‘We need to do this together’: Lily Wu will be Wichita’s next mayor

Lily Wu has defeated Mayor Brandon Whipple.

Wu is the second woman to win a citywide election for mayor and will be the first person of Asian descent to hold the office.

Final results on Election Night showed Wu with 58% of the vote to Whipple’s 41%.

Results won’t be official until Nov. 16. Wu will be sworn in on Jan. 9.

Wu kept a low profile at her watch party until the final results were reported. When she emerged, in a dark pink suit, she hugged her mother and father.

“First and foremost, I want to say thank you to those who voted for me,” Wu told an Eagle reporter in an interview Tuesday night. “But also thank you to those who did not vote for me because I’m going to work hard to earn your trust – because we need to do this together to make Wichita a better place. It’s not just going to be with Lily Wu supporters but also with Brandon Whipple supporters.”

Wu noted that her outfit color was a change from the baby pink she wore at her announcement in April.

“The darker pink now is to show you the evolution over the last seven months of those who said that I was not strong enough, those who had a lot of hateful words to say about a candidate who did not have the political experience but had other lived experiences and did not give the credit to someone who has transferable skills,” Wu said.

Whipple, meanwhile, announced fairly early to a crowd at Merle’s Place that he was leaving to put his kids to bed and finish Election Night at home after results showed him trailing. “We’re going to go to bed, watch the election from there, pray for a comeback — but it doesn’t look good at this point.”

Wu drew flood of funding, support

Wu, a former TV news reporter, launched her campaign in April with a coalition of support from business groups. That support translated into record campaign cash.

Wu raised more than $440,000 for her campaign, buoyed by maximum contributions from some of Wichita’s business elite. Americans for Prosperity raised and spent an additional $192,000 supporting her.

Who gave money to Whipple, Wu? Search donations in the race for Wichita mayor

She had the backing of the Wichita Regional Chamber PAC and the Wichita Fraternal Order of Police. And in the final days of the race, she received an endorsement from former U.S. Secretary of State Mike Pompeo.

While Wu cast herself as a political outsider, her watch party crowd on Tuesday night was a who’s who of Wichita’s Republican insiders: Kansas Senate President Ty Masterson, former Sedgwick County commissioner turned lobbyist Michael O’Donnell, Sedgwick County Commission Chairman Pete Meitzner and Republican operative Bob Aldrich.

Former Wichita mayor Bob Knight, and his wife, Jane, were also in attendance, along with Charlie and Marla Chandler of Intrust Bank.

“I like the candidate,” the former mayor said. “She’s got some very high standards, and she has some real charm.”

Knight was not afraid to say that in front of his wife.

“Yeah . . . we agree,” Jane Knight said. “She’s authentic and honest.”

Knight cautioned you need charm and a whole lot more to win.

“You have to to beat an incumbent.”

Masterson, an Andover Republican who is also backed by the Koch network, said he has no concerns about Wu’s lack of experience in elected office. He drew comparisons between Wu and former President Donald Trump.

“Apparently somebody who’s never served in office can be president of the United States, so I’m going to say yes,” Masterson said when asked if somebody who’s never served in public office can be a mayor of a city.

Other notables included Waterfront developer Johnny Stevens, who is business partners with Wu’s boyfriend and his father, Steve Clark; Ben Hesse of Cocoa Dolce; and Jason and Bree Cox of Cox Machine.

Wu, 39, splits time between her parents’ house in northwest Wichita and her longtime boyfriend Stephen Clark II’s home in northeast Wichita.

“I drive east, west, north, south on a daily basis,” Wu told The Eagle in October. “And I think that that’s the type of — people have not seen a mayor who, I’m not married and I don’t have kids. And I’m not knocking anyone who does, but I have that extra time and I love it.”

A longtime Republican who changed her voter affiliation to Libertarian in 2022, Wu avoided taking a strong stand on most topics on the campaign trail outside of a commitment to lower crime rates and hire more police officers. In a last-minute ad blitz, Wu vowed to cut property taxes for senior citizens and not to accept any pay raises.

What voters said

Whipple, a Democrat who served as a state representative prior to his 2019 election victory, was backed by the Kansas Democratic Party and the Wichita Firefighters’ Union.

But he couldn’t shake the baggage surrounding an interaction he had with a Wichita police officer at a neighborhood cleanup in 2022 that was caught on the officer’s body camera. The episode ended with Whipple having to take an ethics training course after he was found to be in violation of an ethics policy he ushered through City Hall.

Many voters interviewed by The Eagle said the incident was at the top of their mind as they went to polls but most said they were over it.

Jenny Vaughn said she has long followed Wu’s television career and often pointed her out to her daughters as someone to look up to.

Vaughn’s household is a cultural mix, with her daughters being Asian, like Wu.

“I feel like we need her representation in this city,” the 53-year-old speech therapist said. “I feel like we have a lot of boundaries and I think everyone deserves opportunities no matter where they live, no matter what zip code. I feel like she understands that.”

With Whipple, she added: “His whole cigar episode was kind of annoying.” But she added she thought Wichita would be good with either candidate.

Karyn Shorter, a 33-year-old homemaker, brought her children with her to vote around lunchtime. She said Wu had visited her husband’s business, which does aircraft machining, and they have supported her campaign.

“We like her vision for Wichita,” she said. “A fresh voice. Her pro-business mindset.”

Shorter also had concerns about Whipple.

“We really do not love the relationship he has kind of neglected with the police,” she said. “We trust Lily’s dedication and commitment to all of our emergency personnel.”

The mayoral campaign

The race took a negative turn in the final weeks, with outside groups running attack ads with false and misleading claims.

Attack ads funded by the Kansas Democratic Party focused on Wu’s relationship with her longtime boyfriend, a local developer whose family has given hundreds of thousands of dollars to conservative organizations.

Attack ads funded by Wu’s backers attempted to direct voters to video of Whipple’s interaction with the Wichita police officer at a neighborhood cleanup.

Both candidates attempted to frame themselves as outsiders protecting taxpayers from insiders who want control of City Hall.

Wu pledged to cut regulations, fight tax increases and end “sweetheart deals” at City Hall. She centered her campaign on hiring more police officers and increasing their pay.

Whipple ran on his record, including some of his key initiatives such as a nondiscrimination ordinance, decriminalization of small amounts of marijuana and the Jensen Hughes consultant study of the culture inside the Wichita Police Department, which recommended dozens of systemic changes to the department in the wake of a racist text messaging scandal.

Meitzner, a county commissioner who considered jumping into the mayor’s race before Wu filed, said he’s happy Wu won.

“We deserve somebody like Lily,” Meitzner said. “Knowing her and talking to her, her passion, her background, her resume, her youthfulness — it just fit. The timing’s right for a Lily Wu.”

Contributing: Michael Stavola of The Eagle