KANSAS CITY, Mo. — A child is dead after being struck by an Amazon delivery vehicle Monday night in Kansas City.

The Kansas City Police Department responded to the incident just before 6:30 p.m. in the area of East Missouri Avenue and Lexington Avenue in Kansas City’s Historic Northeast neighborhood.

Preliminary investigation indicates that a marked Amazon delivery vehicle had just completed a package delivery in the area. Police said after the delivery, the driver of the vehicle began traveling westbound on East 3rd Terrace toward Woodland Avenue.

Police said at the same time, a child, under the age of 5, was playing in a grassy area of a nearby public park. The child entered the roadway and was struck by the Amazon delivery vehicle.

The Amazon driver initially stopped at the scene but left before officers arrived, according to police.

Police said a family member attempted to follow the Amazon vehicle and inform the driver of what had happened. The driver denied involvement and left the area.

The child was pronounced dead as a result of the injuries, according to police.

Kansas City police said the investigation remains active and ongoing.

President Donald Trump’s campaign to politically punish Republicans who stand in his way moves through Indiana on Tuesday, when seven state senators face Trump-backed primary challengers.

In neighboring Ohio, primaries for U.S. Senate and governor will lock in the candidates for two major races with national implications.

And in Michigan, voters in a bellwether district will fill a vacancy in the state Senate, a race with implications for the balance of power in a battleground state.

Here’s what to watch for.

How strong is Trump’s grip on the Republican Party?

Trump is taking aim at seven Republican state senators in Indiana who opposed his plan to redraw congressional district boundaries to help the party gain seats in the U.S. House.

Groups allied with the president have spent millions on advertising, an extraordinary flood of cash and attention into races that are typically low profile.

The races are a test of Trump’s enduring grip over his party as Republicans grow increasingly anxious about the midterm elections in November.

The results will signal to Republicans everywhere about how big a price they’ll pay with their voters if they distance themselves from Trump even as his popularity fades. And it will show the president whether he can still credibly threaten consequences for Republicans who cross him.

The Trump-targeted state senators all represent districts he carried in 2024, mostly by 20 percentage points or more.

The key races to watch are districts 1, 11, 19, 21, 23, 38 and 41.

Ohio races get started in earnest

The state’s primary is the wind up to the big show. Although Ohio has become increasingly conservative, Democrats believe their path back to a U.S. Senate majority runs through the state.

They’re putting their hopes behind former Sen. Sherrod Brown, who lost Ohio’s other Senate seat to Bernie Moreno in 2024.

He’s expected to face off with Republican Sen. Jon Husted, who was appointed last year to fill the vacancy created when JD Vance became vice president.

The race is a special election to fill the last two years of Vance’s term.

In the campaign for governor, Republican Vivek Ramaswamy has parlayed his national name recognition, tech industry connections and alliance with Trump into a record fundraising haul. He’s largely ignoring Republican rival Casey Putsch, focusing his rallies and television ads on the general election.

An engineer and vehicle designer who calls himself “The Car Guy,” Putsch has attracted fans with provocative YouTube videos that troll Ramaswamy and criticize national Republicans over their handling of the Epstein files, positions on energy-guzzling data centers and support for Israel.

Amy Acton, Ohio’s former public health director, is running unopposed for the Democratic nomination. She played a key role in the state’s response to the COVID-19 pandemic.

Will Democrats sweep another special election?

The special election for a state Senate seat in central Michigan carries outsized importance.

It’s another test of enthusiasm in a series of special elections that have swung almost universally toward Democrats since Trump returned to the White House. It also could affect the balance of power in the Michigan State Capitol. A Democratic victory would give the party a firm majority in the state Senate, while a Republican win would deadlock the chamber in a 19-19 tie.

The district is closely matched. Democrat Kamala Harris beat Trump there by less than 1 point in the 2024 presidential election.

The seat has been vacant for more than a year, since Democrat Kristen McDonald Rivet resigned to take a seat in Congress.

Democrats are showing surprising strength in special elections and off-year contests across the country, winning races in unexpected places and significantly narrowing the gap, even when they fall short.

