46% of mayor primary voters didn’t pick Wu or Whipple. Who will they support in November?

More voters cast a ballot in last month’s mayoral election than in any other Wichita mayoral primary since 2003.

Since winning the primary, former television reporter Lily Wu has been campaigning on the talking point that 76% of Wichita residents who turned out “voted for change.” Wu got 30% of the vote, outperforming current Mayor Brandon Whipple, who received 24% of the vote.

But 46% of primary voters picked neither of them to lead the city. Third- and fourth-place finishers Bryan Frye and Celeste Racette earned a combined 39% of the vote.

A month after the bruising primary, neither term-limited City Council member Frye nor Save Century II founder Racette have any immediate plans for a general election endorsement.

Wu, a Libertarian with the backing of Americans for Prosperity, cut into Republican Frye’s conservative base considerably, leaving him 705 votes short of Whipple for a spot on the November ballot.

Frye said it’s “too soon” to say if he’ll make an endorsement.

Racette, a Democrat turned independent, said she won’t throw her support behind the Democratic incumbent and hasn’t made up her mind on Wu yet. Racette and Wu, who attended the citizens police academy together, met at the Candle Club to talk a week after the primary.

“This much I can answer confidently. I will not be endorsing Whipple,” said Racette, who has sparred with the mayor repeatedly, including at the last City Council meeting. “He ran a dirty campaign and that speaks volumes about his character. I haven’t decided yet about endorsing Lily.”

Whipple said he disagrees with Racette’s assessment that he ran a dirty campaign.

“I’ve enjoyed working with Celeste on ensuring if [Century II] was to be replaced it would first go to a vote of the people,” he said. “I appreciate the voice she has brought to critical issues throughout the primary and I sincerely wish her well.”

Russell Arben Fox, a political science professor at Friends University, said at least a subset of voters who turned out for unsuccessful primary candidates will be looking to them for cues in the general election. Local elections across Sedgwick County are technically nonpartisan, although party politics factor heavily into races.

“If you take a look at the coalition that Whipple put together in order to beat (Jeff) Longwell, he really needs the sort of reform-minded, distrustful-of-the-City Council, distrustful-of-development-interests-type voters,” Fox said.

“A lot of those voters were supporting [Racette] because it was the developers that were going after Century II and she was able to put a lot of them together.”

In the 2019 general election, 49,910 Wichitans turned out to vote for mayor — some 9,000 more than in this year’s primary. Whipple defeated Longwell 46.4% to 36.0% with 17.6% going for write-ins, headlined by failed primary candidate Lyndy Wells.

Fox said a potential Racette endorsement of Wu could cut both ways, creating a possible opening for Whipple to win over disaffected voters.

“If she endorses Lily Wu, who so obviously is being supported by a lot of development interests, that will alienate some of her core supporters,” Fox said.

The Wichita Chamber of Commerce, a strong proponent for the now defunct Riverfront Legacy Master Plan that recommended tearing down Century II, jointly endorsed Wu and Frye in the primary.

Wu shattered Wichita’s pre-primary fundraising record, garnering donations from many prominent Wichita business people and their companies, including numerous instances of bundling, when donors give the maximum legal donation of $500 from multiple companies that share an address. Wu outraised Whipple $159,852 to $34,712 and outspent him $119,126 to $27,650 between January and July.

The highest-turnout Wichita mayoral contest on record was in 2003, when 54,375 voters weighed in and Carlos Myans was elected, Sedgwick County Election Office records show.