A commercial real estate developer from Kansas City, Kansas, on Wednesday became the fifth candidate to join the Democratic primary for the U.S. Senate.
Erik Murray said he was joining the field to challenge Republican U.S. Sen. Roger Marshall, who is completing his first term in the U.S. Senate next year.
Murray, 43, is undaunted about trying to do something that a Democrat hasn’t done in 93 years in Kansas – win a seat in the U.S. Senate.
“The reality is we’re going to do hard things. That’s our state motto – to the stars through difficulties,” Murray said in an interview.
“I’ve applied that to my life,” he said. “I believe that anything is possible with hard work, with dedication and with good ideas.”
Murray joins a Democratic field that already includes retired businesswoman Sandy Spidel Neumann of Merriam, former congressional candidate Christy Davis of Cottonwood Falls, Overland Park immigration lawyer Anne Parelkar and perennial candidate Michael Soetaert.
Murray enters the race after three of the candidates – Parelkar, Davis and Spidel Neumann – participated in their first forum sponsored by the Democratic Party.
He’s getting in the Senate race two months later than Democrat Barbara Bollier did in 2019 and she still raised $29 million in a losing effort against Marshall, who has already amassed $3.3 million ready to use in a reelection campaign.
“I think we’ve got a compelling message. We’ve got an energy. We’ve got a story. We’ve got a team. We’ve been working on this for several months.”
Murray is bringing in a professional campaign team that includes media strategist McKenna Media, with experience at in local, state and federal campaigns.
The firm was founded by Martha McKenna, who started as the political director at the Democratic Senate Campaign Committee under U.S. Sen. Chuck Schumer in 2007 and stayed through the 2010 cycle.
During the 2012, 2014 and 2018 cycles, she ran the DSCC’s independent expenditure operation.
Murray’s team also includes The Strategy Group, a direct-mail consultant that has worked for then-state Sen. Barack Obama’s U.S. Senate campaign, along with his presidential primary campaign in 2008. It later worked for Obama’s reelection campaign in 2012.
The digital consultant is SBDigital, whose clients have included Planned Parenthood Votes! South Atlantic, the Georgia Democratic Party and the Natural Resources Defense Council.
Democratic operative Colin Curtis is one of his senior advisers. Curtis has a bachelor’s in political science from Washburn University and a master’s in professional studies in political management from The George Washington University.
Sean Elliott, who previously worked for Democratic Wisconsin Gov. Tony Evers from 2018 to 2022, is the other senior adviser. Elliott served as finance director on Evers’ campaign for governor and later worked in his administration as special projects director.
A graduate of the University of Southern California with a bachelor’s in health promotion and disease prevention, Murray returned home to Kansas City where he set out on a career in development after giving up on a career in public health.
Early on, he learned a cold lesson about government that changed the trajectory of his career and ultimately brought him to running for the U.S. Senate.
He started out working in public health for Orange County’s HIV and AIDS prevention and planning unit, something he described as frustrating because he learned that funds he thought were for disease prevention were going elsewhere.
“Here I am, an energetic kid just coming out of college, I think I’ve got all these ideas on how to save the world and to realize all the money was already kind of earmarked for acute care and end-of-life issues,” he said.
“I went my boss and I said, ‘Wait a second, the door says prevention and planning but we’re not spending any of the money there. How do we expect to get ahead of this thing?’ She kind of chuckled and said, ‘Oh, you’ll learn.'”
With his hopes dashed, Murray set on a new career path.
“I lucked into commercial real estate just not loving the bureaucratic elements of public health at that time,” he said.
A combination of the high of cost of living in California and wanting to raise his kids in the Midwest led him back to Kansas.
“California is a different spot,” he said.
“I think to really be able to give my kids that same foundation and upbringing that I had, especially to be around family, was just very important,” he said.
“The real question is how did you get a girl from Long Beach to sign off on that plan,” Murray said of his wife and four children.
Murray said he’s not always been a fan of politics but felt the need to get involved because he’s grown increasingly disenchanted with the country’s state of affairs.
“To be clear, I hated politics,” he said. “It felt like it wasn’t for me. All the leaders that we saw were out of touch and old guys in distant places doing God knows what.
“Frankly not a fan of politics or most politicians,” he said.
But as a real estate developer, he’s gotten a taste of politics and how it can be necessary to get things done to better the community.
“I’m concerned our communities are being abandoned by politicians who don’t work for us,” he said.
“We’ve seen too many of our communities forgotten about. Look at the migration patterns and the fact that a lot of our communities are declining in population and investment.
“We’re not going to tolerate that. We really need to invest in the things that we love. We need to invest in people. We need to invest in solutions, and we need to invest in our community,” he said.
“I’m fired up to go to Washington and advocate for my community and for all Kansans,” he said. “I think I’m at the right place at the right time.”
Last year, the Unified Government of Wyandotte County and Kansas City, Kansas, picked Murray’s firm, Eastside Innovation Kansas, to redevelop the former Indian Springs mall site.
The $700 million proposal is a joint venture between Eastside Innovation and Arnold Development Group, a Kansas City, Missouri-based housing developer.
The plan calls for 1,500 new residences, including 1,475 apartments, 63 single-family homes and 150 townhomes.
Additionally, there will be 200,000 square feet of commercial space, a lifestyle hotel and conference center, and an innovation hub.
Another firm where Murray is cofounder and managing partner – Airside Innovation Missouri – has been chosen to develop the last 20 acres of available land at the Kansas City downtown airport.
The $55 million development will include a new fixed base operation, featuring a state-of-the-art, 15,000-square-foot terminal building and more than 150,000 square feet of new hangar, office and maintenance space designed to serve business, government and general aviation users.
For his part, Murray said he can a bring a background that integrates policy, community and investment.
One way to do that, he said, is through the use of the federal opportunity zones that provide tax incentives for private investors who put money into low-income census tracts. The One Big Beautiful Bill made changes in that law but added incentives for investments in rural areas.
“I don’t like all the fighting. I don’t like all the drama, all the culture war,” he said. “People want solutions. In order to solve anything, you’ve got to work together, you’ve got to find a common goal and you’ve got to get all the pieces in a row.
“Investors without community support don’t work. Community support without investors doesn’t work. Both of those without smart policy don’t work. I understand how to bring policy, community and investment together.”
