Quinton Lucas

Quinton Donald Lucas (born August 19, 1984) is an American politician serving as the 55th mayor of Kansas City, Missouri.

Lucas joined the University of Kansas Faculty of Law in 2012 where he taught administrative law, contract law, and securities regulation.

In 2015, Lucas ran for a city council seat in the Third District at Large.

His campaign advocated for the selling of Kemper Arena instead of costly demolition, and supported public transit with future and current rail systems.

He won with more than 70% of the vote.

He said the city's greatest challenge was bridging the cultural and socioeconomic gaps between the eastern and western sides: "How do we get people from jobs in my part of the city, the east side of Kansas City, off into other parts of the city or even to Kansas?"

In 2016, Lucas voted for a blight designation in the southern part of the city to allow for 80 million dollars in investment.

The 80 million dollars is to be used to build residential units and commercial spaces.

Critics say that the city has incentivized too many developments in prosperous areas and has failed to do so in poorer community areas.

His primary focus in city council became housing policy.

He advocated both the development of new housing supply and the renovation of existing properties.

During discussions surrounding the finance and development of renovating the Kansas City International Airport in August 2017, Lucas advocated for transparent municipal decision-making by calling for fewer closed Council sessions.

He told The Kansas City Star, "I think the spirit of the Sunshine Law is not for council to deliberate on myriad issues on public policy in secret."

He was decisive in shaping a 2018 ordinance that reduced the city's definition of affordable rent as up to $1,100 per month, which is 30% of the city's median income.

Lucas told the Kansas City Business Journal that "$1,000 a month is still pretty high for a lot of people, but what we're trying to do is say that we will not give incentives based on affordability standards for units that are north of that figure."

He was elected in 2019.

He is affiliated with the Democratic party and is the city's third African-American mayor.

Before his election, Lucas was a private practice lawyer, community leader, city council member, and a lecturer on law at Washington University.

He was also a volunteer instructor at prisons in New York and Kansas, where he taught courses on constitutional law.

Lucas was born in Kansas City, Missouri, to Quincy Bennett Johnson, a single mother.

He grew up in Kansas City's low-income East Side and never met his father.

Johnson said that "[Lucas] saw we were struggling ... One time we lived in a hotel, and it was horrible. Quinton would go in the bathroom to study."

Lucas earned a scholarship to attend The Barstow School, a prestigious private school.

He was elected student body president twice and was one of the class's top students.

Lucas said the disparity between his ambitions and social background fostered a conflict of identity.

He was reluctant to leave Kansas City upon graduation and, following his college counselor's advice, attended Washington University in St. Louis.

Lucas majored in political science at Washington University and studied in South Africa.

Living in Cape Town, he observed the political and cultural legacy of apartheid, which he said influenced his perception of the inequalities experienced by Black people in the United States.

Lucas attended law school at Cornell, encouraged by a professor to assist in Curtis Osborne's appeal for clemency.

Though the appeal failed, Lucas found the legal experience to be transformative.

In the 2019 Kansas City mayoral election, 11 candidates ran to replace term-limited incumbent Sly James.

The field later narrowed to Lucas and fellow city council member Jolie Justus.

Lucas won with approximately 59% of the vote.

In late August 2020, a group of citizens criticized Lucas's COVID-19 pandemic mask regulations as harmful to small businesses and ran a failed petition to remove him from office.

In June 2021, Lucas co-founded a coalition of 11 mayors, called Mayors Organized for Reparations and Equity (MORE), which aims to create pilot programs that address reparations for slavery in the United States.

Lucas is a member of the Kansas City Board of Police Commissioners.

Two gun ordinances have been passed since he has been a board member.

The first ordinance makes it illegal for anyone under the age of 18 to be in possession of a handgun or ammunition and gives police greater authority to confiscate illegal weapons.

The second ordinance makes it illegal to sell or give a gun to a minor without the consent of a parent or for military service.

If ordinances are violated, the violator faces jail time, a fine, or is directed to a diversion program.