Over the last 10 months, former Kansas City Royals General Manager Dayton Moore has been on a journey exploring what it takes to run for governor and lead the state.
A lifelong student of leadership, Moore has been meeting with various constituencies across Kansas as he took stock of what it would mean to run for governor.
He said he’s met with 25 to 30 influential Kansans – past and present – as he decided whether to run for governor after having some early discussion about Congress.
Now with the 2026 governor’s race shifting into high gear, Moore says there’s still more to learn about a world very different from the one where he built a struggling baseball franchise into World Series champions.
“It interests me,” Moore said of running for governor in a recent interview with the Sunflower State Journal at a coffee shop in the West Bottoms neighborhood of Kansas City.
“Do I know the nuts and bolts and how to navigate through all this? I’m not going to sit here and tell you I understand that completely,” Moore said.
“So, I’m still learning what this is about. Do I think this is my time in 2026? Probably not. But I’m not going to rule anything out.”
He added, “If you asked me today, I would probably say no. I’m still learning. There’s no need to make that decision until you have to.
“Do I think we could win a primary? I don’t believe we’re necessarily in a position at this point in time where we could tackle that and win that.”
“I’m interested in continuing to learn. I want to serve at some level, in some capacity, someday. I don’t know what that looks like. I’m learning.”
Moore wouldn’t rule out running for governor, or maybe even Congress, in the future.
“Very much possibly,” he said.
Speculation about Moore running for office as a Republican started percolating at the start of the year when the 2026 governor’s race was less defined than it is today.
He would present Kansans with a very different type of candidate, someone who was still an unknown in political circles but reached the heights as a baseball executive when the Kansas City Royals won the World Series in 2015.
Moore has his roots in Kansas.
His mother grew up in Coldwater, west of Wichita and south of Greensburg. He was born in Wichita but later moved to New York when his dad took a new job. He later returned to Kansas to play baseball at Garden City Community College.
He later went on to play baseball at George Mason University where he earned an undergraduate degree in physical education and received a master’s in athletic administration in 1992.
Growing up here, Moore recalled how his grandfather warned him about how the aquifer would eventually dry up as well as other issues that farmers faced.
He remembered how his grandfather sold his farm because of rising expenses.
“I’ve always had a heart and an empathy and a compassion for the state of Kansas and the people of Kansas,” Moore said.
As time passed throughout the year, political insiders increasingly believed it was becoming less likely that Moore would join the governor’s race in 2026.
Major Republican candidates such as former Gov. Jeff Colyer, Senate President Ty Masterson, Insurance Commissioner Vicki Schmidt, Secretary of State Scott Schwab, and businessman Philip Sarnecki have hired campaign teams and are raising money.
Colyer has already been on television and so has former Wichita school board member Joy Eakins, who also has hired political consultants.
Plus, there have already been two GOP gubernatorial forums.
Learning political ropes
While Moore said he’s still open to the idea of entering politics at some point, he concedes he has more learning to do.
“I’ve got to learn that world,” said Moore, now senior adviser of baseball operations for the Texas Rangers.
“Why would I want to step into something that I know nothing about other than I care?
“I know I’m not smarter than anybody else. I know I don’t work harder than anybody else. Everybody works hard. There are a lot of smart people. They key is caring more than everybody else,” he said.
“I love leadership and I study leadership, and I want to continue to learn. I’m not going to fool myself. I’ve got to make sure before we step out and do something like that.
“I don’t want to embarrass the state of Kansas,” he said. “I don’t want to embarrass my family and the people that believe in me. Before you step into something, you need to know what you’re about.”
As a top baseball executive, Moore knew who to surround himself with as he built a baseball franchise. Politics, he said, is a little different at this point.
“If you said to me, ‘You’re going to be the GM tomorrow of a particular team,’ I would know who to hire, who the elite people are in the game for whatever the organization needs.
“Each organization, each team needs a different type of leader, different expertise in different phases of their development, different phases of their growth. I know who all those people are. I know where to go,” he said.
“In the political world, I don’t know where to go. I’ve got to learn. I’ve got to know who those people are,” he said.
“I know I have blind spots, but I’m thankful I do because it’s allowing me to pursue and learn,” he said.
“If we were ever in a position like that to lead in a political forum, I know I would need people around me much, much smarter with greater wisdom.”
Setting aside selfishness
As a political leader, Moore said he would want a team that would put their own self-interests aside.
“We’ve got to put a team together, a group of people, that can put the needs, wants and desires of everybody else first and their own needs and wants and desires second.
“That’s why we won in Atlanta. That’s why we won in Kansas City. That’s why we won in Texas,” Moore said.
“What was unique about those World Series championship teams – the people at the table (put the) needs wants and desires of everybody else first, their own needs and wants and desires second,” he said.
“It’s easy to talk about that. It’s very difficult to live it. That’s why you’ve got to have the right people around you that are going to hold one another accountable and make sure we’re all living that.
“I don’t want to bow down to any man, any person, any situation. I just don’t. I want to look out for the common good,” he said.
Moore concedes he is struggling with the idea of party labels, which he agrees is a reality since no one will likely win as an independent.
Moore said he has spent a career bringing people together, especially on the baseball diamond where players come together from different educational, economic, religious and familial backgrounds for one common purpose to play ball.
“We’ve lived our entire lives working to unite people and to find common ground for relationships to thrive and for people to reach their ceiling, teams to reach their ceiling and to be better and to overachieve,” Moore said.
“When you put an ‘R’ next to your name or a ‘D’ next to your name, people already put you in a box. That’s what personally, I think, we need to work against as a society.
“How can we be open minded to other people’s ideas and not stereotype others? I don’t like that about politics, what I’ve learned. I don’t like that.”
Role of government
Moore provided an overall view of how he sees government.
“Government should dominate the fundamentals, dominate the fundamentals of public safety, firefighters, first responders, infrastructure,” he said.
“The government should do that so doggone well that we never ever have to question or worry about those basic services,” he said.
“The social welfare of our communities should be dominated by our charities, our neighborhoods, our churches, men and women who have a heart for their neighbor.
“The government is not the answer for solving individual family issues and many of the issues that affect our society today,” he said.
Looking over the field candidates who have already lined up to run for governor, Moore said he likes what he sees.
“I think there’s a lot of really, really wonderful and qualified people to be the governor of Kansas, people with great hearts who’ve accomplished a great deal and that want to do really, really good,” Moore said.
“When you take a position like that, you are not only influencing and potentially affecting the current generation, you’re talking about future generations.
“That’s a big, big responsibility, and I know how I’m wired. If we’re ever going to take on a role like this, I’ve got to have myself together with regard to where to go, who to hire, who to involve and what have you.
“You can sit here and say, ‘You did it before. You won a World Series,’” Moore said.
“Success yesterday doesn’t mean success today.”
