GRAND RAPIDS, Mich. — A field of four candidates in the Grand Rapids mayoral race will be narrowed down to two after the polls close on Aug. 6.
The top two vote getters in the primary election will faceoff against each other in the general election in November with the winner becoming the next Mayor of Grand Rapids in 2025.
Senita Lenear, Steve Owens, David LaGrand and Hailey Lynch-Bastion will all appear on the ballot for the nonpartisan position of mayor.
Current Grand Rapids Mayor Rosalynn Bliss is finishing her second and final term in the position at the end of the year.
Before casting your ballot, take a few minutes and get to know the four candidates for Mayor of Grand Rapids.
Senita Lenear
Senita Lenear is the former Third Ward Commissioner who say on the city commission from 2014 to 2022. Lenear announced her candidacy for the Mayor of Grand Rapids in November of 2023.
She and her husband are both owners of non-profit Genesis Consulting Group, coordinating public and private events.
Lenear also has served on the Great Housing Strategies committee, Kent County’s Friend of the Court and Lead Task Forces and served as chairwoman of the Mayor’s Safe Alliance for Everyone (SAFE) Task Force.
Campaign website: SenitaForMayor.com
Steve Owens
Steve Owens is a Grand Rapids native who served two tours in Afghanistan during his time in the Marine Corps after graduating from West Catholic High School in 2007.
Owens said he also served as an analyst in the Appellate Courts within the Federal Judiciary for four years.
Campaign Website: Owens4GR.com
David LaGrand
David LaGrand served as a state representative between 2015 and 2023 after winning a special election for the 75th District seat.
LaGrand also previously served on the Grand Rapids City Commission and Grand Rapids Public School Board.
LaGrand was born in Grand Rapids and is a Calvin College Graduate. As an attorney, LaGrand was also an assistant Kent County Prosecutor.
He is also the owner and manager of Long Road Distillers and other West Michigan businesses.
Campaign website: DavidLaGrand.com
Hailey Lynch-Bastion
Hailey Lynch-Bastion defines themself as an artist, philosopher and the future mayor of Grand Rapids.
Lynch-Bastion is a Grand Rapids native who received their high school GRD through Heartside Ministries.
Campaign website: HLB2024.com
13 ON YOUR SIDE asked each candidate the same four questions regarding their mayoral bid:
1. What is your experience?
Senita Lenear
"I have served on the school board for the Grand Rapids Public Schools. Served as president of the school board for a couple of years. I also served as the Third Ward Commissioner for the city of Grands rapids," Lenear said. "I did not go to the City Commission with the aspiration of running for mayor, but while serving- the opportunity, as I was, seeing how government at the city level, how it's run, and some of the obstacles that exist, as well as the opportunities, I thought this would be a great opportunity for me, then to expand on some of the work that had been done in the Third Ward across the entire city."
David LaGrand
"My experience is living as a citizen of Grand Rapids. I love the city, and I want to make it better," LaGrand said. "Now. What have I done in my life? Spent a lot of my time in the Justice space. I've spent a lot of my time building businesses and neighborhoods that improve those neighborhoods, and I've spent a lot of my time in public service and government."
"I started for friends coffee house back in the day with my wife and some friends. Started wealthy street bakery and Hall Street bakery, and then long road distillers, and so all of those have been sort of anchor investments in neighborhoods, and I'm proud of that," LaGrand added. "I was also a prosecutor for seven years, and so I've done a lot of work in the law enforcement space and went on to do a lot of work on criminal justice reform in Lansing, and that's part of the public service thing."
"I was a city commissioner, and I was on school board, and then I was in Lansing for three and a half terms, working in Lansing, and now I'm running for this," LaGrand concluded.
Hailey Lynch-Bastion
"Having seen and suffered firsthand due to the effects of our overarching cultural, social, and economic policies; being wiser than most, I concluded that I must try and assist my fellow humans - as mayor," Lynch-Bastion said. "In short, in any way that might be most efficacious for my cause at any given moment. In particular have I chosen the role of mayor due to the visibility afforded to my message, it's location in terms of social symbol construction, and ability to access a wide variety of cultures both in our city and beyond."
