Mayoral election in Lansing, Michigan (2025)
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← 2021
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| 2025 Lansing elections |
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| Election dates |
| Filing deadline: April 22, 2025, July 25, 2025 (primary write-in), & October 24, 2025 (general write-in) |
| Primary election: August 5, 2025 General election: November 4, 2025 |
| Election stats |
| Offices up: Mayor |
| Total seats up: 1 (click here for other city elections) |
| Other municipal elections |
| U.S. municipal elections, 2025 |
The city of Lansing, Michigan, held a general election for mayor on November 4, 2025. A primary was scheduled for August 5, 2025. The filing deadline for this election was April 22, 2025, and the withdrawal deadline was April 25, 2025. The write-in candidate filing deadline for the primary was July 25, 2025, and the write-in candidate filing deadline for the general election was October 24, 2025.
As of 2025, Lansing did not have term limits for the position of mayor. Mayors served a four-year term.
Ballotpedia comprehensively covers the 100 largest cities in the United States by population. Our coverage also includes mayors, city councils, and district attorneys in the 32 state capitals that are not already part of our largest cities coverage. Please note that there may have been more offices on the ballot in this capital city than what is listed on this page.
Elections
Click on the tabs below to show more information about those topics.
Candidates and results
General election
General election for Mayor of Lansing
Incumbent Andy Schor defeated Kelsea Hector, Brett Brockschmidt, and Owen Witte in the general election for Mayor of Lansing on November 4, 2025.
Candidate | % | Votes | ||
| ✔ |  | Andy Schor (Nonpartisan) | 65.9 | 12,883 |
| Kelsea Hector (Nonpartisan) | 33.1 | 6,465 | ||
Brett Brockschmidt (Nonpartisan) (Write-in)  | 0.1 | 26 | ||
| Owen Witte (Nonpartisan) (Write-in) | 0.0 | 0 | ||
| Other/Write-in votes | 0.8 | 166 | ||
| Total votes: 19,540 | |||
| = 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. | ||||
Do you want a spreadsheet of this type of data? Contact our sales team. | ||||
Nonpartisan primary election
Nonpartisan primary for Mayor of Lansing
Incumbent Andy Schor and Kelsea Hector defeated Jeffrey Brown, Brett Brockschmidt, and David Ellis in the primary for Mayor of Lansing on August 5, 2025.
Candidate | % | Votes | ||
| ✔ | | Andy Schor (Nonpartisan) | 63.4 | 9,233 |
| ✔ | Kelsea Hector (Nonpartisan) | 15.9 | 2,313 | |
| Jeffrey Brown (Nonpartisan) | 8.4 | 1,228 | ||
| Brett Brockschmidt (Nonpartisan) | 7.6 | 1,105 | ||
 | David Ellis (Nonpartisan) | 4.1 | 597 | |
| Other/Write-in votes | 0.6 | 90 | ||
| Total votes: 14,566 | |||
| = 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. | ||||
Do you want a spreadsheet of this type of data? Contact our sales team. | ||||
Withdrawn or disqualified candidates
- Maria Koutsoukos (Nonpartisan)
Additional elections on the ballot
- See also: Michigan elections, 2025
August 5, 2025
- City elections in Lansing, Michigan (2025)
- Lansing, Michigan, Property Tax Renewal for Parks and Recreation System Measure (August 2025)
November 4, 2025
Ballotpedia's Candidate Connection survey responses
Ballotpedia asks all federal, state, and local candidates to complete a survey and share what motivates them on political and personal levels. The section below shows responses from candidates in this race who completed Ballotpedia's Candidate Connection survey. Candidates are asked three required questions for this survey, but they may answer additional optional questions as well.
Survey responses from candidates in this race
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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.
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Brett Brockschmidt (Nonpartisan)
It’s time to CUT Lansing budgets, focusing on FULLY staffing NECESSARY services. Far too many vacancies in CRUCIAL departments (fire, police, parks, sanitation, street cleaning/plowing), go unfilled, despite annual promises to fill them & the money budgeted for those jobs then frivolously spent elsewhere.
For 8 years, Schor has promised to fill the $1.5 MILLION in budgeted LFD (3), LPD (25) + park & sanitation vacancies; instead using the money on his own bloated staff & pet projects. THIS (election) year, the council added 2 more LFD positions, (plus a financial analyst for their own staff), which will likely also not be filled, meaning another $250k will likely disappear into the budget, from what was supposed to be a “contingency fund” (storm clean-up?); AND robbed the “rainy day fund” of yet another &130k for a sustainability grant writer. I’m not opposed to sustainability, BUT, considering, we have yet to onboard the 3 positions from the Bloomberg Grant, this position is redundant.
Lansing wastes $150,000 on each "off-year" election, AND, due to voter apathy, oft burdens us with mediocre city officials elected by only 15% of voters.
Dollars are also wasted on: "planning & development" for things we can't afford, subsidizing failing businesses via "façade grants,” unnecessary new buildings, & other "feel good" projects; pandering to small constituencies & big donors.
