Johnson County hasn’t elected a Democratic sheriff in 96 years. Is this time different?

For the past 96 years, Johnson County voters have elected an uninterrupted line of Republican sheriffs. But that may soon change.

Prairie Village Police Chief Byron Roberson is running as a Democrat against Republican Doug Bedford, a former Johnson County undersheriff, in the Nov. 5 general election – the first time in 20 years that a Democrat has been on the ballot . The contest appears competitive, with both men waging full-throated campaigns.

Johnson County, an affluent and largely suburban area, is undergoing a political transformation from Republican stronghold to solidly Democratic that began more than a decade ago. Voters backed President Joe Biden in 2020, the first time in a century a Democratic presidential candidate won the county, and have helped elect Democratic U.S. Rep. Sharice Davids and Gov. Laura Kelly.

Controversy surrounds current Sheriff Calvin Hayden, who conducted a years-long opaque investigation into the county’s elections that led to no criminal charges . The inquiry, which Hayden promoted in front of hard-right audiences, helped fuel false conspiracy theories about elections and turned a wide swath of residents against him. Hayden lost the Republican primary in August to Bedford by 12 points.

Hayden may soon exit the political scene, but the pitched fight between him and Bedford sharply raised the profile of the race – putting the race for sheriff on the minds of voters in a way that local offices typically don’t.

Democrats hope all of that adds up to give Roberson an edge.

“That momentum, I don’t see anything on sort of a macro political scale that has been slowing that down,” Cole Robinson, executive director of the Johnson County Democratic Party, said of the county trending toward his party.

If anything, Robinson said, Vice President Kamala Harris replacing Biden at the top of the ticket has energized core Democratic voters.

“I think if I’m Doug Bedford or if I’m just kind of a Republican with a really close race in Johnson County, I’m looking at a Democratic base that’s disproportionately female and very much energized, kind of like 2022 again,” Robinson said, alluding to an election in which Kelly dominated Johnson County. “And it’s kind of like at your peril standing in front of that as a Republican.”

The sheriff’s race has been drained of some of its excitement since Hayden’s loss. Bedford and Roberson have expressed respect for one another and while they have tried to distinguish themselves from each other, they have also in public avoided direct attacks.

Bedford has the endorsement of longtime former Republican Sheriff Frank Denning and former Garnder Police Chief Jay Belcher, among others. Roberson is endorsed by former Overland Park Police Chief John Douglass and former Lenexa Police Chief Ellen Hanson and others.

The two candidates share somewhat similar biographical elements. Roberson spent eight years in the Marines, including a year of active deployment during the first Gulf War. Bedford spent eight years in the Navy and was a SEAL, including a deployment during the war.

Roberson and Bedford have both had extensive careers in law enforcement. Bedford was previously an undersheriff who had worked with Hayden. Roberson has spent decades in the Prairie Village Police Department before becoming chief in 2021.

For their part, Republicans are bullish on Bedford. Mike Kuckelman, a Johnson County attorney and a former chairman of the Kansas Republican Party, acknowledged the race would potentially be closer than in the past. But he predicted Bedford will build an advantage as voters examine the records of the two candidates.

“On day one, Doug Bedford will know where everything is, from the keys to the jail to all the weapons they would need for whatever could happen – he knows from day one he has a good, strong handle on that,” Kuckelman said.

‘A fresh perspective’

In fundamental ways, Bedford and Roberson have staked out similar approaches to how they would handle the job. Both promise to take politics out of the job after Hayden cultivated a higher profile and both have stressed the need to restore sound leadership over the department, a sprawling agency that includes hundreds of deputies and civilian employees.

But they are divided on who would best deliver that change.

In a recent interview with The Star’s editorial board, Bedford contrasted his past experience in the Johnson County Sheriff’s Office – at one point the No. 2 leader in the department – with the much smaller Prairie Village Police Department. Prairie Village has dozens of officers compared to hundreds in the sheriff’s office, he noted. The budget pales in comparison.

