Election night results are unofficial. The results include in-person votes, satellite votes and mail-in ballots returned by election day. The results will not be official until the election canvass on Thursday, Nov. 13. Results below are from Sedgwick County’s final, unofficial election night results.
Incumbents prevail in the city council election, along with newcomer Joseph Shepard, deciding seats for District 1, 3 and 6.
Shepard was elected in District 1 with 56.16% of the vote. Incumbent Mike Hoheisel won re-election in District 3 with 59.68% of votes and District 6 voters re-elected incumbent Maggie Ballard, who won with 61.24%.
Around 11.57% of eligible voters cast a ballot across all Sedgwick County elections — 37,657 out of 325,356 registered voters, according to final unofficial election results.
The elected city council members will be sworn in January of 2026.
The city council is made up of six representatives elected by district, along with the mayor. Council members make policy decisions for the city collaboratively by enacting laws, establishing the budget and appointing members to civilian boards and commissions. Council members serve 4-year terms, and can serve up to two consecutive terms in a row.
District 1: Joseph Shepard
Shepard won the District 1 city council seat with 3,343 out of 5,952 votes (59.3%), according to unofficial election results. Shepard called the race around 8 p.m., when 45% of the votes had been counted, at his election watch party at Revolustia.
“This race was about bringing our community together,” Shepard said after final unofficial election results came out. “Making sure we are focused on the kitchen table issues that matter to the hard-working families of not just District 1, but all of Wichita.”
After the race was called, Shepard addressed those who did not vote for him.
“And for the folks who did not vote for me in this election, I have heard you. I’ve heard your concerns,” Shepard said. “And someone once told me when I was elected student body president (of Wichita State), ‘You see those folks not cheering for you? Those are the folks you must engage with first.’”
In a Q&A with The Sunflower before the election, Shepard said that his three priorities as a council member would be “economic advancement, building stronger neighborhoods and opening up lines of communication so that folks actually know what’s happening with their tax dollars and also know what city hall is doing.”
Shepard served two terms as student body president of WSU — which is in District 1 — from 2015-17.
Shepard said he wants to include more young people in the voting process.
“If we want our community to grow, if we want to be innovative, if we want to be competitive with our sister cities, the talent that we need to bring to the table is right here at (WSU),” Shepard said in his Sunflower Q&A.
Early in his campaign, Shepard received the endorsement of incumbent District 1 Councilmember Brandon Johnson. Johnson has served as District 1’s City Council member since 2017 and reached the two-term limit.
“I’m grateful for Brandon Johnson, who has been a big brother to me since I was 19 years old,” Shepard said. “There is not anything that that man will not talk to me about — through bad breakups, me doubting myself — he has always called when it mattered.”
His opponent, LaWanda DeShazer, received 2,295 votes.
Mike McCorkle, who ran for the District 100 seat in the Kansas House of Representatives in 2024, 2022 and 2020, spoke in support of DeShazer at her election night watch party.
“We see what’s going on with our democracy,” McCorkle said. “We need real, authentic representatives, not people that are just working the system.”
“They’re going to have buyer’s remorse,” DeShazer said to her watch party attendees after the unofficial results were announced.
District 3: Mike Hoheisel
Hoheisel won in District 3 with 59.68% of the vote, according to unofficial results.
Hoheisel, the incumbent, told The Sunflower that his priorities for city council include continuing improvements to infrastructure in District 3.
His opponent, Genevieve Howerton, did not respond to questions for The Sunflower’s city council Q&A, and was unresponsive to other local news outlets. According to her campaign website, Howerton hoped to address property tax, crime and housing issues.
District 6: Maggie Ballard
Ballard received 61.24% of the votes, or 3,717 out of 6,069 votes.
Ballard, the incumbent, told KSN that her priority in her second term would be “completing the work we’ve started,” calling attention to the Biomedical Center, Second Light (formerly known as the Multi-Agency Center) and COMCARE expansions. She was first elected to the city council in 2021 and began her first term in 2022.
