The sheriff in Kansas’ most populous county is facing a contentious Republican primary after taking on election fraud as a cause. Democrats see a good chance of capturing an office that they haven't won since 1930.
FILE - Johnson County, Kan., Sheriff Calvin Hayden speaks at a news conference, Aug. 27, 2020, in Olathe, Kan. Doug Bedford, a Republican candidate for Johnson County, Kansas , sheriff stands beside one of his campaign signs outside a Veterans of Foreign Wars hall in his hometown Tuesday, July 30, 2024, in De Soto, Kan.
As in other suburban areas across the U.S., a pro-Trump pedigree is likely to be a political liability in November in Johnson County, a former GOP stronghold where Democratic voter registrations have grown nine times faster than Republican ones since 2016. But the GOP primary electorate in Kansas is far redder and more pro-Trump.
Hayden is a former Army reservist who joined the sheriff’s department in 1981 and rose through the ranks until he won a seat on the county commission in 2008, serving one four-year term. He won a three-way Republican primary for sheriff in 2016, with no Democrat on the ballot.“We’ve kept Johnson County safe,” he said during a July candidate forum. “I’ll stand on my record.”
Bedford suggested the sheriff has broken with a tradition of his office’s 700 employees being “silent professionals” who avoid public attention. “I’m all for investigating crimes,” he said. “But if there is no information to prove a crime, you can’t keep it open.” “You look at what used to be this mighty, dominant Republican base in Johnson County, and it’s just hemorrhaging voters that either unaffiliate or flip Democrat or they just start voting for Democrats,” said Cole Robinson, executive director of the county Democratic Party.
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