Overland Park Mayor Curt Skoog has thrown his hat into the ring as a candidate for Kansas Governor and did so on the last day of filing.
As of Monday morning, Skoog has filed to run as a Democrat in the race, taking on two other Johnson County Democrats who filed months ago. He made it official just hours before the noon filing deadline for 2026 state and federal elections.
“We’re looking forward to a campaign that’s focused on bringing a Main Street mindset to the governor’s office,” Skoog told the Post.
Skoog is running alongside Jen B McKenney, a family doctor from the southeastern Kansas city of Fredonia, who would be Skoog’s Lt. Governor if elected. He said he picked her for her experience in rural healthcare and her work to strengthen the economic vitality of her community.
The landing page for a newly public campaign website says, “At City Halls and the hospitals across Kansas, there’s no time for culture wars or political games – just a focus on what actually matters most,” a nod to Skoog’s decades-long tenure as a local official and McKenney’s medical background.
Skoog is in his second term as Overland Park mayor
Skoog, who works professionally as a manager for the Institute of Building Technology and Safety, has been involved in local government for more than 20 years.
He was first elected to the Overland Park City Council representing Ward 2 in 2005. He was reelected multiple times before he ran for mayor in 2021, when he narrowly edged out Mike Czienege in a race to replace outgoing Mayor Carl Gerlach.
In the 2025 mayoral race, Skoog — who has been a supporter of local development and a leading champion of the city’s new comprehensive plan called Framework OP — secured a second term, beating his former city council colleague Faris Farassati, who had also run against him in the 2021 primary, with roughly 70% of the vote.
In Monday’s announcement, a press release touted Skoog’s time as mayor, noting he “has led the resurgence of Downtown Overland Park and welcomed significant economic development and job growth, all while maintaining the state’s lowest property tax rate.”
He told the Post that it was the dysfunction he’s witnessed in Topeka that led him to file to run for governor; he feels that with his experience in local government, he could help restore a well-functioning state government.
“From City Hall, I got to watch the dysfunctional legislature have another year where they didn’t accomplish things to improve Kansans’ lives or to make life more affordable,” Skoog said in an interview on Monday morning.
Skoog says “Kansans are looking for” a governor like him
Skoog also said he was encouraged to run and has been talking about it with people close to him for the past couple of weeks.
“What I do every day as mayor, as all mayors do across the state, is we work every day, 365 days a year, to get things done right. We build roads and bridges, we build parks, we make sure we fund public safety,” he said. “That is what Kansans are looking for, a governor and a Kansas government that gets things done, not a dysfunctional legislature that is unproductive and not transparent.”
With just about two months until the primary election, Skoog said he’s planning to travel across the state of Kansas with McKenney to meet voters and hear from them about their priorities.
“Jen and I are the right solution to get things done in the state of Kansas, to address affordability and make sure that Kansas continues to be a thriving state where our kids and grandkids want to stay and come back to,” he said.
Other Democratic Party governor candidates from JoCo push back
Skoog joins a field of Democratic Party candidates hailing from Johnson County, but he says his own political resume sets him apart in the field.
“I’m the only one who has spent 21 years at the local level getting things done, implementing the community’s vision and delivering in a transparent, inclusive way based on consensus, and nobody else in this race has that background, and that’s what we need in the governor’s office,” he said.
For several months, State Sen. Cindy Holscher of Overland Park and State Sen. Ethan Corson of Fairway have controlled the field as the only two candidates for the Democratic Party nomination.
In written statements on Monday morning, his Democratic opponents pushed back and reinforced their resumes as state elected officials. Both Holscher and Corson publicly announced their gubernatorial bids last summer.
Holscher’s campaign manager, Madi Ashcraft, pointed to Holscher’s experience in flipping red seats in the Kansas Legislature.
“Cindy Holscher is the only candidate in this race on either side of the aisle who has a track record of taking on corporate interests and fighting for ordinary Kansans,” Ashcraft said. “She’s also the only Democrat in the race who has flipped red areas, and the only Democrat running who took on Sam Brownback and won.”
“Cindy is building a grassroots campaign that excites voters and will defeat Ty Masterson in the fall. Kansans aren’t looking for another establishment guy in the race — they already have enough of those,” she continued.
(Ty Masterson, Kansas Senate President, is the presumptive front-runner for the Republican Party nomination for Kansas Governor after fielding an endorsement from President Donald Trump. He also made his filing official on Monday morning.)
Corson’s campaign emphasized his recent statewide travels and endorsements.
“This campaign is built on a simple belief: Kansans deserve a leader who listens, works hard, and brings people together to get results. Over the past ten months, Ethan’s traveled across the state, meeting with communities large and small and building a movement for a new generation of leadership,” said Glynnis Harvey, campaign spokesperson.
“He’s earned the endorsements of trusted Kansas leaders such [as] Governor Kelly, Governor Sebelius, Planned Parenthood, and labor. As Governor, Ethan will protect abortion rights, stand up to ICE, and fight back against Trump or anyone who threatens our freedoms. With Republicans now rallying around Ty Masterson after Trump’s endorsement, Ethan is the only candidate in this race who can defeat the divisive, hate-filled, and ineffective MAGA agenda coming to Kansas,” Harvey continued.
In addition to Corson and Holscher on the Democratic Party side, the Republican Party primary has also drawn several Johnson County and Kansas City area candidates. They are former Johnson County Commissioner Charlotte O’Hara and current Kansas Secretary of State Scott Schwab, both of whom reside in Overland Park. Philip Sarnecki, a businessman, is from Bucyrus in Miami County.
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