A 23-year-old Kansas mayor who re-installed himself back into office last month in what some horrified observers said was “essentially, a coup” is refusing to leave in the face of furious community opposition.
At a contentious city council meeting Monday night, Goddard Mayor Hunter Larkin invoked the late Apple founder Steve Jobs, suggesting that he—Larkin—was also a visionary attempting to “change the world.”
In a move that one Goddard resident likened to “Germany in 1935,” Larkin manipulated existing rules to reclaim a position he’d lost in May 2022 following a news report detailing questionable ties to a local real estate family. After his ouster in 2022, Larkin was arrested for DUI arrest, then launched a bid for the statehouse, promising he would spend his time focusing on “voter integrity, the right to bear arms, protecting the unborn and keeping Critical Race Theory (CRT) out of schools.” He lost. However, as The Daily Beast reported last month, Larkin kept his seat on the Goddard City Council, eventually using his position to gain other members’ support behind the scenes before dispatching then-Mayor Larry Zimmerman along with a city administrator who had been critical of his business dealings.
The move by Larkin, a baby-faced Republican who last year promoted an appearance in Goddard by accused sex pest and conservative celeb Matt Schlapp, was enough to stun a local columnist who has witnessed just about everything.
“I have to hand it to Larkin,” wrote Dion Lefler of the Wichita Eagle. “I’ve covered cities for a long time and have seldom seen a political takeover that was this sleazy, and yet this well-orchestrated.”
On Monday, a longtime resident of the town, whose bid for his own seat on the council failed as part of Larkin’s astonishing takeover, got up to address the meeting.
“As I told The Daily Beast two weeks ago, if I can’t do it from up there,” referring to the council dais, “I’ll do it from out here,” hospice chaplain Jeffery Jones told Larkin and the others. “... I would like for you to resign, number one. Not just as mayor, but I need you to step down from the council. You have a hallway that stretches down to the lobby, of people who, for lack of a better word, are pissed, mayor.”