Johnson County, Kansas

Amy Diediker emerged as the lone Democrat elected among five open seats on the Kansas State Board of Education. She bested Republican Jim McMullen, a former Blue Valley school board member, for a seat covering parts of Johnson and Miami counties.

Democrats needed to pick up five seats statewide to break Republicans' two-thirds majority in the Kansas House. Unofficial results show they gained at least 20, with a majority of those coming from Johnson County seats.

Davids defeated Republican Eric Jenkins, a former Shawnee city councilmember, and Libertarian Steve Hohe. Davids has now won each of her four reelection bid by double-digit margins, despite GOP efforts to redraw the district.

The federal agency has sent monitors to Johnson and Wyandotte counties in Kansas and Jackson and Clay counties in Missouri.

The World Cup gave Kansas City a deadline to make changes, an opportunity to experiment and a reason to invest. Now the city has to show which of those efforts will benefit residents beyond the tournament.

Prairie Village City Council unanimously rejected adopting a new Kansas law requiring a 25-foot buffer from first responders and law enforcement. However, officers can still invoke the law in the city. Here’s where other cities in Johnson County stand.

In some areas of the Kansas City metro, election officials say early voting numbers are on track to outpace the 2024 election. Ballot measures on abortion and redistricting appear to be driving turnout in Missouri, while the Kansas side is being energized by close races for governor and U.S. Senate.

The burden of medical debt came into focus after a New York Times report on Kansas U.S. Sen. Roger Marshall's billing practices as an OB-GYN. The nonpartisan civic engagement group Somos Votantes stepped in and bought up $42 million of Kansans' medical debt.

Kansas officials released a map of the STAR bonds district used to fund part of the new Chiefs stadium in Wyandotte County. The district excludes the University of Kansas Medical Center complex, a portion of the city of Shawnee, and existing STAR bond districts.

Republican Eric Jenkins and Libertarian Steve Hohe are attempting to unseat Democratic U.S. Rep. Sharice Davids in Kansas’ 3rd Congressional District, which covers the majority of the Kansas City suburbs.

In November, voters will choose between Democrat Amy Diediker and Republican Jim McMullen for the Kansas Board of Education's 3rd District seat. Either candidate would be new to the board.

Citing declining enrollment and chronic underfunding by the state, the Olathe school board voted 7-0 to close five elementary schools and Indian Trail Middle at the end of the 2026-27 school year.