Brett Brockschmidt (Nonpartisan)
Brett Brockschmidt (Nonpartisan)
Brett Brockschmidt (Nonpartisan)
Brett Brockschmidt (Nonpartisan)
Brett Brockschmidt (Nonpartisan)
Brett Brockschmidt (Nonpartisan)
Brett Brockschmidt (Nonpartisan)
Brett Brockschmidt (Nonpartisan)
Brett Brockschmidt (Nonpartisan)
Brett Brockschmidt (Nonpartisan)
Brett Brockschmidt (Nonpartisan)
Brett Brockschmidt (Nonpartisan)
Brett Brockschmidt (Nonpartisan)
Brett Brockschmidt (Nonpartisan)
Brett Brockschmidt (Nonpartisan)
Brett Brockschmidt (Nonpartisan)
Brett Brockschmidt (Nonpartisan)
Brett Brockschmidt (Nonpartisan)
Candidate profiles
This section includes candidate profiles that may be created in one of two ways: either the candidate completed Ballotpedia's Candidate Connection survey, or Ballotpedia staff may compile a profile based on campaign websites, advertisements, and public statements after identifying the candidate as noteworthy. For more on how we select candidates to include, click here.
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Incumbent: No
Submitted Biography: "I've been a poll worker for 20 years, 15 in San Francisco (5 years as Precinct Captain), & 5 years as a Poll Inspector here in Lansing. I've also worked for other people's campaigns, and normally prefer to be in the background, but felt so strongly about Schor's poor leadership, about how many people seemed to want change, and the lack of competent opponents, that I joined the race. I've always championed underdogs, & those less fortunate than myself. I came from a lower middle class family, & had to work my way through college, luckily in a unionized meat-packing plant. I've worked hard for what I have, & know how hard life can be for those with lower incomes. I was born & raised in Grand Rapids, MI. I hold a degree in Financial administration from MSU, also had enough credits for a degree in Economics, or Philosophy. I worked for multiple large corporations in management positions, including Air Freight, Manufacturing, Securities Compliance & Project Management at BofA; then, tired of corporate politics, then spent 20 years in small business consulting, in San Francisco. After retiring, I returned to Lansing, having fallen in love with the city while at MSU. For the last 5 years, I've lived in & am renovating my Eastside duplex. I am striving to make my home, my tenants home, and Lansing a better place in which to live, I may be a landlord, but, having lived in some real sh*tholes in my youth, am no fan of slumlords."
This information was current as of the candidate's run for Mayor of Lansing in 2025.
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Mayoral partisanship
Lansing has a Democratic mayor. As of January 2026, the mayors of 33 state capitals are affiliated with the Democratic Party, seven are Republicans, two are independents, and two are nonpartisan. The partisan affiliation of six state capital mayors is unknown. While most mayoral elections in state capital cities are nonpartisan, most officeholders are affiliated with a political party.
Help inform our readers
Take our candidate survey
- See also: Survey
At Ballotpedia, we believe that everyone deserves meaningful, reliable, trustworthy information about their candidates. We also know that good information—especially at the local level—is hard to find. That's why Ballotpedia created Candidate Connection.
We ask all federal, state, and local candidates to complete a survey and share what motivates them on political and personal levels. Our survey helps voters better understand how their candidates think about the world and how they intend to govern—information they need to feel confident they're picking the best person for the role.
If you are a candidate, take our survey here. Or you can ask a candidate to take the survey by sharing the link with them.
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About the city
- See also: Lansing, Michigan
Lansing is a city in Ingham County, Michigan. As of 2020, its population was 112,644.
City government
- See also: Mayor-council government
The city of Lansing utilizes a strong mayor and city council system. In this form of municipal government, the city council serves as the city's primary legislative body and the mayor serves as the city's chief executive.[1]
Demographics
The following table displays demographic data provided by the United States Census Bureau.
| Demographic Data for Lansing, Michigan | ||
|---|---|---|
| Lansing | Michigan | |
| Population | 112,644 | 10,077,331 |
| Land area (sq mi) | 39 | 56,609 |
| Race and ethnicity** | ||
| White | 60.9% | 77.6% |
| Black/African American | 23.4% | 13.6% |
| Asian | 4.7% | 3.2% |
| Native American | 0.7% | 0.5% |
| Pacific Islander | 0% | 0% |
| Other (single race) | N/A | 1.3% |
| Multiple | 8.1% | 3.8% |
| Hispanic/Latino | 13% | 5.2% |
| Education | ||
| High school graduation rate | 90.3% | 91.3% |
| College graduation rate | 26.3% | 30% |
| Income | ||
| Median household income | $44,233 | $59,234 |
| Persons below poverty level | 22.7% | 13.7% |
| Source: population provided by U.S. Census Bureau, "Decennial Census" (2020). Other figures provided by U.S. Census Bureau, "American Community Survey" (5-year estimates 2015-2020). | ||
| **Note: Percentages for race and ethnicity may add up to more than 100 percent because respondents may report more than one race and the Hispanic/Latino ethnicity may be selected in conjunction with any race. Read more about race and ethnicity in the census here. | ||
See also
| Lansing, Michigan | Michigan | Municipal government | Other local coverage |
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External links
Footnotes
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