Joel Graves (Moses Lake City Council Position 5, Washington, candidate 2025)
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Joel Graves ran for election to the Moses Lake City Council Position 5 in Washington. He was on the ballot in the general election on November 4, 2025.[source]
Graves completed Ballotpedia's Candidate Connection survey in 2025. Click here to read the survey answers.
[1]Biography
Joel Graves provided the following biographical information via Ballotpedia's Candidate Connection survey on September 19, 2025:
- Birth date: September 5, 1987
- Birth place: Renton, Washington
- High school: Seattle Christian Schools
- Bachelor's: Western Washington University, 2009
- Graduate: University of Washington, 2019
- Gender: Male
- Religion: Christian
- Profession: Business Manager
- Incumbent officeholder: No
- Campaign slogan: #AllInForMosesLake
- Campaign website
- Campaign Facebook
Elections
General election
General election for Moses Lake City Council Position 5
Joel Graves and Jim Perez ran in the general election for Moses Lake City Council Position 5 on November 4, 2025.
Candidate | ||
 | Joel Graves (Nonpartisan)  | |
| Jim Perez (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. | ||||
Election results
Endorsements
Campaign themes
Ballotpedia survey responses
See also: Ballotpedia's Candidate Connection
Joel Graves completed Ballotpedia's Candidate Connection survey in 2025. The survey questions appear in bold and are followed by Graves' responses.
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I believe in the importance of building connections and serving my community, and I am actively involved in various local endeavors. I serve in children's ministry at Grace Harvest Church, and I take great pride in coaching my kids' soccer teams. Additionally, I serve as a policy board member of the NCW Tech Alliance, an advocacy organization which is helping to bridge the digital divide in our region. And I am a proud member of both the Rotary Club of Moses Lake and the Moses Lake Chamber of Commerce.
Professionally, I am a Senior Business Program Manager at Microsoft in the Global Customer Success organization, where I've worked since 2019. My prior experience includes working in the U.S. House of Representatives for Former Congresswoman Cathy McMorris Rodgers (2013-2015) and for the Washington Roundtable (2016-2019), a public policy organization representing Washington’s senior business leaders. I hold a Bachelor of Arts in Economics from Western Washington University and a Masters in Business Administration from the University of Washington.- Public Safety Keeping our community safe should be our #1 priority. Yet, according to Crimegrade.org, Moses Lake is in the 15th percentile for overall safety compared to other cities in Washington. This means it is less safe than 85% of cities in the U.S. Our people shouldn't fear being a victim of a violent crime when they're shopping at Safeway or visiting a park. I'll work to expand our investments in our law enforcement, making sure we have enough police officers to patrol and keep our community safe. I'll also work to tackle homelessness by helping and directing resources toward those who want it and enacting stricter measures to keep the homeless away from public areas and business storefronts.
- Affordability With our recent surge in population growth, we have a serious housing shortage in Moses Lake. We need to do more to enable faster construction of new homes, at all price points. If we don't make it easier for developers to build more homes in our area, it's going to impact our ability to attract new businesses and increase the number of family-wage jobs available to our city. We also need a City Council who will first look to reduce spending instead of looking first to raise taxes on our hardworking citizens. Affordability is one of the reasons many people are moving to Moses Lake. Let's keep it that way.
- Transparency We need to do a better job increasing transparency and communicating openly with citizens about why decisions are being made. Many voters I've talked to doubt that the Council is always making decisions in the best interest of the people — and a lot of this comes down to a lack of openness and transparency. A transparent and open government will help to rebuild trust between the Council and the city, as well as between the city and the public. To increase awareness and understanding about city issues, I've started the #AllInForMosesLake Video Series where I interview local leaders and community champions about issues that voters care about. I would commit to continuing that initiative as your City Councilmember.
In addition to the issues discussed above, I’m passionate about bringing innovation to city government and strengthening community spirit. Let’s modernize our systems, support entrepreneurs, and embrace new ideas. And let’s create more opportunities for connection—because a united, forward-thinking Moses Lake is a stronger Moses Lake.
Karen Liebrecht, Former Mayor, City of Moses Lake
David Eck, Former Councilmember, City of Moses Lake
Shannon Hintz, Former Board Member, Moses Lake School District
Matthew Lundh, Mayor, City of Cle Elum
Sue Kane, CEO, NCW Tech Alliance
Steve Mullin, President, Washington Roundtable
Pat & Judy Molitor
Amador & Lisa Castro
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.
Other survey responses
Ballotpedia identified the following surveys, interviews, and questionnaires Graves completed for other organizations. If you are aware of a link that should be added, email us.
See also
2025 Elections
External links
Footnotes
