He's a popular KC media personality & activist. Now he's running for Congress
Hartzell Gray has built a reputation around Kansas City as a well-known media personality and progressive activist, drawing in listeners through podcast episodes, radio segments and speeches at local protests.
Now, the former radio host and tenants rights advocate is running to represent Kansas City in Congress.
Gray, late last month, launched a Democratic campaign for Missouri's 5th Congressional District, which encompasses Kansas City's urban core and nearby suburbs. The announcement signaled that the 2026 Democratic primary for Kansas City's 5th District could be competitive.
Democratic U.S. Rep. Emanuel Cleaver has held the office since 2005. Jordan Herrera, an attorney who previously worked in the Missouri Attorney General's Office, also entered the race several months ago.
The dueling campaigns mean that Cleaver, Kansas City's longtime congressman, will face at least two challengers from his own party in 2026. The announcements also come as the future of the 5th District could be in doubt amid a GOP plan to gerrymander Cleaver out of his seat.
'I know that I am ready for everything involved in this fight,' Gray said in an interview on Thursday. 'I have no doubt about it.'
Gray, a 33-year-old Kansas City native, has held various positions with local media organizations, including KCUR and the former KRBZ 96.5 FM. He's also worked as an in-stadium host with Sporting KC.
But Gray has also been publicly involved in activism, using his voice to advocate for issues such as affordable housing, health care and higher wages. He's hoping to translate that activism into a self-described progressive populist campaign.
'I'm born and raised here,' Gray said. 'Unapologetically, I know where I come from. I know where I came from. I know where I'm going to keep going. I'm going with our people. In fact, I'm gonna let the people take us there.'
The campaign announcement also came just months after Gray filed a lawsuit alleging that Mayor Quinton Lucas and his top aide attempted to have him fired from his previous job at KCUR after he participated in a protest at City Hall.
Gray, in announcing his campaign last month, touted an endorsement from Progressive Democrats of America, a group that has pushed the national Democratic Party to be more progressive. The Kansas City-based activist has framed his campaign around affordable housing, universal health care and the idea that the 5th District needed new leadership.
'Kansas Citians are being priced out of our homes, locked out of opportunity, and told to wait our turn — all while politicians protect the same donors and pass the same tired policies,' Gray said in his campaign announcement.
He also recently circulated an online petition opposing the effort to gerrymander the 5th District. So far, it's received more than 13,000 signatures.
Herrera describes himself on his campaign website as a U.S. Air Force veteran and attorney who previously worked as an assistant attorney general in Missouri. His website touts his professional background as well as his working-class upbringing.
'Jordan is running for Congress because he believes this district—and this country—deserve more than politics as usual,' the website said. 'His platform centers on economic fairness, housing affordability, student debt relief, public safety reform, and restoring faith in democracy.'
In June, Herrera's campaign announced that he was fired from the Attorney General's Office, framing the firing as politically-motivated after Herrera attended a rally to advocate for veterans. A spokesperson for the office declined to comment on Herrera's departure at the time.
The two candidates could face an uphill battle to unseat Cleaver, a longtime congressman and Kansas City's first Black mayor. The last time Cleaver faced a Democratic challenger, in 2022, he won with more than 85% of the vote.
But the 2026 race comes as Cleaver is under threat from both sides of the aisle. President Donald Trump is pressuring Missouri Republicans to gerrymander the state's U.S. House map so Republicans can maintain control of Congress.
The likely move would involve carving up Cleaver's 5th District to open an easier path for a Republican to win the seat.
Solve the daily Crossword
Hashtags
Try Our AI Features
Explore what Daily8 AI can do for you:
Comments
No comments yet...
Related Articles
Yahoo
11 minutes ago
- Yahoo
Intel's Frankfurt-listed shares rise 3.6% after report US could take stake in chipmaker
LONDON (Reuters) -Intel's Frankfurt-listed shares rose 3.6% on Friday, a day after Bloomberg News reported the Trump administration is in talks with the struggling chipmaker to have the U.S. government potentially take a stake in the company. Intel's U.S. shares surged more than 7% in regular trading Thursday and then another 2.6% after the bell. Intel on Thursday declined to comment on the report. Error in retrieving data Sign in to access your portfolio Error in retrieving data Error in retrieving data Error in retrieving data Error in retrieving data
Fox News
31 minutes ago
- Fox News
AG Bondi strips power from DC police chief, rescinds sanctuary city protections in crime crackdown operation
Attorney General Pam Bondi issued a two-page order on Thursday rescinding illegal immigration protections in Washington, D.C., and naming an "emergency police commissioner" for the city's Metropolitan Police Department. Bondi's order, titled "Restoring Safety and Security to the District of Columbia," mostly took aim at sanctuary city policies within the nation's capital, rescinding any order that limits how Metropolitan police officers can handle interactions and incidents with illegal immigrants. She also stripped power from Metro Police Chief Pamela Smith by naming Drug Enforcement Administration Administrator Terry Cole as the department's "emergency police commissioner," granting him all the "powers and duties vested" in the position. Cole has the ability to issue general orders, executive orders and written directives affecting all members of the department, and existing department leadership must receive his approval before issuing directives of their own. Bondi also explicitly rescinded three orders issued by the Metro police within the past two years related to illegal immigration – the most recent one being an executive order issued by Smith earlier on Thursday limiting cooperation with federal immigration authorities. While Smith's order stated that Metro officers could now assist in "sharing information about persons not in MPD custody" and provide "transportation for federal immigration agency employees and detained subjects," it prohibited personnel from making "any inquiry through any database solely for the purpose of inquiring about" immigration status. "Members shall not arrest individuals based solely on federal immigration warrants or detainers as long as there is no additional criminal warrant or underlying offense for which the individual is subject to arrest," the order stated. Bondi rescinded that order hours later. She also suspended a June 2024 general order limiting inquiries into immigration status and an October 2023 general order preventing arrests solely for federal immigration warrants. "To the extent that provisions in this order conflict with any existing MPD directives, those directives are hereby rescinded," Bondi concluded in her order on Thursday. The order comes after President Donald Trump issued an executive order on Monday declaring a crime emergency in the nation's capital and announcing a federal takeover of the police department. Since then, federal law enforcement and the National Guard have been visible throughout the district. On Wednesday night alone, numerous agencies arrested 45 people – 29 of them illegal immigrants – as part of the major crime crackdown. "Residents of the District of Columbia, the thousands of Americans who commute into the District for work every day, and the millions of tourists from all over the world who visit our nation's capital have a right to feel safe and to be free from the scourge of violent crime," Bondi's order stated.
