Coming up, what on earth happened?

Look what happened.

Is this crazy?

I just got one word for you.

Victory.

Thank you to all of the residents of Jackson County.

Our victory today.

It's a win for cops.

It's a win for our firefighters.

We have shown that when Missourians fight together, we win together.

This is why the EPA deal signed a number of levels.

This week, we autopsy your choices at the ballot box.

We rank election days biggest winners and losers and look to the future and how this election could have big implications for some of our area's top politicians.

All I can say is we're just getting started.

Week in review is made possible through the generous support of Dave and Jamie Cummings, Bob and Marley Gourley, the Courtney s Turner Charitable Trust, John H. Mize and Bank of America, N.A.

Co Trustees, the Francis Family Foundation through the Discretionary Fund of David and Janice Frances.

And by viewers like you.

Thank you.

Hello and welcome.

I'm Nick Haines.

Buckle up.

It could be a bumpy ride as we take you through the what the why and what now of election 2020 for tracking all the election results on both sides of state line is Meg Cunningham, formerly a national politics reporter for ABC News.

But fortunately for us now with the Kansas City based news service, the Beacon, longtime political analyst Dave Helling is back.

He's a former reporter and editorial writer for the Kansas City Star, tracking the news from behind the microphone.

At 95.7 FM, KCMO Talk Radio Pete Mundo and a little lower down the dial at 89.3, you'll find Lisa Rodriguez of Casey War News.

We're going to have to talk fast today because we've got so much to pack in.

Dave Helling, complete this sentence for us.

The biggest winner in Kansas or Missouri on election night was blank.

Broadly, Kansas Republican Republicans.

I think there was a belief that the state is drifting a little bit to the left, led by Johnson County, where Democratic registrations are way up, independent registrations.

And yet the state, with the exception of the third District and Sharice Davids, drifted to the right, built on majorities in the Kansas House and the Kansas Senate.

Donald Trump carried Sedgwick County, Kansas by 14 points that used to be a Democratic stronghold.

So I think the big winner was the Kansas Republican Party.

And Democrats have a lot of questions to answer in that state over the next two years.

Biggest win in May?

Cunningham I think the biggest winner was early voting in Missouri or the two weeks of no excuse absentee voting as the legislature would call it, even though we had like four hour wait times in Jackson County and people were frustrated.

This was the first presidential election that this was available to Missouri voters.

So huge deal.

This was kind of a compromise, actually, that it came about.

But we obviously saw a huge turnout.

We probably stood in some of those lines.

Our families stood in those lines.

So I think, you know, there's overwhelming support for for that new voting policy.

So I have to agree.

I mean, both of those were great.

But but with with Dave here, that Kansas Republicans and really sort of Republicans in both states were really the big winners.

We saw attempts in both states to break the supermajorities in the House.

And both of those failed despite high hopes, despite Democrats saying it was their best chance yet to break those supermajorities.

So I think we're going to see even more solid legislation from from the GOP that's easier to pass this state on.

A more micro-level is Steve Howe, the only Republican and Johnson County to win county wide, another term as D.A.

in Johnson County.

And you do see a shift in obviously Johnson County.

While most Republicans lost county wide, some of the county commission seats didn't go their way.

Steve Howe is a staple in Johnson County and he peaks at another win.

Let me add another one then to this list.

Isn't Byron Robeson one of the biggest winners, also the first Democrat in nearly a century to be elected Johnson County sheriff, the first black person to ever hold the job?

Well, yeah, it was a bit of a surprise.

But again, Johnson County is changing so much, Nick, and we've talked about this on the show for many, many years now.

And it really reflects an important trend in national politics, which is the drift of the suburbs away from the Republican Party and toward the Democrats, whereas working class counties are drifting away from Democrats and toward Republicans.

It is I don't think Byron Roberson's election was a huge surprise based on based on the campaign and based on the trends.

Demographic trends in Johnson County complete the sentence for us.