Bedford, who emphasized that he had nothing disparaging to say about his opponent, said that given the differences in size and complexity between the two agencies, taking over the sheriff’s office would prove “almost an overwhelming task” coming from Prairie Village.

“The sheriff’s office, it’s a different beast,” Bedford said.

Roberson, in an interview with a reporter, cast his outside vantage point as an asset. He said he would bring aboard a leadership team that included individuals with internal knowledge of the department as well as others from the outside.

The department is “probably the biggest culprit” of alienating themselves from outside law enforcement agencies, he said.

“I believe the organization is dying to have a new perspective, a fresh perspective and a perspective that is not necessarily from inside the organization,” Roberson said.

Roberson is leaning into mental health as a campaign issue, an emphasis that comes after Hayden earlier this year took one of the most divisive decisions of his time as sheriff and removed Johnson County Mental Health Center from county jails.

Johnson County Mental Health Center for the past few years provided behavioral health services at the two adult detention centers, ensuring prisoners have access to psychiatric evaluations, medications, suicide assessments and other interventions. The center also offers ongoing support as people leave jail in an effort to continue treatment and decrease recidivism.

Hayden this spring dropped Johnson County Mental Health Center in favor of VitalCore Health Strategies, a private, for-profit organization that was already providing medical services for prisoners. The decision was described as primarily financially-based but sparked strong opposition from some county leaders.

Roberson has confronted the role of mental health in law enforcement in a deeply personal way. In 2010 as a Prairie Village officer, he shot and killed Susan Stuckey, a 47-year-old mentally ill woman who had clashed with police and said she wanted police to kill her. Prosecutors cleared Roberson in the shooting and a federal lawsuit over the death was settled out of court.

“Mental health is crucially important to me, it’s not just a campaign slogan,” Roberson said.

Bedford has also voiced concern with the sheriff’s office dropping Johnson County Mental Health Center. The most effective part of having the center working in the jails was the center’s ability to maintain contact with individuals after they’re released – preventing interruptions in medications and other help.

“Now, I don’t know what that case is,” Bedford said, adding that he has heard communication has worsened. He expressed fear that delays will lead to recidivism.

“It’s a huge issue, it’s a hot-button issue, as well as it should be. But that being the case, I think we need to revisit that, make sure it’s the most effective thing to do,” Bedford said.

Johnson County Commissioner Becky Fast, who was critical of the decision to stop using the mental health center, said she’s hopeful about what a new sheriff will mean for mental health services at the jails.

“I’ve said all along that I don’t feel like our most vulnerable people should be the subject of a for-profit company,” said Fast, who isn’t endorsing in the race.

Johnson County shifting

While the sheriff’s office is partisan, it typically isn’t run in an overtly partisan manner – a norm Hayden broke as he promoted the election investigation to Republican audiences while simultaneously refusing to release many details to the public.

If Hayden had won the GOP primary, it would have set up a strong contrast between him and Roberson. The contest between Roberson and Bedford is more muddled; the differences between them are often not as sharp.

Matthew Harris, a political science professor at Park University, said the political fundamentals in Johnson County have been shifting in Democrats’ favor and he expects the race to be fairly competitive.

Republicans still hold a sizable advantage in registered voters in Johnson County. As of August, 41% of voters were Republican, compared to 32.4% for Democrats and 25.2% unaffiliated.

But those figures are less favorable to Republicans than a dozen years ago. Republicans in 2012 accounted for 46.4% of registered voters compared to just under 23% for Democrats.

Many of those Republicans are also more moderate. At least some fraction has been willing to vote for Democrats, given recent election results. In 2020, Biden beat former President Donald Trump by 8 points and Kelly won by 20 points in 2022.

“All those fundamentals it seems like it’s shifting toward the Democrats,” Harris said. “At the same time, I think if you talk to Democrats – whether they’ll admit this publicly or not – it would have been a much more winnable race if it was Hayden against Roberson.”