The Wichita mayoral general election ballot is set following the August 6 primary. The nonpartisan general election takes place on November 5, 2019.
Nine candidates appeared on the primary ballot; Mayor Jeff Longwell faced eight challengers in the first leg of his bid for re-election. Longwell received the most votes in the primary, garnering 32.3% of the vote (7,136 votes). In second place was Kansas House of Representatives District 96 member, Brandon Whipple, with 25.9% of the vote (5,729 votes). One other candidate, Lyndy Wells, received double-digit percentage points in the race, with 25.2% of the vote (5,569 votes). The fourth runner-up received 6.4% of the vote (1,412 votes).
Longwell was first elected in 2015. Before becoming mayor, Longwell was a member of the Wichita City Council, representing District 5 from 2007 to 2015. He was the vice-mayor of Wichita from April 2010 to April 2011.
Whipple began serving in the Kansas House of Representatives in 2012. He was most recently re-elected in 2018 without opposition.
Although the mayoral election is officially nonpartisan, commentary in The Wichita Eagle identified Mayor Longwell as a Republican. Whipple is a Democratic member of the Kansas State Legislature.
Three city council seats are also on the general election ballot. None of the seats held a primary because the races did not have enough candidates to require one. Wichita is the largest city in Kansas and the 49th-largest city in the U.S. by population.
Additional reading:
https://ballotpedia.org/City_elections_in_Wichita,_Kansas_(2019)
https://ballotpedia.org/Wichita,_Kansas
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