13 ON YOUR SIDE reached out to candidate Steve Owens, who has not responded at the time of publication.
2. Why do you believe you are the best pick?
Senita Lenear
"Here's who I am. I'm Senita Lenear. I am a wife of the Reverend Dallas Lenear. I'm a mother. I am a business owner. I'm a Creston polar bear," Lenear said. "I am a business owner of a couple small businesses in the City of Grand Rapids, and I'm passionate about civic engagement and civic service."
"What I would like to do is take my, you know, corporate experience... over 14 years, climbing that ladder, working in human resources and business management... I also was a union steward in the corporation at some point. So I have a variety of knowledge, a variety of experience that has proven to be valuable while serving in public office," Lenear added.
"I'd like to just go back to the city of Grand Rapids, and again, just expand on some of the things that were I was passionate about as a commissioner." Lenear said. "I've been doing these neighborhood connections across the city, I'm hearing a lot of feedback about the things that people also desire, and I'd like to definitely take those ideas with me as I serve as mayor."
David LaGrand
"I don't really think about it in those terms. I think, what can I do best for the city? So there are a lot of things I'm excited to work on," LaGrand said.
"I'm very proud of the fact that Rosalind bliss, our current mayor has endorsed me, and George Hartwell, our former mayor has endorsed me, and everyone from the Kent County Black Caucus to environmental groups and various other groups in the community," LaGrand said. "But at the end of the day, the only reason to vote for anyone, as far as I'm concerned, is look at what they've done in the past. Look what they hope to do in in office, and how they operate, and based on their past performance, do you think they'll be able to do those things that they are hoping to do?"
"You look at people's track record, it's not, it's not a lifetime service award. It's an indication of whether you're going to be able to be able to effectively deliver going forward," LaGrand added. "I've gotten transformative things done in the state, and I got transformative things done when I was on school board and on City Commission. And so I think that I can do transformative work in the city."
Hailey Lynch-Bastion
"For the past 6 years i have been studying the psychologies, philosophies, religions, myths, and politics of the world," Lynch-Bastion said. "While it may be easy to dismiss me as a attention-seeking lunatic due to my appearance and unconventional manner of expression, i am easily the most cosmopolitan of the candidates, able to pull from any number of conceptual frameworks to deploy in the service of the people of grand rapids."
"Simultaneously, i am also the most similar to the average 9-5 worker of the city, and therefore have the same overarching concerns," Lynch-Bastion added. "Rent going up, insurance costs, paying the ever-piling bills, my children's education, etc. - as the vast majority of the people."
13 ON YOUR SIDE reached out to candidate Owens but has not heard back at time of publication.
3. What do you believe are the three key issues in the city of Grand Rapids?
Senita Lenear
"I don't think it's just three. And the thing about the issues are, sometimes those issues are opportunities," Lenear said. "I would say a lot of the grand action 2.0 projects, so the large projects like the soccer stadium and the amphitheater and things of that nature. So that has my attention... we want to make sure that, as we're building out these major projects that we're thinking about inclusion, so that people do feel... that they can come downtown."
"I think the other thing is just culture, and it's probably tied a lot to what I was just expressing," Lenear said. "Grand Rapids has made some really nice lists about how great it is to be here, but we've also made some lists where it's where we have been known to not be so great for some segment of our community."
"We really need to take a deeper dive into why those things exist, and create policies so that then we can get off those negative lists and, you know, fulfill the vision of our city, making sure that we're a welcoming community for all who live here," Lenear added.
"Another thing is economic development, I would also add housing to this and being able to figure out a way to make sure that there we have thriving business districts again across the entire city," Lenear said.
David LaGrand
"There's pretty broad consensus that one big issue that we have to work on is justice and policing. People absolutely have a right to safety in the community, but the community also has a right to feel like it's being treated safely while we're doing the work of public safety. And so there's that's two sides to that coin. It's a complicated issue, and there's real work to do there, but I'm excited to work on that, because that's really my background."
