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David LaGrand (Mayor of Grand Rapids, Michigan, candidate 2024)
From Ballotpedia
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David LaGrand ran for election to the Mayor of Grand Rapids in Michigan. He was on the ballot in the general election on November 5, 2024.[source]
LaGrand completed Ballotpedia's Candidate Connection survey in 2024. Click here to read the survey answers.
[1]Biography
David LaGrand provided the following biographical information via Ballotpedia's Candidate Connection survey on August 3, 2024:
- Birth date: August 13, 1966
- Birth place: Grand Rapids, Michigan
- Bachelor's: Calvin College, 1988
- J.D.: University of Chicago - Law School, 1992
- Gender: Male
- Profession: Attorney / Business Owner
- Incumbent officeholder: No
- Campaign website
- Campaign Facebook
- Campaign Instagram
- Campaign Twitter
Elections
General election
General election for Mayor of Grand Rapids
David LaGrand and Senita Lenear ran in the general election for Mayor of Grand Rapids on November 5, 2024.
Candidate | ||
David LaGrand (Nonpartisan)  | ||
| Senita Lenear (Nonpartisan) | ||
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| = candidate completed the Ballotpedia Candidate Connection survey. | ||||
| If you are a candidate and would like to tell readers and voters more about why they should vote for you, complete the Ballotpedia Candidate Connection Survey. | ||||
Nonpartisan primary election
Nonpartisan primary for Mayor of Grand Rapids
David LaGrand, Senita Lenear, Hailey Lynch-Bastion, and Steve Owens ran in the primary for Mayor of Grand Rapids on August 6, 2024.
Candidate | ||
| David LaGrand (Nonpartisan) | ||
| Senita Lenear (Nonpartisan) | ||
| Hailey Lynch-Bastion (Nonpartisan) | ||
| Steve Owens (Nonpartisan) | ||
| ||||
| = candidate completed the Ballotpedia Candidate Connection survey. | ||||
| If you are a candidate and would like to tell readers and voters more about why they should vote for you, complete the Ballotpedia Candidate Connection Survey. | ||||
Election results
Endorsements
Campaign themes
Ballotpedia survey responses
See also: Ballotpedia's Candidate Connection
David LaGrand completed Ballotpedia's Candidate Connection survey in 2024. The survey questions appear in bold and are followed by LaGrand's responses. Candidates are asked three required questions for this survey, but they may answer additional optional questions as well.
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David LaGrand is running for Mayor of Grand Rapids to continue making our community better for everyone. The son of a minister and teacher, David was born in Grand Rapids and went to school here. David and his wife Melissa raised their children in Grand Rapids and are invested in the community by opening several small businesses, including Four Friends Coffee House, the Wealthy & Hall Street Bakeries, and Long Road Distillers. Most recently, David served as a State Representative for the 75th District, and he has previously served as an Assistant Kent County Prosecutor, a City Commissioner, a Grand Rapids Public School Board member. David is committed to working for everyone in our city.
- Grand Rapids has a diverse population with very different experiences of policing and justice delivery. We need to stregthen community policing and enforce laws equally while building a culture of trust between citizens and law enforcement. Key areas of focus will be reforming city codes, improving hiring practices and training, and building better policing policies, as well as supporting both the police officers who work in the community and the communities served.
- Develop and implement broad-based funded, sustainable policies, which will create affordable housing in Grand Rapids and the region, while addressing the persistent root causes of homelessness and supporting the unhoused. This strategy will involve funding, zoning and regulation reform, and infrastructure improvements to make neighborhoods stronger, vibrant, and sources of jobs for community members.
- America is experiencing a crisis of trust in government. It is critical that elected officials work to restore trust. Grand Rapids should become a model for transparency and disclosure, and better participatory models of policy making. David intends to implement financial disclosure requirements for all city elected officials, make department, fiscal, and performance audits publicly available, and convene weekly townhalls around key policy topics. Additionally, Grand Rapids should have a policy banning elected officials from controlling private charities, which they can use for their own benefit.
David's life's work has been centered around justice. America's criminal justice system is in desperate need of reform, so that our laws truly apply equally regardless of wealth, race, or background. I'm an advocate of Restorative Justice, which is a victim-centered response to crimes that focuses on healing and strengthening community. Strong communities depend on safety and education. David is also passionate about delivering good educational opportunities to everyone in our community.
David looks up to Jesus, Jimmy Carter, Abraham Lincoln, his father, and about 50% of the people he meets.
Wendell Berry is David's favorite political thinker, Lord of the Rings, and the New Testament. Howard Zehr's Changing Lenses. Or, check David's personal Facebook page to see his musings on his latest readings.
Politicians should always be focused on human thriving, and strong community above all. The most important principal for any politician should be integrity, and a willingness to lose the next election in order to make progress for citizens today.
Elected officials should also always consider themselves conduits for the will of the people, and not individuals with power. We elect individuals only because direct democracy is too hard in all circumstances, all voices need to be heard not just the loudest, the most persistent, or the most resourced.
It means listening, thinking, consulting, and doing one's best to find collaborative consensus for improvements for citizens' lives and then implementing them.
The Mayor and colleagues on the City Commission should set vision and policy for the City and implement those policies. The City Manager should manage day-to-day operations of city staff.
When challenged, Grand Rapids citizens tend to be generous, empathetic, willing to work for the common good, and reluctant to take credit.
See above. Improvements in justice in the City, providing housing, and building governance that will be a model for clean, transparent, participatory democracy for the nation.
Close and constant collaboration. David's years as a state representative have positioned him well to continue to adovocate with his colleagues in the state legislature on issues that can improve the lives of Grand Rapidians and the citizens of the state as a whole.
See above. David has a close working relationship with our federal elected officials.
Constant collaboration with a view to continuous improvement in delivery of public safety.
Mayor Rosalynn Bliss, Former Mayor George Heartwell, Kent County Black Caucus, Grand Rapids Firefighter Local #366, Sierra Club, Moms Demand Action, Friends of Slow Streets. See DavidLaGrand.com/endorsements for more!
Top priority for David. He led the work to require financial disclosure at the state level in Michigan. See previous answer. Restoring trust in government is necessary to preserve our democracy, and is an actual crisis at the current time.
Note: Ballotpedia reserves the right to edit Candidate Connection survey responses. Any edits made by Ballotpedia will be clearly marked with [brackets] for the public. If the candidate disagrees with an edit, he or she may request the full removal of the survey response from Ballotpedia.org. Ballotpedia does not edit or correct typographical errors unless the candidate's campaign requests it.
See also
2024 Elections
External links
Footnotes