Yahoo
35 minutes ago
- Yahoo
Trump's 'safe and beautiful' move against DC homeless camps looks like ugliness to those targeted
WASHINGTON (AP) — Ms. Jay didn't wait for the authorities to come before packing her tent and carrying what belongings she could across Pennsylvania Avenue on her way to whatever comes next. She'd been living her 'Girl Scout life,' she said, saving money and looking for work while homeless. When she got word that the law was on its way, she found herself living the scouting motto: Be prepared. 'Last night was so scary,' she said, recalling when federal law officers, in concert with local police, began fanning out across Washington to uproot homeless encampments. 'I don't want to be the one to wait until the last moment and then have to rush out.' President Donald Trump's housecleaning started with official Washington and the denizens of its marbled buildings, back in the bureaucracy-scouring days of the Department of Government Efficiency. Now he is taking on the other side of Washington, having sent some 800 National Guard troops to help local police go after crime, grime and makeshift homeless encampments. First came the spring cleaning Back in early spring, Trump's efforts upended the U.S. Institute of Peace, among other institutions and departments. On Thursday, authorities brought in an earth mover to clear out an encampment within sight of that hollowed-out institute's handsome Constitution Avenue headquarters. The mission to clean the capital of criminal elements and ragged edges comes under Trump's Making D.C. Safe and Beautiful Task Force. Some in D.C. believe a different kind of ugliness is playing out. 'From the White House, the president sees a lawless wasteland,' said leaders of the Episcopal Diocese of Washington. 'We see fellow human beings — neighbors, workers, friends and family — each made in the image of God.' For Andrew S., 61, the ugliness came Wednesday when agents he identified as being with the federal government treated him like an eyesore. They asked him to move from his resting place along the route where Trump would be driven to the Kennedy Center. 'You have to move because you're in eyesight of the president,' Andrew, originally from Baltimore, said he was told. He added, 'I didn't really take it serious until today, but the president really doesn't want us here.' He, Ms. Jay and some others interviewed and photographed by The Associated Press declined to give their full names in the midst of the heavy law enforcement presence in Washington. Saying goodbye to his belongings At the encampment near the peace institute, a man named George, 67, walked away Thursday carrying an umbrella in one hand and a garbage bag with some of his belongings in the other. City workers put his mattress and other possessions in a garbage truck idling nearby. He waved goodbye to it. It was that kind of day for others at the same site, too. 'I have known homelessness for so long that it is part of normal life at this point,' Jesse Wall, 43, said as he cleared his belongings Thursday from the site near the peace institute. 'What are you trying to prove here?' Wall asked, as if speaking with the law. 'That you're a bully?' David Beatty, 67, had been living at that encampment for several months. On Thursday, he watched as parts of it were roped off. Beatty and others were allowed to pack up what they could before the heavy machinery cleared remaining items from the area and dumped them into trucks and receptacles. What about the Golden Rule? He quoted a variation of the Bible's Golden Rule — 'Do unto others as you would have them do unto you' — and said, 'The idea that he's targeting us and persecuting us feels wrong to me.' Much of the clearing out Thursday was at the hands of local police. D.C. officials knew federal authorities would be dismantling all homeless encampments if local police didn't. Wayne Turnage, a deputy mayor, said the district has a process to do it 'the way it should be done.' The expectation was clear, if not overtly stated: Local police would go about the work in a more humane way than the feds. Jesse Rabinowitz from the National Homelessness Law Center said that, according to the briefing he received on the operation, people would be given the choice to leave or be detained at eight federal and 54 local sites. The intent, Rabinowitz said he believed, was to trash tents in the daylight (because authorities want the public to see that) and do the bulk of arrests in darkness (because they don't want that widely seen). Once penniless, he's now an advocate Born and raised in Washington, Wesley Thomas spent nearly three decades on the streets, struggling with drug addiction, until other homeless people and charitable organizations helped him get clean through therapy and back on his feet. Now he has had a place to live for eight years and works as an advocate for a nonprofit group that supported him, Miriam's Kitchen, where he's helped dozens find housing. 'The first day I was out there I was penniless, homeless, frightened, only the clothing on my back, didn't know where I was gonna sleep nor eat,' he said. 'Fortunately, there were some homeless people in the area, gave me blankets, showed me a safe place, St. John's Church, to rest my head for the night.' St. John's is across from Lafayette Park, which is across from the White House. It is known as the Church of the Presidents, because its sanctuary has seen all presidents since James Madison in the early 1800s. Thomas wanted the public to know that most of the people being moved off are not 'uneducated, dumb or stupid,' even if they are down on their luck. 'You got doctors, lawyers, businessmen, Navy SEALs, veterans, mailmen,' he said. 'Poor people come in all races, ethnicities and colors.' ___ Kinnard reported from South Carolina. Associated Press journalist River Zhang contributed reporting. Solve the daily Crossword