Then, Lee said The Biggest Loser in Kansas on Missouri on election night was blank.

I think broadly Democrats, but I think cities Kansas City and Saint Louis in on the Missouri side now seeing the way that the Missouri State House has gone and the election of Mike Kehoe as governor, We're going to continue to see this GOP rhetoric that cities are hotbeds of crime that need to be fixed.

So I don't anticipate any additional money or support for for local control, for example, or any other issues.

These cities are priorities.

Biggest Loser Laura Kelly.

She spent millions to try to flip some of these key Senate seats in Johnson County.

And as much as we talk about Johnson County being this hotbed of suburbia, leaning left Kelly warn in Overland Park, Mike Thompson in Shawnee, two seats in Olathe, Adam Thomas, TJ Rose They gained their majority in the Senate.

And I talked to Ty Masterson, the Senate President, on Thursday, and he feels like a supermajority is more powerful than it was a year ago when he had some more defections and moderates who maybe weren't really down with overriding the governor.

He feels like he's got a solid super majority that will stay in line.

So they're going to make Laura Kelly's life even more miserable over the next two years.

And she may have more enemies because now she try to use ads against some of the people who actually won.

And she's a lame duck, a big time lame duck can't run again in two years.

So the Democrats will be looking for someone to nominate her place.

But Pete points out something important In district races where redistricting is important.

Everybody talks about how boring that is, but you can draw districts that kind of cement majorities in either Republican or Democratic circles.

And so county wide, Johnson County is drifting left.

But on an individual district basis with Warren, with Thompson, with some of the others, it went a little bit.

Right.

And that's an interesting trend to keep in.

Make Cunningham the biggest loser for you in Kansas?

In Missouri, on election night, undoubtedly Missouri Democrats.

I mean, it was a landslide on Tuesday.

We saw Republicans widen their margin on a lot of those statewide races picking up more power.

You know, Democrats in Missouri have been working hard to shore up their statewide base.

So far, that's not proving successful.

But they're really looking to get some of those state legislative races contested, those sorts of things.

They wanted to break the supermajority.

That didn't happen.

So they're kind of continuing down that line.

But by the way, we could also say the turnout was one of the biggest losers.

Did you see that in every election jurisdiction that makes up the Metro, see what people went to the polls than they did during the last presidential election?

Turnout was down 8% in Johnson County, 10% in Wyandotte County.

And this was supposed to be, Lisa, the most important election of our lifetimes.

I do think it's disappointing to see the turnout, especially in Missouri, with an issue like abortion on the ballot.

I think many of us expected that to drive people out to the polls, despite maybe a lack of enthusiasm for the very top, you know, the presidential ticket or people not being as excited about that.

And even with that terrible turnout and in a big Trump momentum, you know, Kansas Congresswoman Sharice Davids still won by double digits in the third District.

Is she basically there for life now, Pete?

I mean, what this is two straight double digit wins, three or four straight, very convincing victories for her.

I don't think you can call the district a swing district.

I don't see how the national Republican Party will dump money into this district when it's been two straight losses by 10 to 12 points.

I mean, you've got to have a perfect candidate at the perfect moment.

And there was momentum at the top of the ticket, a little more momentum, and it didn't move the needle at all.

What message did voters send on Election Day?

There seemed to be some puzzling outcomes, say all of us.

How come sports betting narrowly passed but make Missouri voters said no to another casino at the Lake of the Ozarks?

Yeah, I think this one was really interesting.

I mean, when voters are looking at a ballot question that they don't fully understand, they have a no bias.

They're going to vote no for that.

And I also heard from voters, why am I voting on something that isn't geographically relevant to me?

So then we're explaining the long, drawn out conversation between gambling and the Constitution and this whole question.

So I think voters just said no for that one.

I will say it, but it only just barely passed the sports betting, didn't it?

And why are the opponents now not even going to have a recall when they could have won based on the percentage of the vote that it won?

I think when we're like looking at dollar figures, that's going to be something that's expensive.

