Voters gave Prairie Village Police Chief Byron Roberson the edge Tuesday as the county’s top law enforcement officer, according to unofficial final results.
Assuming the results hold, he will become the first Democrat in most residents’ memories to hold the position.
Roberson emerged the apparent winner in a close contest over former Johnson County Undersheriff Doug Bedford, a Republican, 50.5% to 49.3%.
The vote total was 161,035-157,335, a difference of 3,700 votes.
Roberson said the last time Johnson County voters elected a Democrat was 96 years ago. He would also be the first Black man to take that job, he said, noting he was the first African American to be chief of the Prairie Village Police Department.
“This victory to me is for everybody in Johnson County,” he said. “I want to be sheriff for everyone, not just one party. I intend on making good on all the commitments I talked about during the campaign, and I intend on winning the votes of the however many thousand that did not vote for me. That is my goal, to get those votes next time.”
Bedford said the results were disappointing but noted he beat an incumbent in the primary.
“I have to give credit to our campaign,” he said. “We had dreams and aspirations of winning this election. It didn’t work out for us, but we’re definitely keeping our head held high.”
He said he has congratulated Roberson, and he expects to meet and share some insights into running the office.
Roberson will take over for outgoing Sheriff Calving Hayden
Roberson and Bedford faced each other this fall after a high-profile primary in which Calvin Hayden, who currently holds the job, was defeated.
Hayden gained national attention for publicly voicing suspicions about the integrity of the county’s election process, for his long-running investigation of it and for his association with hard-right Republicans touting voter fraud theories that had been debunked.
Hayden’s investigation did not produce any charges and he put it on pause before the primary, but never closed it.
During the campaign, both Roberson and Bedford said they’d close it after examining Hayden’s files to determine if there was cause to keep it open. They each said they’d publicly share what he found and what it cost.
Both candidates are law enforcement veterans
After Hayden’s defeat in August, the race revolved around the relative experience of the two men.
Roberson is in his thirtieth year at the Prairie Village Police Department and has been chief since 2021. During the campaign he stressed transparency, and mental health and pledged to use the sheriff’s resources to help short-staffed city police departments.
He also has said he’d work to get more participation in a countywide drug task force and would repair the working relationship with the county commission that had been damaged by Hayden’s personal remarks about some of them.
Bedford held the number two job as undersheriff to Calvin Hayden for four of his 25 years in the sheriff’s office. He left that spot in early 2022.
