KANSAS CITY, Mo. — There will be seven new members of the Kansas City, Missouri, City Council, when the winners of Tuesday’s municipal election are sworn into office in August.
Six of the newcomers won seats that were vacated due to term limits.
Darrell Curls defeated Michael Kelley to replace Lee Barnes Jr. as the 5th District At-Large council member.
Support in the Northland helped push Curls, a Freedom Inc. board member, over the top against Kelley, the policy director for BikeWalkKC.
Curls received 56% of the vote, including 44% in Clay and Platte counties.
Army combat veteran, KC Tenants organizer and VFW Deputy Director Johnathan Duncan surprised long-time Jackson County legislator Dan Tarwater III in the 6th District race.
Tarwater received nearly double the vote Duncan received in the April 4 primary, but Duncan turned the tide in the general election, winning 57% of the vote, and will replace Kevin McManus.
Lindsay French, who has a background in city planning and urban design, won the 2nd District At-Large race to replace Teresa Loar with 52% of the vote.
In a tightly contested race, she topped Jenay Manley, an organizer with roots in the KC Tenants movement.
Jackson County Assistant Prosecuting Attorney Crispin Rea, who works in the Special Victims Unit, won a showdown with Justin Short in the 4th District At-Large.
Rea, who said during a pre-election interview that he planned to resign from the prosecutor's office before being sworn in, will become the first Latino on the city council in a generation when he replaces outgoing Councilwoman Katheryn Shields.
Buoyed by support from outgoing Councilwoman Heather Hall, Nathan Wilett, a math teacher in the Park Hill School District, cruised with 64% of the vote against challenger Chris Gahagan, an attorney.
Mayor Quinton Lucas has been re-elected to a second term in a landslide against challenger Clay Chastain, who also ran unsuccessfully for mayor in 2015 and 2019.
Lucas received 81% of the vote Tuesday after receiving 81% during the primary.
Five of the six city council incumbents also celebrated relatively easy re-election wins Tuesday.
1st District At-Large Councilman Kevin O’Neill, 6th District At-Large Councilwoman Andrea Bough, 3rd District Councilwoman Melissa Robinson, 4th District Councilman Eric Bunch and 5th District Councilwoman Ryana Parks-Shaw all received at least 60% of the vote in earning a second term.
The only incumbent who failed to earn a second term was 3rd District At-Large Councilman Brandon Ellington, who lost his re-election bid to Melissa Patterson Hazley.
Patterson Hazley received 61% of the vote in unseating Ellington.
Parks-Shaw and new 2nd District Councilman Wes Rogers, a former Missouri state legislator, ran unopposed.
Rogers, who replaces incumbent Dan Fowler, will represent the southern part of Clay County within KCMO city limits on the council under the redrawn districts.
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