I mean, it's already been an expensive campaign to get amendment passed, and I think the odds are probably stacked against them.

Okay.

Well, what about rights about puzzling outcomes?

These Johnson County relaxed election results make no sense.

He says they reelect Republican Steve Howe as D.A., but pick a Democrat to be Johnson County sheriff.

You said that Byron Robertson did a great campaign for sheriff and we shouldn't be surprised.

Why is it, though, that they traded places here?

We had Steve Howe is a Republican win and he thinks the Democrats may have been the more familiar name.

People don't focus quite as much maybe on the on the prosecutors races, the sheriff race.

But look, Nick, if you ask any of us sitting here to fully explain what voters were saying, their we're lying.

If we tell you we know there are just a lot of contradictory, confusing, interesting returns.

Yes.

And to draw any fundamental understanding of what voters were actually saying is a very difficult job.

I think in the Johnson County sheriff's race, it was much more a referendum on Calvin Heydon and and his tenure in that role, and particularly his questions about election security.

And I think people were really fed up about that and wanted something fully new.

Whereas with Steve Howe, you know, Johnson County doesn't have a lot of crime.

I think most of the controversy around Steve Howe, around officer involved shootings and the Jon Alba's investigation feels like it's in the past.

And if there's not crime, that's an issue.

Now, why change?

Fair enough.

Missouri overturns the state's abortion ban.

But am I the only one who surprised it turned out to be so close.

It wasn't between like three and four points.

Remember when Kansas went to the polls to decide the question?

Abortion rights supporters claimed a lopsided victory closer to 20 points.

Were you surprised it was that close going into the night?

My prediction was 53%.

So it wasn't oh, I thought this would win by a much larger margin, particularly as Republicans were trying to neutralize the abortion question.

Yeah, absolutely.

I think part of this was in the last few weeks of the campaign, we really saw the No.

On three effort flood the airwaves.

We saw the billboards.

And I think there was a lot of confusion and they couldn't turn to the ballot language to say, no, these things aren't going to happen.

And so I think voters got a little bit weary there at the end.

Well, now that Donald Trump is going back to the White House, what does that mean for Kansas City Mayor Quinton Lucas, who seemed to be out of town campaigning for Kamala Harris every week from Nevada to Wisconsin?

Has Lucas just lost his biggest pipeline to a new job when he leaves office in 2027?

Pete Yes, he has.

And he said as much on my show.

I asked him Thursday about his next two and a half years as mayor and his words I'm paraphrasing here were along the lines of, well, now I plan to be here for the next two and a half years.

There was a clear message of if she had won, I may be out the door and so he's got to find a new path.

And interestingly, I asked him if he would be interested in something within the DNC because he did lean in to the Democratic failures with working people, with folks of color, moving away from the party.

He's trying to reset that.

And he did.

He usually doesn't answer a question that directly.

He said, I'm interested, was he one of the bigger losers on Election Day, Lisa?

I think so.

Even though he wasn't on the ballot, he wasn't on the ballot.

But certainly this you know, his his he has to take a different path.

His ambitions have been very clearly, I think, to to rise within the Democratic Party and possibly head to D.C..

I also think he, you know, in in the election of Governor Mike Kehoe doesn't necessarily gain any allies in Jefferson City either.

And with, you know, he's hoping for more influence on the board of police commissioners.

I don't know that Mike Kehoe is going to work with him to appoint up commissioner that he wants to have.

I think it's likely that the mayor will be heavily involved with the stadium discussions which have been reignited and will be reignited now for a couple of reasons.

First, Mike Keough is a little bit friendlier to that idea, the idea of state aid for the stadiums than maybe another Republican would have been, although the legislature still is a huge hurdle.

John Patterson won in the 30th House District in Missouri.

John Patterson is in line to be the next speaker of the House in Missouri.

He's from the Lee Summit area, that corridor that will be extraordinarily important because at least stadium aid at some level will get a hearing in Jeff City when the speaker wants it to have a hearing.

