors are seeing, affordable housing is a poor and working class issue. And for those individuals on a set income or with limited income that is not increasing at the rate of the cost of their housing, the feeling is that we have more in common with one another, the poor and working class people, than some may think,” Duncan said. 

Other South KC races:

Kansas City Mayor:

Quinton Lucas (80.63%, 33,266 votes) won his second term for mayor over perennial contender Clay Chastain (19.37%, 7,993). Lucas, 38, the city’s 55th mayor, was elected to his first term in August of 2019 to succeed Sly James.

Chastain, whom The Telegraph had profiled in our previous issue, ran for mayor in the past as an alternative candidate with unconventional on issues such as transportation. He notably led the charge to preserve Union Station in the 1990s.

1st District At-Large: 

Incumbent Kevin O’Neill (71.7%, 29,106) weathered a late charge from self-proclaimed “MAGA candidate” Ronda Smith (28.3%, 11,477) to retain his seat for another three years. 

O’Neill is the former editor of The Labor Beacon, an influential regional union publication he helmed since the early 1990s.

Smith, the wife of a 26-year KCPD veteran, take’s a harder stance on supporting law enforcement, though O’Neill has supported funding the KCPD in addition to reducing crime through interventional community measures. 

2nd District At-Large:

In the closest race of the night, separated by just 1,304 votes,  Lindsay French (51.61%, 20,937) held off a hard charge from the youngest candidate in the fold, KC Tenants leader Jenay Manley (48.39%, 19,633). 

French, a graphic designer, communications specialist and the Chair of the Planning and Development Committee for the Northland Regional Chamber of Commerce, succeeds Teresa Loar. In a three-way primary, French netted 47.12% of the vote over Manley’s 34.42%. 

The latter’s performance on June 20, despite falling short by the slimmest of margins, is impressive in that she did win the Jackson County vote. French claimed the seat thanks to a high turnout in the northland, where she earned 8,321 votes in Platte and Clay counties to Manley’s 4,930. 

3rd District At-Large:

Melissa Patterson Hazley (60.53%, 24,105) put up impressive numbers to successfully oust incumbent Brandon R. Ellington (39.47%, 15,716). 

Patterson Hazley, an educational psychologist and UMKC researcher, had garnered enough support heading into the June 20 election to lead Ellington to previously admit that he was on the outside looking as far as his reelection chances were concerned. 

A first-term incumbent, now again a private citizen, Ellington is a former term-limited District 22 state representative who had at one point served as the Minority Whip.

4th District At-Large:

A lawyer with seven years of experience serving in the Jackson County Prosecutor’s Special Victims Unit, Crispin Rea (56.79%, 22,686) managed to hold off Justin M. Short (43.21%, 17,261) for the 4th District At-Large seat. 

This was the youngest citywide race, with Rea, 37, besting Short, 34, the son of a former Platte County Commissioner and an LGBTQ Commission member with the city.

At-Large 5th District:

A familiar political name for South Kansas City, Darrell Curls (56%, 22,643) earned a ten-plus point win over BikeWalkKC Director Michael Kelley (44%, 17,808). It was the conclusion of an exciting race in which the pair had finished with 35.6% and 33.6% in the primary to Teresa Cass-Galvin’s 30.75%. 

Cass-Galvin, a former Jackson County Legislator, was coming off a fairly successful underdog campaign against County Executive Frank White back in November. Her absence on the June 20 ballot looks to have bolstered Curls’ cross-appeal to moderate and conservative-leaning voters this time around. 

At-Large 6th District:

Incumbent Andrea Bough (71.71%, 28,737) drew a similar split as she had in the primary to stymy a challenge from former public school educator Jill Sasse (28.29%, 11,336).

Bough, a Brookside resident with a law degree from UMKC, has served on the city council since August of 2019.