Ex-detective, startup champion Donald Carter discusses mayoral run, priorities

Community builder and former detective at the Kansas City Police Department Donald Carter has announced his candidacy for mayor for Kansas City, Mo.

In March, he made national headlines (and a Startland News headline) via a random act of kindness. Carter helped raise over $15,000 for Shajuana Mays, a young woman he met behind the drive through window at Popeyes Chicken, so that she could attend nursing school.

Carter is no stranger to Kansas City’s entrepreneurial ecosystem. He currently works with the local startup HipHire and volunteers regularly at MECA Challenge as a mentor for teams of high school and college students. He also leads a group that aims to generate more random acts of kindness in Kansas City.

Well ahead of Kansas City’s mayoral elections in April of 2019, we sat down with Donald Carter to learn more about his platform and how he plans to represent the entrepreneurial community.

Why are you running for mayor?

I believe that the hearts of the people in our city are ready for a new message. We can’t keep doing things the same way we have been doing them. I’d like the opportunity to provide leadership and inspiration for the people of Kansas City that will honor each person’s humanity and build the connections that are necessary. We need to honor humanity so that we can address the issues that are imperative to our progress. I see myself as a person who is able to facilitate that role. I’d like to be a catalyst to motivate collective action that will inspire the people of Kansas City to handle our problems, rather than people simply depending on bureaucracy to solve problems for them. I believe there is a stirring in people’s hearts all across the country and communities are eager to do good for one another. Those divisions keep people disengaged from the process of doing good.

How’d you arrive at the decision to run?

It’s been a process of at least several months of soul searching and consultation. I’ve met with a couple dozen different people, some of them in politics, some of them having run campaigns and some not in politics. The initial idea came honestly over 15 years ago, before I was a police officer. It’s something that has always been a far off, future vision “Ah, maybe I’ll run for mayor, because I love this city and I want to do my part to take care of it.” Really, it’s about being a leader and inspiring people to create the things that they are already able to create themselves and empowering them along the process.

You said your campaign will be “non-traditional.” How?

Instead of Don Carter for Mayor, it’s Don Carter for the people of Kansas City. By non-traditional I mean that I’m not looking at it the same way. One, I don’t want money and campaign finance to be the litmus test of success. My approach will be collective interest rather than self-interest.  My first real line of work is going around to as many different communities in the metro area as I can to just get a pulse of what is most pressing to them.

What are your platform’s top priorities for Kansas City?

The kind of people that we are is more important than the issues that we have at hand. People want to peg you down on the issues, what do you feel about gun laws, the airport, the murder rate — any number of issues. But how we see ourself and how we see each other predicates how we look at all the issues.

What is the most pressing issue that Kansas Citians face? Why is that important?

Our city’s biggest problem is that we are disconnected. I’m talking about how we see ourselves and how we see each other. Right now, we define ourselves by imaginary lines that we create.

What solutions would you propose to address that issue?

Candid conversations and being authentic with each other. The solutions are yet to be discovered. We don’t even know what the real problems are until we see past imaginary lines. We haven’t listened to each other enough to know what our real problems are. If we can empower people to work together we can get a lot more done more quickly.

What skills do you bring to the table as a mayoral candidate? What sets you apart as a mayoral candidate?

The skill of listening is integral to being a good leader. I have to know about the person or people or group or whomever I am leading. Listening is huge but also being able to take action that considers the whole more than just a part.

You’ve worked in the startup community for a while. What are your thoughts on that community’s ability to make a positive impact in the city?

The startup community has innovation and collaboration as some of its central strengths. Those two aspects of the startup community and the people in the startup community is what I think has the potential to really provide a model and example of how a community should work. Those aspects can model the attributes of innovation and collaboration to others. Those people who show those aspects bring positive change in a broader way.

Kansas City Mayor Sly James set a goal to make Kansas City the most entrepreneurial city in America. Do you plan to continue working on that goal? Why? How?

Absolutely. It’s because I believe that the entrepreneurial mindset is not just taking things as they are but being able to create something new is going to be a great asset as we build the kind of society that we want to see. Right now, we have a society that’s based on division and now we need to create a new one. I’m seriously talking about a culture shift here and that is already happening, but I’d like to speed that up and take the helm. Entrepreneurship broadens the scope of what’s possible by not being limited to just what is.

Do you identify with a political party?

I don’t stand on either side because there are no real sides. Human beings are complex and this is where honoring each other’s humanity is central to how a community operates. If I dehumanize you or objectify you then you are an object when in reality we are subjective to each other. In order to run you don’t have to declare, I think there is no benefit to.

What are the biggest hurdles you expect to overcome before election day?

One, the perception of an inexperienced young black male running for mayor from the people in the city. Two, actually helping facilitate conversations between different people in different parts of the city. Three, the anticipated and expected nature of politics, which traditionally has been pretty unkind. Comments from people and other candidates. I’m anticipating to overcome my own visceral response to people attacking me or my family. I’m hopeful that it won’t be an obstacle and that I can win the respect and confidence from others. But trying to show a different way of doing politics is going to be hard.