The Latest: Lucas defeats Justus to become Kansas City mayor
KANSAS CITY, Mo. (AP) — The Latest on the election to choose next mayor of Kansas City, Missouri, (all times local):
9:20 p.m.
A 34-year-old black man whose family was homeless at times during his childhood in Kansas City, Missouri, will become the city’s 55th mayor.
Unofficial results showed that Kansas City voters on Tuesday chose Quinton Lucas over fellow City Council member Jolie Justus in a mayoral runoff. He will assume office in August, replacing Sly James, another black mayor who served two four-year terms.
Despite poverty and homelessness, Lucas earned academic scholarships to Washington University in St. Louis and Cornell Law School. He is a lawyer and member of the University of Kansas law faculty who was elected to the City Council in 2015.
Lucas pledged during the campaign to bring an outsider mentality to the mayor’s office. He said he would work to reduce crime, increase affordable housing and to steer development projects to underserved areas.
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12 a.m.
Kansas City, Missouri, voters will choose between two candidates with vastly different backgrounds but many similar political positions when they go to the polls Tuesday to elect a new mayor.
Quinton Lucas, a 34-year-old black man, and Jolie Justus, a 48-year-old gay woman, are both attorneys with similar voting records during their first terms on the City Council. They both said during the campaign that the city’s top priorities should be reducing crime, increasing affordable housing and encouraging development in underserved areas of the city.
They differ in their approaches to the solutions.
Lucas said he was a political outsider who wanted to change how the city provides basic services and emphasize spreading developments across the city. Justus, who served two terms in the Missouri Legislature before returning to Kansas City, said she is a collaborator willing to work with people on all sides of issues.
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