"Second big issue is housing affordability and the unhoused population. Everybody knows that's a problem. Again, it's time we stop talking about it and roll up our sleeves and really start taking action," LaGrand said. "So excited to work on that, been meeting a lot with a lot of stakeholders, a lot of people who have vision, and we have to sort of distill that vision down and then take action."
"Third big issue is Neighborhood Improvement, and that's something that I have a lot of life experience in," LaGrand said. "I mean, it's good that we have a solid downtown, but cities are only collections of neighborhoods, and I want to live in the city because I want to live in a neighborhood that I enjoy and that I find rewarding and around people I like to hang around with, and so building and improving solid neighborhoods is probably my third priority."
Hailey Lynch-Bastion
"How many times do i have to say that i am sickened by our allowance of our brothers and sisters to starve and sizzle on the street?" Lynch-Bastion said. "It feels redundant. I simply mention that we have the resources to address such concerns already - subtly implying that you're all monsters for having not done so yet - and for some reason I am called a mental patient - as if that matters - by people who themselves clearly need psychiatric assistance; this is not a slight, but a diagnosis of hysteria. I aim to offer the beginning steps of mental rectification to the entire city, free of charge."
13 ON YOUR SIDE reached out to candidate Owens but has not heard back at time of publication.
4. How do you plan to fix them?
Senita Lenear
"I've been hosting what we've what we're calling neighborhood connections. So I've hosted probably nine of them now across the city, in different wards, to engage people where they meet and where they gather," Lenear said. "I've been to laundromats. I've been to cousin's Chicken Shack. You know, I've been to coffee shops and engaging with people and hearing their ideas, and so it's that kind of engagement that I will take with me as I serve as mayor."
"My experience, having worked on the South Town Corridor Improvement authority... helping them with facade improvements and things of that nature, is helping those smaller neighborhood business districts to thrive and look and mirror some of the activity that you can see downtown."
"We need to expand that even further, because there are some neighborhood business districts that don't have a Corridor Improvement authority that's tied to them," Lenear said. "I think diversifying and making sure that we're looking at housing holistically... we need our neighboring municipalities to be on board. We need to engage with them to see what opportunities they have."
"We also need to be thinking about missing middle housing, because those are some of the gaps that we are seeing in housing," Lanear concluded. "It takes a diverse mix of housing to address our housing crisis."
David LaGrand
"I think all too often people in public policy spend a penny when they should be spending $1 and then. Pat themselves on the back," LaGrand said. "The scale of our housing problem is really big, and being identified and identifying and being honest about the scale of that problem is big."
"Complex problems, take complex solutions. Housing, for example, is a continent-wide problem. If it was an easy thing to have resolved, someone would have done it already," LaGrand added. "At the same time, there are best practices, like Houston is doing really well on the issue of housing. So we should learn. We should look at Houston and learn from it, but there are a million other places to look and so getting input from citizens is really important."
"We're in a post covid moment when a lot of kids have been sort of told by doing school at home for a few years, oh, it doesn't really matter if you go to school. Well, it really does," LaGrand added. "Partnering with schools to make sure that kids are in the classrooms is part of actually how we deliver safety and how we make the community stable.
"I think too often it's easy in government to think, let's hire a person who can solve X for us, instead of thinking, what resources do we have in the community?" LaGrand concluded. "Who do we have out there with deep expertise who can lead us and put us down the right path."
Hailey Lynch-Bastion
"In large part, the reallocation of misused city funds toward quality of life increases, starting from the very bottom up," Lynch-Bastion said. "I think it's egregious to the point of hilarity that the police are supposed to receive $18,000,000 next year, far surpassing any other budgetary requirement."
"As regards the psychological issues described above, it shall begin with introducing different theoretical ways of living to the people," Lynch-Bastion added. "That their imagination may open up once more as to the possibilities of existence and see a few flaws within that structure they cling to so intensely."
13 ON YOUR SIDE reached out to candidate Owens but has not heard back at time of publication.