KANSAS CITY, Mo. — Jackson County voters pick a new county executive on Tuesday, Nov. 3, choosing between Democrat Stacy Lake, a Kansas City civil litigation attorney, and Republican Alan Rohlfing, a retired Army officer from Lee’s Summit.
The seat has no incumbent on the ballot. The winner takes office Jan. 1, 2027, and inherits a county government that has stumbled through disputed property reassessments, the recall of a county executive, an interim executive facing an indictment, open fights with the county legislature and a new jail already under investigation over at least two deaths.
Lake built her campaign out of the 2019 reassessment, when she helped neighbors on the East Side and in Hyde Park appeal sharp jumps in their home values. She ran against then-County Executive Frank White Jr. in the 2022 primary and lost, but drew about 47 percent of the vote. Her platform centers on auditing county finances, filling empty leadership jobs and fixing the assessment system, then steering money toward transit, infrastructure, small businesses and homeownership.
Rohlfing spent 31 years in uniform, from 1986 until 2017, and left the Army as a lieutenant colonel. He advanced from the Aug. 4 Republican primary and is running on property tax relief, including repaying residents he says were overcharged, along with easier assessment appeals. He also calls for a forensic audit of the county books, a full review of the county charter, tighter budgeting and performance standards for every department.
Both candidates, in other words, are promising to open the books and repair how Jackson County values homes. Lake has said the larger changes she wants will take years, while Rohlfing pitches himself as ready to work with the county legislature from his first day.
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