Star Editorial Board endorses candidates in the Aug. 6 primary. What you need to know | Opinion
This year, The Kansas City Star Editorial Board will endorse candidates in primary and general election races in Missouri and Kansas. The date for both is Aug. 6, just three weeks away.
Over the following weeks, we will begin to roll out our endorsements in the following primary races:
Missouri
Governor, U.S. Senate, attorney general, secretary of state, state legislative districts, Jackson County prosecutor, and ballot initiatives on police funding and a tax exemption for child care facilities.
Kansas
State legislative districts, Johnson County sheriff, Johnson County commission, Johnson County district attorney and Douglas County district attorney.
We sent out questionnaires to candidates in almost all of these races by email and postal mail if we could not find an email address. Our endorsements are based on the candidate’s body of work, our own research, and, if returned, answers to our questionnaire.
In the primary, we selected races to endorse where more than one candidate is for the seat. We did not endorse in races where there are no competing candidates.
In some races, we couldn’t recommend a candidate. Some candidates continue to falsely profess that the 2020 presidential election was illegitimate; we cannot endorse any candidate who endorses that.
Our first endorsements were for the Missouri governor primaries, both Republican and Democratic. You’ll be able to read those today.
The editorial board, which has a long history of endorsing candidates and issues, took a break for a while. We started endorsing again in last November’s elections. In the local April 2023 election, we did not endorse because of changes in personnel and the death of Michael Lindenberger, our previous editorial page editor, just months before.
Why are endorsements important? It’s all about giving readers more information that can help them make their own decisions. We do this through endorsing candidates and issues in presidential and local races, and explaining how we came to those decisions.
We are not telling you how to vote. We’re sharing our recommendations in the races, and why we arrived at them. We encourage you to make up your own mind.
Our news colleagues created a 2024 Voter Guide for Kansas City and Missouri. Read more about several of the issues that have been in the news this year.
Here’s how to learn more about Missouri and Kansas voter rules and deadlines.
