Kansas Won the Chiefs.
Now It Needs That Same Spirit With Biotech.

A new stadium creates game-day revenue: a great day out, twice a month, for half a year. A biotech cluster creates careers — high-wage, year-round, generational. Thirty years from now, the stadium will need renovation. The innovation economy will still be hiring.

And here's the thing nobody wants to say out loud: A biotech economy doesn't depend on one team, one quarterback or one knee. That's not a knock on the Chiefs. It's a clarity about what we're actually building.

The Opportunity Is Already Here

In 2023, the Kansas City region received federal designation as a Tech Hub under the CHIPS and Science Act — specifically for advanced biologics and biomanufacturing. It's one of only 31 regions selected from nearly 400 applicants. The foundation is already visible: the University of Kansas Health System, Children's Mercy, Saint Luke's, and the KC Animal Health Corridor stretching across the region.

Then came the harder test. The KC BioHub consortium applied for $75 million in federal implementation funding, which required a 10% local match raised in roughly two months. It went down to the wire. The region needed coordinated public commitment to compete — and it didn't fully get it. The bid was submitted. And it failed.

Kansas's limited participation in the match-funding effort likely weakened the region's bid. Federal reviewers don't just evaluate ideas — they look at commitment. Kansas has taken some steps — a new Small Business Innovation Research matching program, a bioscience recruitment push — but those efforts remain fragmented and underscaled for what this moment requires.

That's not a failure of strategy. It's a sequencing problem, compounded by a decade of fiscal constraint. That work is done. Kansas has rebuilt its foundation. Now it needs to build on it.

The Window Is Open

The KC BioHub is competing in the current round of applications. There is still roughly $220 million in federal Tech Hub funding available to deploy. The window is open — but it won't stay open.

Tennessee built around Nashville. Texas scaled around Austin. Each benefited from concentrated, aligned investment over time. But Kansas City has something different: a legitimate partner across a state line ready to build something together. Most regions share an economy. Kansas City can share an economic policy. Two state treasuries making coordinated contributions can be more competitive than any single state acting alone.

The policy path is clear: commit matching funds to the KC BioHub's next federal application, and develop targeted biotech incentives that match Missouri's. This is not government picking winners — it is clearing the path for private capital to flow. This is entirely consistent with a pro-growth, pro-market approach to economic development.

Republican Kansas Sen. Jerry Moran backed the region's Tech Hub effort. Johnson County has one of the most educated workforces in America. Kansas has the federal designation. It has the partner. It has a live opportunity in front of it.

"The only thing missing is the decision to treat this like the Chiefs."

When the opportunity was a stadium, Kansas moved fast, put real money on the table and closed. Here, the approach has been conditional, incremental, and late. One wins headlines. The other wins the future.

Kansas won the Chiefs. The celebration is deserved.

Now win the future.

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Josh Dambacher is a Kansas native, lawyer, and spokesman for Republicans Overseas. He is a regular commentator on American politics for the BBC, CNN International, and GB News. His writing has appeared in the Kansas City Star and the Wichita Eagle. He writes at The Plains Ledger.

— J.D.