Here's who's running for Lansing City Council in a crowded field
LANSING — It may be a very busy campaign season this summer, with yard signs, mailers and other campaign activities deluging Lansing residents.
In addition to five candidates running for mayor, 15 people are seeking seats on Lansing's eight-member City Council.
Ten people are competing for two at-large seats on City Council in a packed race that could help shape the city for years to come.
Two of the city's four ward seats also are up for election, meaning half of the city's eight council seats could change.
It could be a significant change: No incumbents will take their own seat next year, however, two sitting council members could be re-elected to different seats.
Peter Spadafore, an at-large City Council member, is running for a Ward 4 seat being vacated by Jeffrey Brown, who is running for mayor. Jeremy Garza, the Ward 2 council member, is running for an at-large seat.
The at-large races and the Ward 4 race have enough candidates for an August primary election, the top four vote-getters in the at-large race will advance to November's election and the top two of the three candidates in Ward 4 will as well.
Wards 2 and 4 are the southeast and northwest quadrants of the city.
Voters will be able to begin voting in late June.
There are 10 candidates in total for the two slots. They include:
Nick Pigeon – A former executive director of the Michigan Campaign Finance Network and a musician, Pigeon said he is running for a more transparent and accountable government. He wants to pursue affordable housing, reduce exclusionary zoning and invest in public transit and infrastructure.
Olivia Vaden – President of the Southwest Action Group, a local neighborhood organization, Vaden is a queer Black woman who wants to fight for 'policies that create opportunity, promote justice, and ensure that everyone in our community is heard and valued.' Their priorities include housing, lifelong learning, transportation and the arts.
Jonah Stone – He is a forensic scientist for the Michigan State Police. He did not immediately respond to a phone message from the State Journal.
Jeremy Garza - A plumber and union official, Garza is a sitting City Council member looking to move from his Ward 2 seat to an at-large seat. He plans to focus on bread-and-butter priorities, putting regular people before special interests, and building a fair economy that works for everyone.
Tirstan Walters – Walters is a projects coordinator with the Michigan State Police and a member of the Lansing Parks Board. He wants to help build strong neighborhoods, improve housing options and support small businesses.
Julie Vandenboom – Vandenboom is a state government worker who has worked on policy analysis and planning and is a member of the Capital Area District Library board. She believes in community-driven changes and wants to work for better housing, more pedestrian-friendly efforts, sustainability and boosting local food production.
Clara Martinez – Martinez is a dance director at Everett High School and is her building's union representative. Her website says people-first policies – from trash pickup, safe streets and better infrastructure – are important and she plans to work on affordable housing and making sure every resident feels safe, valued and supported.
Miles Biel – Biel is a Consumers Energy waste specialist who wants to see improvements in housing and affordability and sees potential reforms to the Lansing Board of Water & Light.
Aurelius Christian - Christian is a development program coordinator with the Lansing Economic Development Corporation and a former member of the Ingham County Health Centers board.
Robin Jones - Jones filed Tuesday and did not immediately return a phone call from the State Journal.
Gloria Denning - Denning retired from a career of doing constituent services in the Michigan and U.S. Senates. She said she looks at things broadly to get the scope and in depth to find the solutions. She said she is a person of integrity, family and faith.
Heath Lowry - Lowry is an indigenous law attorney and policy specialist. He wants to focus on responsive local government, revitalizing economic corridors and having safe communities.
Peter Spadafore - Spadafore is a sitting at-large council member who is running for a ward seat. He aims to work with constituents, cut red tape and work block by block on issues like public safety, development, roads and parks.
Zacharie Spurlock - Spurlock, a bartender at American Fifth, said he will focus on local and neighborhood issues that are often ignored and he would work on constituent services.
Deyanira Nevarez Martinez, a Lansing School District board member, and Erik Almquist are running for the Ward 2 seat, which is being vacated by Garza, who is seeking an at-large seat.
Martinez and Almquist will advance to the November general election barring a successful write-in campaign by another candidate.
