Though state and federal elections top the Aug. 4 primary ballot, there is a more local race with countywide implications.
Three candidates for Johnson County chair are vying to be the top two vote-getters to advance to the November general election.
The chair of the Johnson County Board of County Commissioners oversees the county’s seven-member governing body. Elected to an at-large, four-year term, the chair serves as the executive of the board, similar to a city’s mayor, with equal voting rights as the six other members, who are elected to serve distinct geographic districts.
The chair presides over the commission’s weekly meetings in Olathe, setting the agenda and maintaining order. They also often serve as the public face for the county at official functions and a mouthpiece for county government on key priorities and issues. The chair does not have veto power over other commissioners but one vote out of seven.
The chair serves separately from the appointed county manager, who is tasked with implementing the commission’s agenda and policies and managing the county government’s day-to-day operations.
The chair is officially nonpartisan, so the Aug. 4 primary is open, meaning all registered voters can cast ballots.
The profiles below were compiled using information from the candidates’ websites, their social media accounts, a Post forum hosted last month, and Vote JoCo questionnaires from several local chambers of commerce that the candidates recently responded to.
Karen Crnkovich
- Political experience: Karen Crnkovich, of Olathe, has not held elected office before. In 2024, she ran for the Republican nomination to challenge U.S. Rep. Sharice Davids but did not advance out of the party’s primary. According to her LinkedIn profile, she is a past president of the Junior League of Kansas City, Missouri.
- Personal and professional life: Crnkovich, who has lived in Johnson County since 2004, is the owner of DMC Service, a commercial HVAC and plumbing contractor. She is also a member of the Olathe, Overland Park and Greater Kansas City and Kansas chambers of commerce. Her campaign website says she founded the nonprofit Strong Families in 2019, aimed at helping struggling homeowners with urgent repairs.
- Platform: On her campaign website, Crnkovich said her top priority is lowering property taxes. At a forum hosted by the Post last month, she pledged to lower the county’s taxing rate enough to offset rising property values. She also opposes more apartment developments as a solution to the county’s housing shortage. On the budget, she says that while it’s important the county maintains its reserves to keep a high bond rating, it also needs to ensure it’s not holding back more taxpayer funds than are necessary. She supports a countywide moratorium on new data centers and expresses skepticism of the use of economic development incentives, saying such deals should contain clawback provisions if developers don’t deliver on their promises. She has defended the county election office’s decision this year to close some early voting sites and says the election plan creates a more uniform schedule and is less confusing.
Campaign website; Facebook page
Mike Kelly
- Political experience: Mike Kelly, of Prairie Village, was first elected county chair in 2022 and is now seeking a second term. Before that, he served as mayor of Roeland Park from 2017 to 2022. In 2019, he co-founded Climate Action KC, a metrowide group aimed at shaping regional climate policy, and still chairs the organization. He is also a board member of KC2026, which helped organize Kansas City’s World Cup preparations.
- Personal and professional life: According to his campaign biography, Kelly grew up in Johnson County and attended Rockhurst High School. He holds undergraduate degrees from Kansas State University and a law degree from the University of Kansas. He works as an attorney for the major KC-based law firm Husch Blackwell. He lives in Prairie Village with his wife, Elizabeth, and their two young children.
- Platform: Kelly’s campaign website and past statements emphasize protecting public safety, notably Med-Act, as well as improving aging infrastructure. Kelly notes the county has reduced its property tax rate by roughly 9% since 2018 and has created a property tax relief program for low-income residents. He also says the county must diversify its revenues to become less reliant on property taxes. He pushed for a plan to put an extension of the county’s public safety sales tax on the ballot earlier this year, but a judge denied it. He’s against a data center moratorium, saying the issue is one of local control. He backed a now-scuttled plan to convert a Lenexa hotel into a homeless shelter in 2024 and has promoted other housing policies, like using underused public property for housing. He is critical of the county election office’s decision to roll back early voting sites and says voters should have easier access to the polls.
Campaign website; Facebook page
Gene Senesac
- Political experience: Gene Senesac, of Olathe, has not held elected office before. According to his campaign biography, he was appointed to Olathe’s street maintenance sales tax finance oversight committee and also serves as finance committee chair for the Cedar Creek Homeowners Association. He is also a member of the Olathe Chamber of Commerce.
- Personal and professional life: Senesac worked for 37 years for agriculture and commodities conglomerate Archer Daniels Midland before retiring in 2019 and has since worked as a consultant, according to his LinkedIn profile. He graduated from Purdue University with a degree in agricultural economics. He has lived in Johnson County for 20 years and now lives in Olathe with his wife, Heidi.
- Platform: Senesac’s campaign slogan, according to his campaign website, is “A Voice for JoCo Residents Against Rising Costs.” He prioritizes fiscal oversight of the county commission and says the county should look for ways to reduce the size of the county government, calling the current commission a “rubber stamp” for departmental budget requests. He also says the county should ensure home appraisals are fair. He has questioned recent proposals to address housing affordability, notably a Habitat for Humanity project in western Lenexa and says funding “upstart housing” isn’t the county’s responsibility. On social media, he has been a vocal critic of the county’s World Cup transit spending. At a Post forum last month, he also said “nefarious” irregularities in recent voting results in Johnson County warrant further investigation, though county and state election officials maintain audits show county elections have been fair.
