KANSAS CITY, Mo. — Support continued to pour in Wednesday for Jason Kander, who announced Tuesday that he was dropping out of the Kansas City mayoral race to get treatment for post-traumatic stress disorder.
“My heart goes out to him. I think this was a serious issue and I have great respect for him and what he's dealing with,” said Councilman Quinton Lucas, who represents Kansas City's Third District at-large.
“Right now the city is standing with him. He has a lot of friends and everybody is wanting to make sure that he is well,” Kansas City Mayor Sly James said during an interview with NBC Nightly News.
Public affairs consultant Jason Grill knows Kander from his work in state politics.
“You know he treated every election like he was running 20 points behind, so you know he worked his butt off and he worked early and often,” Grill said.
Kander raised more than $500,000 in the four months he ran for mayor, 41 Action News learned on Wednesday.
Kander’s campaign manager, Abe Rakov, said the campaign will offer refunds to those who made donations.
Any remaining funds will go to the Let America Vote organization, which Kander founded.
Questions still remain about whether Councilwoman Jolie Justus will get back into the race.
“I can't imagine her not running because she obviously was running. She stepped out of the race because of Jason,” Grill said.
Kander's campaign released a statement in favor of Justus.
"If Jolie decides to run for mayor, Jason will support her campaign. He has a lot of friends in the race that he believes would do a good job, but he's confident Jolie is the best person to lead Kansas City and is encouraging her to run," the statement said.
As for Kander's political future, Grill said that anything could happen.
“Anything is possible in politics and I think there's a long time and he's a young guy,” Grill said.