As we assume that Patterson does, that means that the mayor may be at the fulcrum of trying to figure out this chiefs and royals future, and that makes him busier than he might be as the deputy secretary of the department.

But what's been amazing to me actually, about the stadium issue is that nobody seems to be in a rush anymore.

And I saw the clock and while we were doing all the election coverage, said, you know, I think we'll be in a better place to make a decision in the spring.

Pete, that nobody is rushing on this.

Well, and the royals I talked to somebody involved with the royals and they were pushed back by this playoff run.

So now they're kind of hitting the reset button to, I think, Amendment two passing was also part of this puzzle that they're putting together.

And then they've got to figure out this next location.

They're almost starting from scratch after the failures in April.

They've been kind of focused on baseball.

So they do have some runway here to work with, but it's not going to happen overnight now that Donald Trump is heading back to the White House.

Will Kansas City Congressman Emanuel Cleaver decide he doesn't need this anymore?

After all, just before Election Day, he just turned 80?

I don't I don't think we're going to see Congressman Cleaver back away any time soon.

He's certainly not indicated as much.

He's he was more involved in the last administration.

I don't know about this one, whether he can have as much influence, but he hasn't given any indication that he is ready to retire.

80 is young in Washington, and I'll just throw that out there.

So, you know, I don't think he's going to be looking for the doors anytime soon.

Of course, that's might be, you know, to the consternation of Lucas.

Oh, well, absolutely.

So if he if he can't count on a administration job in Washington, DC with the Harris team, is he going to be sort of nudging Emanuel Cleaver to say, you know, it might be time because that might be his only other slot available?

Yeah, that's that he can try to nudge but it ain't going to move the needle at all.

I mean, there is no love lost between those two.

That's pretty well known around town.

And as a good friend, Emanuel Cleaver told me the other day he likes the gig.

Okay, what else is he going to do?

He's happy doing it.

Yeah.

There's very little, particularly if the Democrats, by the way, stay in the minority in Washington, which looks more and more likely.

Not a lot of heavy lifting for the minority members.

He just sort of show up, cast your votes.

He doesn't have any serious challenger.

This might have been the most aggressive opponent that he's drawn in some time and he won comfortably.

So there's no real reason for him to leave if he feels relatively healthy, which my understanding is he does.

By the way, on that race, Sean Smith, who ran against Cleaver, got actually though, the same percentage of the vote as Jacob Turk, the perennial candidate, did in the last race.

So he has a safe seat.

He's in the minority.

So it's not a lot of work.

If he stays in the minority, he's moving up the seniority ladder.

So has some heft on some of the committees he sits on.

That's a recipe for sticking around.

Now, with Donald Trump now assembling his cabinet and new administration team, will there be some prominent Kansas and Missouri politicians joining him in Washington?

Missouri U.S.

Senator Eric Schmidt has been listed as a possible US Attorney General pick.

Politico today says he could end up leading the Justice Department just because Schmidt appears on a shortlist for a top Trump job in the Washington Post and Politico.

How much credence should we put into this?

Pete Decent about?

I haven't seen any full list, but Eric Schmidt I know last week was on the campaign trail with Donald Trump and his team in Arizona.

I think he was also in Wisconsin for a bit.

So he was with them.

And obviously, just like Lucas on the other side, these guys or gals who are kind of positioning for a job, they'll be with these candidates and their campaigns down the stretch to kind of rub the right elbow, so to speak.

So I think he's in the mix.

How much in the mix is anybody's guess?

What happens if Schmidt does get a call from the president at that point?

Donald Trump, What happens to that seat?

Does the new governor get to pick his replacement?

How would that work?

Yeah, he has appointment power four for that seat.

So, you know, they would serve the rest of that term and then be back on the campaign trail like anybody else.

So that would that would fall under key host discretion.

Is it conceivable, Dave, that Mickey Ho could pick outgoing Governor Mike Parson to be the senator?

