Douglas County District 1 race heads to Democratic showdown

Patrick Kelly and Milton Scott will face each other in the Tuesday, Aug. 4 Democratic primary for Douglas County Commission District 1, a seat that covers parts of northern, northwestern and central Lawrence. Kelly is the incumbent, and the race gives District 1 voters a direct choice between keeping the current commissioner and backing a change in direction for the county seat that helps steer local spending and development decisions.

The contest has become one of the clearest local tests of how Douglas County should handle growth. Recent county commission forums have put affordability, property taxes, transparency, data centers, development of county wetlands and farmlands, budget priorities and nondisclosure agreements at the center of the discussion. At one forum, a sitting commissioner said she had been misdirected by the county administrator while the commission was discussing the administrator’s role, underscoring how sharply questions about county management have entered the race.

That matters in District 1 because county commissioners make decisions that reach into daily life in Lawrence and the surrounding county. The next commissioner will weigh property tax levels, roads, emergency services, nonprofit funding, zoning, development and the county’s approach to public health and social services. Douglas County’s zoning framework also explicitly addresses transportation, infrastructure, floodplain issues, agricultural preservation, agricultural promotion and open space, which puts land use and growth pressures squarely in the hands of the commission.

Kelly’s bid for another term comes with recent history behind it. In 2022, he defeated Dustin Stumblingbear in the Democratic primary for District 1 and then retained his seat in the general election. That earlier race set the stage for the current matchup, which is again playing out as a Democratic contest in a district that has proven important in county politics and large enough to carry real weight in commission decisions.

The primary is the decisive election for the district’s Democratic voters, and the winner will move ahead with a mandate shaped by debates already underway in Douglas County over budgets, development and how aggressively the county should manage growth. In a seat that touches so many of the county’s biggest policy questions, the outcome will help define the next phase of county government for Lawrence’s northern, northwestern and central neighborhoods.