Johnson County hasn’t elected a Democratic sheriff in 96 years. Is this time different?

For the past 96 years, Johnson County voters have elected an uninterrupted line of Republican sheriffs. But that may soon change.

Prairie Village Police Chief Byron Roberson is running as a Democrat against Republican Doug Bedford, a former Johnson County undersheriff, in the Nov. 5 general election – the first time in 20 years that a Democrat has been on the ballot. The contest appears competitive, with both men waging full-throated campaigns.

Johnson County, an affluent and largely suburban area, is undergoing a political transformation from Republican stronghold to solidly Democratic that began more than a decade ago. Voters backed President Joe Biden in 2020, the first time in a century a Democratic presidential candidate won the county, and have helped elect Democratic U.S. Rep. Sharice Davids and Gov. Laura Kelly.

Controversy surrounds current Sheriff Calvin Hayden, who conducted a years-long opaque investigation into the county’s elections that led to no criminal charges. The inquiry, which Hayden promoted in front of hard-right audiences, helped fuel false conspiracy theories about elections and turned a wide swath of residents against him. Hayden lost the Republican primary in August to Bedford by 12 points.

Hayden may soon exit the political scene, but the pitched fight between him and Bedford sharply raised the profile of the race – putting the race for sheriff on the minds of voters in a way that local offices typically don’t.

Democrats hope all of that adds up to give Roberson an edge.

“That momentum, I don’t see anything on sort of a macro political scale that has been slowing that down,” Cole Robinson, executive director of the Johnson County Democratic Party, said of the county trending toward his party.

If anything, Robinson said, Vice President Kamala Harris replacing Biden at the top of the ticket has energized core Democratic voters.

“I think if I’m Doug Bedford or if I’m just kind of a Republican with a really close race in Johnson County, I’m looking at a Democratic base that’s disproportionately female and very much energized, kind of like 2022 again,” Robinson said, alluding to an election in which Kelly dominated Johnson County. “And it’s kind of like at your peril standing in front of that as a Republican.”

The sheriff’s race has been drained of some of its excitement since Hayden’s loss. Bedford and Roberson have expressed respect for one another and while they have tried to distinguish themselves…