Oh, I'm not sure Parson would want to do that.

I mean, you guys maybe have a better sense of that, but I get the idea that Mike Person wants to go back to the former All Blacks a little bit.

There are there would be no shortage of Republicans who might seek that seat.

Andrew Bailey, the attorney general, might raise his hand.

Jay Ashcroft might say, hey, I've got nothing else to do.

Put me in the Senate.

So the competition would be fierce.

But we can't leave this discussion, Eric, without reinforcing the idea that Democrats in Missouri are adrift in a way that I haven't seen in 25 or 30 years.

You know who who Lucas KURTZ tried.

Claire McCaskill was tried.

Josh Hawley won both of those races.

There was a clean sweep for Republicans.

The state you might make a case that Quentin look, you should think about statewide office, but it would be a fool's mission because the Democrats utterly lack a statewide infrastructure, you know, the ability to sort of mobilize cities to come out to vote.

It's a mess for the Democratic Party across the state line.

Let's drill down further for a moment on the Missouri governor's race.

Our victory today.

It's a win for cops.

It's a win for our firefighters, for our farmers, for our job creators.

It's a win for single mothers.

So what is the first biggest change we will see now that Mike Keough is going to be governor?

Meg, we've heard about his day one crime plan.

That's certainly going to be a top priority.

I think a lot of this does kind of revolve around interest in Jefferson City and regaining control of the St Louis Police Department.

We've had that debate going on for a couple of years now.

It's certainly going to come back in full force.

There's a lot of tension at that point.

So I think we're going to be seeing that.

And income taxes.

Yeah.

And back to what you said earlier, then Matt Lucas can kiss goodbye to the notion of local control of police.

Then based on what Meg just said.

Yes, absolutely.

Or any hope that any board of police commissioners appointment would be an ally to him.

Two things to keep an eye on.

First, I think the results in November show that for moderates, liberals, progressives, however you want to define them, the ballot box is more important than the legislature and the effort to try and pass legislation through plebiscite rather than through votes in the in the General Assembly will continue, particularly if they can find the financing for things that they find important.

The second thing is, I think a lot of people will say, Oh, well, abortion, and they're going to try and test Amendment three.

And where does that stand?

I think it's almost certain that if the House in Washington stays Republican, there will be a national abortion ban passed and Donald Trump will sign it, even though he's clearly said no, no.

But of course, Donald Trump, what he signed, as did many of those candidates running for office who are Republicans, and he said it's a state matter.

He'll figure some way to say, hey, I never said that and he'll sign that bill.

And that would take the decision on abortion out of the hands, both of the Missouri legislature and potentially the Kansas law.

What happens next for Josh Hawley now that he's been reelected to the US Senate tonight?

We voted we voted to save the United States of America.

That's what this election has been about from day one.

And I don't know how the rest of the country is going to vote.

I have to tell you, it's looking pretty good, isn't it?

It's looking pretty good.

He's sounding pretty national there.

Does he now and announced during the next couple of years that he is running for president in 2028?

Well, there's a big problem for him.

And that's J.D.

Vance.

They're both in this MAGA, US Senate younger mold.

And J.D.

Vance is clearly now the odds on favorite to kind of carry that mantle as one of these younger MAGA Republican senators.

So, Josh Hawley's in a weird spot.

He wasn't all that involved with Donald Trump's campaign.

I know he had his own campaign here as well that he was running.

So he couldn't do a lot, but he wasn't really all that involved with the Trump team, which somewhat surprised me.

So I think he's got to figure out what his next move is here.

He absolutely wants to do that.

He wants to go national.

The good thing for him is 2028 is obviously not a year.

He's up for reelection.

So he can fool around, maybe lay the groundwork and see where it goes.

Let's continue with our what happens next year, what happens next with some of the big ballot measures that just passed this week, Missouri voters overturn the state's near-total ban on abortion.

What happens now to abortion clinics start opening up by the end of the week.

