Kansas Democrats use DNC to campaign for Patrick Mahomes' Chiefs relocation, amplifying feud with Missouri
Most of the Kansas delegates at the Democratic National Convention were seen wearing Kansas City Chiefs gear on the convention floor this week. The decision defies the fact that blue is the primary color of the DNC, and the fact that the Chiefs are located in Kansas City, Missouri.
However, Kansas Democratic chair Jeanna Repass made the decision that her state's delegates would wear Chiefs gear amid the state's attempt to court the Chiefs from their neighboring state.
Kansas Democrat Reed Krewson told KMBC that the party’s chair and the group decided to wear the jerseys.
"Kansas City Chiefs are the Kansas City metro area," Krewson said. "A win for them is a win for us. Our state legislature just passed a package to attract the Kansas City Chiefs to Kansas."
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The Kansas state legislature approved legislation in June that would expand a state incentive program with a clear aim at luring the Chiefs, and potentially the MLB's Kansas City Royals, too. The bill would ensure that the Chiefs receive hundreds of millions of dollars in sales tax revenue to build a new stadium based in Kansas.
Kansas state lawmakers were critical of Missouri as a host state for the Chiefs before the the law was passed. Voters in Jackson County, Missouri, where the Chiefs' current venue Arrowhead Stadium is located, voted in April to reject the extension of a sales tax to help finance a new stadium for the Chiefs in downtown Kansas City.
"We’re in jeopardy of Kansas City losing those franchises," Kansas Sen. Jeff Pittman, a Leavenworth Democrat, said during debate on the bill in June. "Missouri has dropped the ball. We now have an opportunity to make an offer."
During this week's convention, Repass even bragged that the delegation's aggression may have been unnerving the Missouri delegates in Chicago.
"I think we’re making Missouri sweat a bit," Repass said, via The Kansas City Star. "We’ve been getting some dirty looks from across the room."
Missouri's delegates were dressed in typical formal wear. Emanuel Cleaver, who represents Missouri's 5th congressional district in the House of Representatives, was not a fan of the Kansas delegation's conduct and offered a subtle criticism of his party members for it.
"Sometimes when we do things it’s bad form," Missouri representative Emanuel Cleaver told The Kansas City Star. "That was not thrilling for us."
Missouri lawmakers previously criticized the Kansas state legislature for its recent law to incentivize a Chiefs relocation, and encouraged against the possibility of re-starting an "incentive border war" between the two states.
"Today’s vote regrettably restarts the Missouri-Kansas incentive border war, creating leverage for the teams, but injecting even greater uncertainty into the regional stadium conversation," Kansas City Mayor Quinton Lucas said in a statement on June 20.
The lease on the Chiefs' current stadium expires in 2031. However, the team reportedly intends to pursue a new stadium much sooner.
The Chiefs have become one of the league's most valuable and popular teams under the leadership of quarterback Patrick Mahomes, who has led the team to four Super Bowl with three victories since 2019. Tight end Travis Kelce's highly public romantic relationship with Taylor Swift last year, combined with the team's third Super Bowl victory under Mahomes, only did more to enhance the franchise's brand and global visibility last season.
Team president Mark Donovan said in March that leaving Kansas City "is an option." Meanwhile, Dallas Mayor Eric Johnson has even proposed that the team move back to Dallas, where the franchise began in 1960 as the Dallas Texans, before rebranding and moving to Kansas City in 1962.
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