Kansas Democrats Use DNC to Campaign for Relocation of Patrick Mahomes’ Chiefs, Escalating Conflict With Missouri

Most Kansas delegates to the Democratic National Convention were seen wearing Kansas City Chiefs gear on the convention floor this week. The move defies the fact that blue is the DNC’s primary color and the fact that the Chiefs are based in Kansas City, Missouri.

However, Kansas Democratic Party Chairwoman Jeanna Repass decided that her state’s delegates would wear Chiefs gear as part of the state’s attempt to woo the Chiefs from their neighboring state.

Kansas Democrat Reed Krewson told KMBC that the party chairman and the group decided to wear the shirts.

“The Kansas City Chiefs are the home of Kansas City,” Krewson said. “A win for them is a win for us. Our legislature just passed a bill to bring the Kansas City Chiefs to Kansas.”

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In June, the Kansas state legislature approved legislation that would expand an incentive program in the state with the clear goal of attracting the Chiefs, and potentially also MLB’s Kansas City Royals. The bill would ensure the Chiefs receive hundreds of millions of dollars in tax revenue to build a new Kansas-based stadium.

Kansas state lawmakers criticized Missouri as the Chiefs’ home state before the bill was passed. Voters in Jackson County, Missouri, where the Chiefs’ Arrowhead Stadium currently sits, voted in April to reject the extension of a sales tax intended to help fund a new stadium for the Chiefs in downtown Kansas City.

“We’re at risk of seeing Kansas City lose these franchises,” Kansas Sen. Jeff Pittman, a Leavenworth Democrat, said during debate on the bill in June. “Missouri dropped the ball. Now we have an opportunity to make an offer.”

During this week’s convention, Repass even bragged that the delegation’s aggressiveness may have unsettled Missouri delegates in Chicago.

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“I think we made Missouri sweat a little bit,” Repass said, via the Kansas City Star. “We got some dirty looks from across the room.”

The Missouri delegates were dressed formally. Emanuel Cleaver, who represents Missouri’s 5th House District, was not very supportive of the Kansas delegation’s conduct and subtly criticized members of his party over it.

“Sometimes when we do certain things, it’s frowned upon,” Missouri Rep. Emanuel Cleaver told the Kansas City Star. “It wasn’t very exciting for us.”

Missouri lawmakers have already criticized the Kansas state legislature for its recent law aimed at encouraging the relocation of the Chiefs, and have advised against the possibility of reigniting a “border war incitement” between the two states.

“Today’s vote unfortunately reignites the inciting border war between Missouri and Kansas, creating leverage for the teams but injecting even more uncertainty into the regional stadium conversation,” Kansas City Mayor Quinton Lucas said in a statement June 20.

The Chiefs’ current stadium lease expires in 2031. However, the team reportedly plans to get a new stadium much sooner.

The Chiefs have become one of the league’s most valuable and popular teams under quarterback Patrick Mahomes, who has led the team to four Super Bowls with three victories since 2019. Tight end Travis Kelce’s very public romance with Taylor Swift last year, combined with the team’s third Super Bowl victory under Mahomes, only served to strengthen the franchise’s brand and global visibility last season.

Team president Mark Donovan said in March that leaving Kansas City “was an option.” Meanwhile, Dallas Mayor Eric Johnson has even proposed that the team return to Dallas, where the franchise began in 1960 as the Dallas Texans before changing its name and moving to Kansas City in 1962.

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