How will this work?

Well, we saw Planned Parenthood already file a lawsuit on Wednesday to start performing abortions again by December 5th.

So they're hoping this is going to move really quickly.

They also filed for temporary blockages on some of those restrictive abortion provider laws like doorway limits and that sort of thing.

So they're trying to get the ball rolling on this.

Of course, abortion opponents are going to write back and say, no, these laws need to stay on the books.

So now we're going to have just this absolutely protracted legal battle for probably years to come.

And less than 24 hours after the election results became known.

Some Missouri lawmakers pushing for another constitutional amendment to put it on the ballot.

That while dilute many of the provisions passed last week.

And we've seen the Missouri legislature do that before for amendments that have passed on a ballot measure and then a new one, a different one that they put on the ballot.

Again for people to vote on.

So I think it's very likely that we'll see another constitutional amendment on abortion.

I think we'll at first week that bills are filed, we will see more restrictions put in place on abortion as well.

So it's certainly not the end of this in the Missouri legislature.

Well, now that Missouri voters have also approved sports betting, can you start this weekend with the chiefs game Sunday against the Broncos, Max?

Well, they have to be up and running by December 2025.

I'm sure they're going to want to be in the year away.

You know, they're going to they're going to be trying to get this going as soon as possible.

I don't know how quickly that's going to happen, but they've been working behind the scenes, getting ready to go.

They were really confident that this was going to pass.

So I wouldn't I don't think it's going to be very long.

Now, I have to say, we have had viewers upset that for the last months this show has been wall to wall election coverage.

Becky actually wrote to me to say, isn't there something else you can talk about on Kansas City we can review.

While we in the media has certainly been fixated on the election, what has been the most significant local story that has simply fallen through the cracks and just doesn't get the coverage it deserved because we've been hosting these debates and election as Dave Well, I think maybe we should talk a little bit about the idea of a WNBA basketball team coming to Kansas City, which Patrick Mahomes and his spouse are involved with, and there is some serious discussion.

There are hurdles involved in terms of first, other cities wanting a WNBA team.

But as we first discussed on this show many months ago, women's sports are on the ascendance across the country.

Soccer, basketball, volleyball is becoming a thing.

There's a professional volleyball league for women.

So I think that Kansas City getting in line for that makes more sense in some ways than any other pursuit it might be undergoing in terms of athletics in Kansas.

Interestingly, though, when Sprint Center, now T-Mobile Center opened that there was a push to have an NHL and or a an NBA team.

And we were told, well, actually they like it.

The way it is because it provides them more flexibility so they can have mega concerts there and bring in Disney on Ice and Monster trucks.

I mean, that was better for that business model.

It's not going to hurt them.

Oh, well, I'm sure that that's the kind of stuff you say when you can't get an NHL or an NBA team to your city.

I think I think it absolutely makes sense for the city to pursue.

And WNBA team, particularly with the Kansas City current stadium, the first professional stadium built specifically for women's sports here.

I think Dave is right.

There is and women's sports are having a moment.

And now is the time for Kansas City to establish itself as a place for women's professional sports.

Is this an acknowledgment, Pete, that we are not going to get to an NHL or an NBA team and that's why we're now going after the WNBA team?

All Could we do both?

I think this is if you're a town that wants to have an NBA, NHL, this is a good way to prove you can do it on a kind of a minor league level.

WNBA would have about 20 home games.

NBA, NHL is is 40.

Neither of those leagues have talked about expansion any time soon that I'm aware of.

They're not moving any teams.

So, you know, it's probably laying the foundation for a decade out to maybe try to do something bigger.

And on that, we will say our week has been reviewed thanks to Casey Walls, Lisa Rodriguez, our news icon Dave Helling from the Beacon Mag Cunningham and 6 to 10 weekdays on 95.7 FM KCMO Talk Radio Pete Mundo.

And I'm Nick Haynes.

From all of us here at Kansas City PBS be well keep calm and carry on.