KC mayor makes visit to Queen City

Last edited 2:12 p.m., Nov. 24, 2025 [Editor's note: The sworn-officer vacancy rate for the Springfield Police Department has been corrected.]

Kansas City Mayor Quinton Lucas paid a visit to the Queen City on Nov. 14 in what he says was a fact-finding trip and not a political one.

Lucas, who is term-limited in his mayoral role and is on record with media sources voicing his interest in U.S. Senate and Congress positions, said his visit was an effort to get to know a bit more about Springfield.

“We spend a lot of time in big-city-Missouri discussions, talking about Kansas City and St. Louis,” he said in an interview with Springfield Business Journal following his visit. “I realized in my now-six-and-a-half years as mayor – frankly, Springfield’s closer, and we have a heck of a lot in common.”

Educational institutions were on his agenda. His official Facebook page records a visit to the Missouri State University campus, where he met with prospective students from Kansas City the day before homecoming.

Via email, MSU President Biff Williams said he was pleased to show Lucas around campus.

“Kansas City is one of our strongest recruitment regions and home to more than 11,000 alumni, so visits like this strengthen important relationships across the state,” he said. “We appreciate the mayor’s interest in learning how our programs, partnerships and workforce preparation efforts contribute to Missouri’s economic future.”

Lucas also took a tour of the Robert W. Plaster Center for Advanced Manufacturing on the Ozarks Technical Community College Springfield campus.

In an email, Ozarks Tech Chancellor Hal Higdon said the institution provided an example of strong workforce development to the KC mayor.

“Southwest Missouri is leading the charge in preparing a skilled workforce, and collaboration is a key reason our region continues to thrive,” he said.

Kevin Kropf, executive vice president of enrollment management at Drury Unversity, said Lucas visited with President Jeff Frederick as well as some Drury students who are from Kansas City.

“We laid out some of our academic programs that we think could help people in the Kansas City area, especially some of our graduate and other online programs,” Kropf said.

Lucas also posted that he shared some laughs with Springfield Mayor Jeff Schrag and included a photo of the duo.

Schrag said the two mayors discussed the job – what’s similar and what’s different in the two cities. Of note, Schrag said the KC police force has even more sworn-officer vacancies, percentage-wise, than Springfield’s, which hovers around 60 individuals or 15%, according to past SBJ reporting.

Lucas told SBJ that he and Schrag discussed ways to generate stronger municipal revenue and ways to make it easier to build or open a business in each of their cities.

“Mayor Schrag, being a business owner himself, certainly understands the opportunities that exists for businesses, as well as the challenges,” he said.

Lucas said both cities are looking at permitting reform, which is not simple as it sounds, and at leveraging incentives. They are also interested in finding more ways the two cities can collaborate, especially with the FIFA World Cup coming to KC in 2026.

“How can we ensure the glow in the KC metro is also seen and experienced in southwest Missouri?” he said. “People will be driving through and looking for interesting places to go.”

On his Facebook page, Lucas also posted photos from his address to Greene County Democrats, hinting at a political aspect of his trip. “If you can win Springfield, you can win Missouri. If you can win Missouri, you can win America,” he said in his post.

Kansas City’s public radio station, KCUR, reported Sept. 8 that Lucas has expressed interest in a run for U.S. House of Representatives.

A new congressional map was passed by the legislature in special session Sept. 12 and signed into law by Missouri Gov. Mike Kehoe Sept. 28, and the Missouri Independent reported that it was already the subject of a lawsuit filed the same day.

Lucas told KCUR that he is specifically interested in a bid for Missouri’s 4th district seat, currently held by U.S. Rep. Mark Alford. Lucas is a Democrat, and Alford is a Republican.

KCUR reported that redistricting plans to split the KC metro area among three congressional districts and gain another Republican seat could actually result in a loss to Republicans of two seats – Alford’s and U.S Rep. Sam Graves’ in the 6th district.

The 4th district does not include Greene County, which is in the 7th congressional district and is represented by Republican Rep. Eric Burlison of Ozark.

In 2021, Lucas weighed a U.S. Senate run to succeed former U.S. Sen. Roy Blunt, a Springfieldian, according to reporting at the time in the Kansas City Star.

During his visit to Springfield, Lucas lunched downtown at Black Sheep Burgers and Shakes and called it “way too good.” The next day, he said, he dined in Kansas City at 1587 Prime, the steakhouse owned by Chiefs players Patrick Mahomes and Travis Kelce.

“It was one of the best culinary weekends I’ve had in a long time,” he said. “Springfield started me right off in a wonderful, fancy way.”

Lucas said he is eager to return to the Queen City.

“Sometimes it’s good to get out of my own city and see the rest of the world,” he said. “I can’t wait to get back.”