A Democrat and Libertarian will face off early next month for the mayoralty of Wichita, Kansas. Incumbent Mayor Brandon Whipple, a Democrat first elected to the office in 2020, will face sole challenger and Libertarian Party candidate Lily Wu next month.
Both candidates participated in a larger primary election held in early August, which featured seven other contenders. During this first round of voting, Lily Wu emerged as the frontrunner in a crowded field, securing 30% of the vote. Whipple trailed behind with 24%, and City Council Member Bryan Frye in third with 22.3%.
Before becoming Mayor, Brandon Whipple served four terms as a legislator in the Kansas House of Representatives, first being elected in 2010. Challenger Lily Wu is a first-time candidate and former local television reporter who previously worked with Wichita networks KAKE-TV and KWCH 12.
While the mayoral election is nonpartisan, both Whipple and Wu’s party affiliations have been frequently referenced in the local media and at various points while on the campaign trail.
Whipple has seen his campaign bolstered by mailers distributed by the Kansas Democratic Party. Wu, in contrast, has been criticized in the media by the Libertarian Party of Kansas for her unwillingness to agree to a party-hosted debate with Whipple. A spokesperson for the Libertarian Party of Kansas, speaking to the Wichita Eagle at the time, said all that needed to happen was “for Lily to agree to show up” and that the party was “unlikely” to endorse Wu going into election day.
Wu’s affiliation has also come up for her deviation from typical Libertarian Party policy positions. She is an open advocate of city police department recruitment and increased policing resources, a perspective that puts her at odds with the views of Kansas Libertarian leadership.
“I never have heard a Libertarian be like, ‘Public safety is an issue and we need more oversight and more police and more governing,'” Libertarian Party of Kansas Marketing Director Olivia Hayse has been quoted as saying by the Wichita Eagle, “That does not vibe with us. Again, this is one of those things where maybe she is coming at it from a Libertarian perspective and she could explain to us, but what we’re hearing isn’t resonating with our party.”
A formal public announcement has not yet been made as of this article. Still, in the context of Wu’s challenge to Whipple, her contrasting perspectives have given her a broader appeal.
Both candidates have accumulated several locally significant endorsements. For Wu, this list has included Americans for Prosperity and the Wichita Regional Chamber of Commerce PAC. Wu has also garnered the endorsement of the local Fraternal Order of Police Lodge, a union that originally supported Whipple in his 2020 campaign.
While scientific polling on municipal and citywide races is uncommon and thus unavailable, local media has noted the race’s volatility and strength of Wu’s challenge to Whipple.
Wichita State University Political Science Professor Neal Allen, who moderated a recent Tuesday night KAKE debate between the candidates, noted in an interview with the network that Bryan Frye, the third-place finisher in the August primary, took positions closer to those of Wu than Whipple.
A search by Independent Political Report into the seven candidates eliminated in the primary finds that three of them are members of the Republican Party (Frye with 22.3% of voters, Cerullo with 4.6%, and Davis with 0.61%), three are independent of any political party (Racette with 16.8% of voters, Stroud with .60%, and Kane with .53%), and one of them is a member of the Democratic Party (Gallardo with .45% of voters). Past candidates have made no formal endorsements at this time.
The election will take place on November 3, 2023.
I don’t know the specifics of the issues there, but in general this is a good example of the difference between political philosophy and political reality. Are there significant crime problems in Wichita? How best should they be addressed? Are the crimes involved violent crimes which involve aggression and violence, and thus are the responsibility of the state to deal with per most libertarians? Libertarians may not want to expand a police department, and I tend to agree. At the same time, if there is a serious problem to deal with right now, what are the alternatives?
Best wishes to Libertarian Lily Wu for election success!
Wu sounds like a slipstreaming Republican. Don’t blame Kansas Libertarians for distancing themselves.