On Tuesday, August 5th, residents cast their votes to determine the new direction of the Unified Government of Wyandotte County & Kansas City, Kansas.
Candidates backed by organized labor excelled at the ballot box, taking home almost every top position ahead of the November general election.
Six candidates faced off in the mayoral race and split 11,579 votes. Rose Mulvany Henry, the choice endorsed by the vast majority of organized labor, was the top voter getter in the hotly-contested race to become the 32nd mayor of Kansas City, KS and 6th Mayor/CEO since the city and county consolidated in 1997.
Mulvany Henry pulled in 3,619 votes and will face Christal Watson, who came in second with 3,031votes. Tom Burroughs came in a close third with 2,910. No other candidate pulled in over one thousand votes.
In discussing her support for union members and working-class residents of Wyandotte County, Rose Mulvany Henry submitted the following to The Labor Beacon:
“In every thriving city, there’s a force that quietly powers progress: organized labor. From the linemen at BPU, to the nurses at KU, to our first responders, union members form the backbone of our economy and the soul of our communities. As a candidate for mayor, I stand unequivocally with organized labor— not just in words, but in action.
“We deserve leadership that recognizes labor not as a special interest, but as a public good. Union jobs are good jobs. They offer fair wages, safe working conditions, and dignity on the job. They lift families out of poverty and build pathways to the middle class. And they do so while strengthening the very fabric of our neighborhoods.
“As mayor, I will support project labor agreements on public infrastructure and city contracts that prioritize union labor. We will partner with organized labor to further invest in apprenticeship programs that connect our youth to skilled trades and create a pipeline of opportunity rooted right here in the Dotte.
“KCK has always been a blue collar town, but organized labor is not a relic of the past — it will serve as the foundation to build our future for generations to come. When workers have a seat at the table, we all benefit. Our streets are safer, our schools stronger, and our economy is more resilient. That’s the Wyandotte County/KCK we can build—together.”
UG AND BPU RACES
The race for Unified Government Commissioner District 1 was very tight, with Jermaine Howard, who received important union backing from UAW Local 31 and IAFF Local 64, taking home 462 votes compared to second place vote-getter Lisa Walker Yeager with 301 votes and two other candidates that pulled in 226 and 248 votes.
Andrew Kump, the union-endorsed candidate for the Commissioner At-Large District 2 seat, walked away in first with 1,354 votes and will face Philip Lopez who pulled in 1,163.
In the District 5 race, union-endorsed Carlos Pacheco III pulled in 1,930 votes out 3,418 total, more than doubling his opponent for the general, LaVert A. Murray who pulled in 762 votes.
In District 7, Chuck Stites, the union-endorsed incumbent, did not face an opponent.
In the race for Board of Public Utilities At-Large Position 1, which did not see a large union-endorsement presence, Gary Bradley-Lopez pulled in 2,336 votes and will face Lisa Walker Yeager with 3,841 votes.
Andrew Davis, the union-endorsed candidate, took first with 616 votes in the District 8 election. He will face Jacob Handy who pulled in 393.
Un i o n – e n d o r s e d incumbent Sheriff Daniel Soptic walked away as the top vote getter in the race for the position of Sheriff, with 6,451 votes, and will face Celisha Towers who narrowly placed second with 2,473 votes to David Kearney’s 2,364 votes. Soptic was the top vote getter of the night in Wyandotte.
The Dotte, which has long been one of the more reliably pro-union counties in the region despite being in Right-to-Work-for- Less Kansas, did not see great voter turnout, with unofficial final results saying that 11,663 votes were cast in total across 148 precincts in a county with 92,606 registered voters. This is 12.59% voter turnout.
JOHNSON COUNTY
In Lenexa Ward 1, the only competitive primary in Johnson County, unions backed John Michael Handley who pulled in 597 votes out of the 1,041 cast. He will face Joe Shull who pulled in 340 votes.
The Ward 1 election included only 9 precincts in Johnson County, with 11,953 voters eligible to vote. Voter turnout was just 8.71%.
GENERAL ELECTION
Voters will go to the polls on November 4th, 2025 for the general election. More union endorsements are likely to come next month.
Off-cycle elections, or those that occur outside of the usual even-number schedule, continue to have extremely low turnout across the country. If as many as one or two dozen extra union members per union show up on election day, unions would be able to easily shape the political field to be more friendly to the working-class in many of these competitive seats.
Tristin Amezcua-Hogan is the Editor of The Labor Beacon and a member of LIUNA Local 264. Tristin also serves as the Director of Communications for the Greater Kansas City AFL-CIO and the Chair of the Kansas City Regional Transit Alliance.
Tristin grew up as the son of a UA Local 669 member in Tecumseh, KS and the great-nephew of George C. Amis, longtime leader of the United Rubberworkers (now USW Local 307) in Kansas. Growing up in rural Kansas as the child of teen parents, Tristin quickly came to appreciate the life-changing benefit of a union job.
Tristin and his partner, Rebeca Amezcua-Hogan, are residents of the Westside, Kansas City, MO's historic Mexican neighborhood. They are proud members of Kansas City's New Reform Temple.
