Final unofficial results: Dennis wins second term on Sedgwick County Commission

Update: 11 p.m.

Incumbent David Dennis beat out Democrat Mike Iuen in the race for Sedgwick County Commission’s District 3 Tuesday night.

With all precincts reporting, unofficial results show that of the 45,391 ballots counted, Dennis has a 66-34 lead over Iuen.

At the Republican watch party at the Wichita Marriott on Tuesday, the mood was jubilant as results came in just before 10 p.m. Dennis took an early lead and held it throughout the night.

“I feel very good,” Dennis said. “I’m ready to serve four more years.”

Dennis said his priorities as a County Commissioner haven’t changed.

“Behavioral health is at the top of my list. I want to help provide the services that we need for our community,” he said. “We’ll also work on economic development to get people back to work, and we need to work on transportation because that kind of drives the economic development process.”

Dennis said the best part of his night was seeing some of his good friends get elected or re-elected.

“It looks like a very good night for Republicans,” he said.

Dennis said he appreciated that his opponent, Iuen, ran a positive campaign.

“That’s the way I think we need to do things,” Dennis said.

At the watch party, Dennis stood out as one of few people with his face covered. Despite the Sedgwick County mask mandate to help slow the spread of COVID-19 and the fact that the county just reported its worst week for COVID cases, only about one in 20 of the party-goers had a mask on.

Roughly 200 people filled the conference space for the evening festivities. When asked if being around so many bare faces made him nervous, Dennis said he chooses to wear a mask.

“I’m a little bit older than the rest of the population,” he said. “I need to protect myself, but I also need to protect the people that I come around.”

Dennis has spent the past four years representing District 3, which includes Andale, Bentley, Cheney, Colwich, Goddard, Garden Plain, Mount Hope, Viola and a small part of west Wichita.

A former Air Force colonel and retired teacher, Dennis taught at North High School for 11 years. He also served on the Kansas State Board of Education and was its chairman for two years. He spent nine years on the Wichita Area Metropolitan Planning Commission.

Dennis has been married 52 years and has two sons.

Iuen, a retired broadcast journalist, spent 35 years at KAKE-TV. For 23 years, he anchored the “Good Morning Kansas” program. He has served as a board member of the March of Dimes and worked with the American Diabetes Association, Big Brothers Big Sisters and the Crop Walk.

Iuen has been married 23 years and has five children.

Dennis raised significantly more than Iuen during the campaign — about $39,000 to Iuen’s $6,300.

Sedgwick County is divided into five districts. Voters in each district elect one person to serve a four-year term on the commission. Commissioners are responsible for setting policies and allocating resources.

The commission approves the county’s annual budget, levies taxes, oversees construction and maintenance of county roads and bridges and serves as the Board of Health — a role that has taken center stage during the coronavirus pandemic.

The Commission also is responsible for hiring the Sedgwick County manager, county counselor, public works director and county appraiser.

Commissioners are paid $95,623 a year.

Results of the race are not final until the canvass, when provisional ballots are either counted or disqualified. The final tally also will include ballots that are mailed on the day of the election.

This story was originally published November 3, 2020 at 8:18 PM.