Stacy Lake is headed to the top office in Jackson County government after voters handed the Kansas City attorney a landslide victory over Republican Alan Rohlfing on Tuesday. Unofficial results showed Lake with 163,582 votes, or 68 percent, as of 10 p.m., capping a campaign that featured assessment reform as a major priority alongside auditing county government and infrastructure improvements.
Lake was declared the winner Tuesday night, according to KCTV5, in a race the station noted was the first in 20 years to be settled without an incumbent on the ballot. The unofficial vote totals, reported by Jackson County and Kansas City, Missouri election boards, were detailed by The Beacon, which also reported that Democrats won eight of the nine seats on the Jackson County Legislature, with seven of those nine legislators brand new to the courthouse. Lake is set to begin leading the county on Jan. 1, 2027, per the same outlet.
A Campaign Rooted in the 2019 Tax Crisis
This was not Lake's first run at the office. She challenged then-incumbent Frank White Jr. in the 2022 Democratic primary and took nearly 47 percent of the vote, a strong showing that fell short of the nomination that year. This time, Lake dominated the August 2026 Democratic primary, earning about 46 percent of the vote and more than twice as many votes as her closest challenger, according to KCUR.
Lake, a Kansas City, Missouri native who owns Stacy Lake Law Firm LLC, lives in Hyde Park, a neighborhood that was especially hard-hit by rising property assessed values in 2019. Speaking with KSHB 41 Jackson County reporter Tod Palmer ahead of the election, Lake said her motivation to run traced directly back to that year, when property values spiked significantly across the Kansas City area and sparked what she described as a full-blown crisis. She said she personally helped her neighbors navigate the fallout and came away convinced that county government had not operated efficiently or effectively for years, according to the report from KSHB 41.
Her Opponent's Military Background
Rohlfing ran unopposed in the Republican primary. He is a 31-year Army veteran who retired as a lieutenant colonel and also has a background in human resources, KSHB 41 reported. Speaking with Palmer after his primary victory, Rohlfing said he wanted to help Jackson County and emphasized that county government services are tremendously important to many residents, adding that some departments need help.
The two candidates staked out different priorities for the office. Lake's platform centered on bringing property assessment back under the county's control, auditing the county and improving infrastructure, per KCUR. Rohlfing's three key priorities, by contrast, were property tax reform, charter reform and making the county more friendly to small businesses, the station reported.
The J.A.C.K.S.O.N. Plan
Lake's campaign built those priorities into a seven-point platform she called the Jackson Plan, according to Fox4KC. The acronym stood for Justice System Reform, Auditing the County Government, County-Wide Infrastructure Improvements, Keeping taxes and utilities affordable, Small business rejuvenation, Ownership initiative for single-family households, and Neighbor-to-neighbor transportation, the station reported. On her campaign website, Lake said her goal was simply to get Jackson County back on track.
A Courthouse Rocked by Recall and Indictment
Lake inherits a county government that has endured what KSHB 41 called another chaotic year. Voters removed Frank White Jr. from office in a September 2025 special election, casting more than 80 percent of their votes to recall him after he defended the county's 2023 property reassessment, which was later found to be illegal. The recall followed what the Kansas City Star described as voter fury over the county's bungled tax assessment process.
Philip LeVota was then selected in October 2025 to serve as interim executive for the remainder of White's term. LeVota initially said he would not seek the office outright in 2026, then reversed course before ultimately ending his campaign in April 2026. In August 2026, a federal grand jury indicted LeVota, alleging in the indictment that he attempted to bribe another Democratic candidate to drop out of the race by promising that person a job in his administration if he were elected to a full term, according to the U.S. Attorney's Office for the Western District of Missouri. The indictment remains an allegation.
Lake takes office as the county heads into a fresh property assessment cycle beginning in January, even as Jackson County government has several key positions unfilled, including no director for the assessment department, KSHB 41 reported. How quickly she can staff those roles and deliver on the auditing and infrastructure promises at the center of her campaign will likely shape the earliest days of her term.