There’s no guarantee the trend will continue through the midterms, when turnout will be much higher, but it has nonetheless energized Democrats and spooked Republicans worried about keeping their congressional majorities.

The outer edges of the Twin Cities are booming with new places to live. 

So far this decade, the Twin Cities metro has, on average, added about 17,000 housing units per year, according to data from the Metropolitan Council. That includes homes, condos and apartments.

If you go by total housing units added, at the top of the list is Lakeville, a city growing so fast it put a pause on accepting new building permits. It has added 4,861 units from 2020 to 2025.

It’s followed in order by Woodbury (4,271 units), Maple Grove (3,599 units), Rosemount (3,186 units), Cottage Grove (2,279 units) and Blaine (2,677).

“Those suburban edge communities have the land supply, and they have the infrastructure, and the connection to the metro,” Todd Graham, the Metropolitan Council’s principal forecaster, explained.

Space to add homes and infrastructure to handle the growth, all while staying within the metro bubble, is why developers are targeting those communities.

Cottage Grove has been adding about 287 homes a year this decade, but the mayor tells us of a new trend. 

“What’s changing is we are seeing additional multifamily apartments, higher density,” said Myron Bailey. “And then we’re putting a little bit more focus on some affordability options, especially around our business park.”

Which suburbs will grow the most in the future?

If you go by population, Blaine and Maple Grove are forecasted to add about 20,000 people each from 2020 to 2050.

But if you go by percentage, two communities stand out. Corcoran in Hennepin County is expected to more than triple its population from 6,185 in 2020 to 19,600 in 2050. Carver in Carver County will see its population nearly triple from 5,241 in 2020 to 14,900 in 2050.

“We’re planning for it in the City of Carver. We have a long-term financial plan, we have a strategic plan, we have a comprehensive plan,” said Carver Mayor Courtney Johnson.

For example, new builds will push the limits of Carver’s current water treatment plant sometime in the next decade. 

“We are already thinking about where and how we’re going to build a new one to expand our capacity to bring fresh water into homes,” she said.

Cottage Grove is building a second water tower right now on the west side of Highway 61, with plans for a third in the future. The city also has ample space to add homes and businesses.

Carver, meanwhile, has a smaller footprint, but it has an agreement in place with the neighboring Dahlgren township.

“When the landowners in that community are approached by developers for homes or commercial, they would then become part of the City of Carver, and then our boundary area would expand,” said Johnson.

Corcoran’s boundaries are the opposite of Carver’s. The town covers just under 36 square miles, making its land size similar to Maple Grove and Plymouth. Most of it still consists of farmland, prairies and wooded areas with home developments spread throughout.

A spokesperson for Corcoran told WCCO that new developments will be focused on the eastern third of the city, where growth can be best supported. That includes a new water tower and water treatment plant in the city’s northeast district.

With more neighborhoods and people come a need for more entertainment, dining and shopping. Bailey said that’s becoming apparent in his community.

“The biggest complaint that I get is we don’t have enough restaurants or retail in our community. So, that’s been frankly one of the things that I’ve been trying to work on,” said Bailey.

One element of growth that is particularly challenging for smaller towns is maintaining their small-town image. Johnson said much of Carver’s development is happening on their western edge, where farmland is plentiful. The downtown area near the Minnesota River, however, will keep its historic charm. 

“We have one of the largest contiguous areas on the National Register of Historic Places. That’s never going to change, and we’re working really hard to maintain that area and promote our historic downtown,” she said.

Corcoran is taking a similar approach, balancing the need for growth while preserving the city’s existing character. Being a rural community is part of the city’s identity, meaning growth will have to happen in a “thoughtful and intentional way.”

Closer to the heart of the metro, cities like Edina and Bloomington are projected to add thousands of households over the next several decades. There’s very little space to build new subdivisions and homes, but that’s not where the growth is expected to happen. 

“They identify that they have land supply available for transition to either high-density apartments or mixed-use neighborhoods,” said Graham. 

That includes rezoning land initially developed for commercial property to allow for apartments and condos. 

“In the Southdale area, you’ve seen that there are apartment buildings going up and there are plans for more of that,” Graham said.

To see how your community in the Twin Cities is projected to grow by the year 2050, click here.