Keep an eye on these two candidates
Kansas Senate District 9 – Johnson County
Stacey Knoell is one of those candidates poised to help the Democrats transform the Senate. Although she’s been an active member of the Democratic Party, this is Stacey’s first run for political office. She has a strong lead on her opponent, since she’s been running for office for more than a year, has proved successful at raising money, and as an active member of the Johnson County community, this intelligent young mother of two and wife, has been able to win people over.
She originally boldly entered this race to take on a 3-term incumbent, but in the weeks leading up to the election, the incumbent Julia Lynn pulled out of the race. Learn more about the path going forward for Knoell and several other Kansas Democrats in this story.
Secretary of State – Missouri
Yinka Faleti is the underdog in a Republican-dominated state with an opponent named Aschroft, however, he’s gtting a lot of attention thanks to his sensible platform and endorsements from the state’s major newspapers.
The Kansas City Star hailed Faleti as the most impressive candidate they’d interviewed all year, and the Whom neither board was impressed with was Jay Ashcroft, Faleti’s opponent, who easily rose to office in 2016 on the back of his familiar family name. Jay is the son of former Missouri governor, U.S. senator and Atty. General John Ashcroft.
Jay is a staunch supporter of stricter voter ID laws and campaigned on the issue of controlling voter fraud. Since being elected, he has backed several Republican proposals to reduce the number of Missouri ballot initiative petitions and make it harder for ballot initiatives to win approval in elections.
Faleti, a Nigerian-born American, is a graduate of the U.S. Military Academy at West Point and Washington University School of Law. Between the two, he served six years as an active-duty officer in the U.S. Army and completed two tours in Kuwait.
After law school, he went to work for a major St. Louis law firm before becoming a state prosecutor in the St. Louis Circuit Attorney’s Office. He left there and went on to serve as a senior vice president at the United Way of Greater St. Louis before taking a position as the executive director of Forward Through Ferguson, a St. Louis-region nonprofit formed to implement changes proposed by the Ferguson Commission Report issued following the death of Michael Brown.