Glasscock and Pierce in the lead for City Council seat in final, unofficial results

Glasscock and Pierce end election night on top, official results coming Aug. 10

Updated: 9:30 p.m.

The final unofficial results have Dalton Glasscock and Judy Pierce taking the top two spots for the District 4 City Council primary race.

A total of 4,580 votes have been counted. Glasscock keeps his lead with 2,308 votes and Pierce is in second with 1,111.

Bentley Blubaugh ends election night with 894 votes and Alan Oliver with 267.

After taking the week off, Glasscock is planning to add to the 3,600 doors he knocked on before the primary. He went into election night focusing on “getting City Hall back to the basics,” and he said that is what he is going to continue to campaign on going into the November election.

“I’m very excited after tonight to hit the ground running. I’m telling everybody this is half time and the game isn’t finished yet,” Glasscock said. “That’s in November.”

Pierce built her campaign on being a voice for the working people of Wichita going into Tuesday’s primary. Efforts to reach her for comment Tuesday night were unsuccessful.

The official results won’t be available until after the final canvass on August 10, when the remaining mail-in votes are counted and any disputed ballots are evaluated.

Glasscock and Pierce taking the lead for District 4 City Council seat

Updated: 7:55 p.m.

The first two rounds of results are in and Dalton Glasscock and Judy Pierce are pulling ahead in the primary race for the District 4 City Council seat.

With 58 of 319 precincts reporting results, Glasscock has pulled ahead with 916 votes and Pierce is following with 565.

Bentley Blubaugh isn’t too far behind with 292 votes and Alan Oliver is trailing with 112.

The top two names will face off in the Nov. 7 general election and will be the first new face in the District 4 City Council seat since 2013. The results of this race could also determine the balance of power in the City Council, since all three council seats held by Republicans are up for grabs.

Southwest Wichita voters to trim City Council field to two

Posted: 6:30 p.m.

Southwest Wichita will get a new City Council representative for the first time since 2013 next year. A field of four candidates will be cut to two finalists for the District 4 seat on Tuesday.

Bentley Blubaugh, Dalton Glasscock, Alan Oliver and Judy Pierce are vying for the seat held by council member Jeff Blubaugh, Bentley’s uncle.

Blubaugh faces term limits and cannot seek re-election. He finished Michael O’Donnell’s unexpired term on the council starting in 2013 after O’Donnell was elected to the state Senate. He won re-election twice — in 2015 and 2019 — and announced earlier this year that he plans to run for the Sedgwick County Commission in 2024.

Bentley Blubaugh, 20, is a store manager at his parents’ doughnut shop in Goddard who has advocated for cutting funding from city departments to boost police spending. He also said he wants to trim the budget on a proposed $6.15 million pickleball court project in District 4.

Glasscock, 28, is the CEO of Starnes Media Group, which owns a talk radio station in Memphis and produces national broadcasts for Todd Starnes, a controversial far-right former Fox News host. He is the only candidate with any experience in local office — and that experience was limited to about one month as the Republican Party’s choice to finish O’Donnell’s unexpired term on the Sedgwick County Commission after O’Donnell resigned in late 2020. He said public safety is his top priority and that he wants a new fire station in District 4.

Oliver, 63, is a retired car salesman and part-time Uber driver. He said infrastructure is his top priority.

Pierce, 75, is the only Democrat in the District 4 race. She is president of the Wichita/Hutchinson Labor Federation and said she wants to focus on jobs, services and infrastructure.

The top two finishers in Tuesday’s primary election will face off in the Nov. 7 general election. The winner of that race will be sworn into office in January 2024.

The City Council, including the mayor, has seven members, with six elected by district and the mayor elected by the city at-large.

This year’s city election will determine the balance of power on the City Council. All three council seats held by Republicans are up for grabs while Mayor Brandon Whipple, a Democrat, faces a crowded field of well-funded challengers.

Democrats hold a slim 4-3 majority on the council. Blubaugh has at times sided with the Democrats, such as on marijuana decriminalization and rejecting a plan to privatize the city’s golf courses, and was the only council member to vote against the city’s nondiscrimination ordinance in 2021.

District 4 is a Republican-leaning district. Of the district’s 38,601 registered voters, 38% are Republican, 37% are unaffiliated and 24% are Democrats.

Polls close when everyone in line by 7 p.m. finishes voting. Results will not be official until the Aug. 10 canvass.

Election night returns are not official results, and the vote counts will likely change by the Aug. 10 canvass.

Excluded from election night returns are provisional ballots, ballots with signature disputes, and advance by-mail ballots that were postmarked on or before Election Day but did not yet arrive at the Election Office. Mail ballots sent on or before Tuesday are counted as long as they are received by the Friday after the election.

Quick facts about District 4 City Council

District description: Southwest Wichita, generally south of Maple and west of Seneca. It includes Dwight D. Eisenhower National Airport, Riverfront Stadium, Friends University, Newman University and Wichita West High School.

Registered voters (as of June 28): 38,601 total. 14,632 Republicans, 9,204 Democrats, 14,172 unaffiliated, 593 Libertarians.

2019 turnout: No primary in 2019. 6,201 District 4 voters participated in the general election.

Voting trends: The 2022 Value Them Both constitutional amendment failed by 20 percentage points in District 4. In the November 2022 general election, Republican Attorney General Kris Kobach outperformed Republican Governor candidate Derek Schmidt in the district by about 800 votes, with Kobach winning the district easily over Democratic challenger Chris Mann while Democratic Gov. Laura Kelly was just six votes shy of Schmidt in the GOP-majority district.

Council member salary: $49,064 a year

Past council members (since district-based primaries began in 1987): Greg Ferris (1987-1991), Stan Reeser (1991 - 1995), Bill Gale (1995-2003), Paul Gray (2003 - 2011, 2012), Michael O’Donnell (2011-2012), Jeff Blubaugh (2013-present)