Contact Mike Ellis at mellis@lsj.com or 517-267-0415
This article originally appeared on Lansing State Journal: 15 file to run for Lansing City Council

Try Our AI Features
Explore what Daily8 AI can do for you:
Comments
No comments yet...
Related Articles
Yahoo
36 minutes ago
- Yahoo
City council eyeing changes to Sioux City fireworks ordinance
SIOUX CITY, Iowa (KCAU) — During Monday night's city council meeting, the city of Sioux City approved the first reading of changes that may soon be coming to the city's fireworks ordinance. The change would have the city's ordinance line up with the state of Iowa code on fireworks, expanding the number of hours fireworks can legally be discharged in Sioux City. 'We went from 1 p.m. to 11 p.m., basically they moved it up to 9 a.m. July 3rd and July 4th,' Sioux City Mayor Pro Tem Dan Moore said. 'So it's just complying with the state law.' The new state law will allow fireworks to go off between 9 a.m. and 10 p.m. on July 3. Story continues below Top Story: 185th Air Refueling Wing welcomes new Commander with ceremony Lights & Sirens: Man denied new trial, sentenced for deadly rollover near Salix Sports: West Sioux boys soccer wins first-ever IHSAA State title with 2-1 OT win Weather: Get the latest weather forecast here If the day falls on a weekend, then additional nighttime hours may be added. Fireworks can be set off from 9 a.m. until 11 p.m. on the Fourth of July On New Year's Eve into New Year's Day morning, fireworks may be set off from 9 a.m. until 12:30 a.m. Copyright 2025 Nexstar Media, Inc. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed.
Yahoo
2 hours ago
- Yahoo
Proposal to increase SPD salaries by 13.5%
SPRINGFIELD, Mo.- At Monday's city council meeting, council discussed a potential 13.5% increase in Springfield Police Department salaries. This increase would be specifically for sworn officers. Ozarks First asked members of the community how they felt about the potential increase. One person said they would support the increase if there was more information released. Sheila Sharpe tells Ozarks First she understands what it's like to serve the public. 'I've worked in the public sector for all my life, and I feel like most of us are underpaid for what we do,' Sharpe said. 'We do it for the love of what we're doing and helping others.' This ordinance would technically be an amendment to an agreement between the city and the police union. The increase, if approved, would go into effect this July. 'I'm all in favor for that,' Sharpe said. 'I think people that do such dangerous work and put their lives on the line and help us in so many ways. I'm all for any increase in benefits or their salary.' This ordinance is expected to be voted on in two weeks at the next city council meeting. Copyright 2025 Nexstar Media, Inc. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed.
![Dear Black Folks: The Protests Against ICE Are Absolutely Our Fight Too [Op-Ed]](/_next/image?url=https%3A%2F%2Fnewsone.com%2Fwp-content%2Fuploads%2Fsites%2F22%2F2025%2F06%2F17495049643842.jpg%3Fquality%3D80%26strip%3Dall&w=3840&q=100)
![Dear Black Folks: The Protests Against ICE Are Absolutely Our Fight Too [Op-Ed]](/_next/image?url=https%3A%2F%2Fall-logos-bucket.s3.amazonaws.com%2Fblackamericaweb.com.png&w=48&q=75)
Black America Web
2 hours ago
- Black America Web
Dear Black Folks: The Protests Against ICE Are Absolutely Our Fight Too [Op-Ed]
Source: Nick Ut / Getty As Donald Trump sparks chaos by illegally deploying troops to Los Angeles, as immigration raids intensify, and as protesters are flooding the streets to demand dignity for migrants, far too many Black folks are sitting back on social media platforms singing a tired, familiar song. It's being sung off-key with a false sense of safety and a dangerous misunderstanding of how white supremacist violence works. The chorus of retreat sounds something like this: 'Black folks need to stay home.' 'Let them handle it. This is their fight.' 'Most Latinos voted for this mess.' 'ICE don't target us. We've got citizenship.' 'I ain't marching for nobody who won't march for me .' 'Latinos don't like us anyway.' But what's really being said underneath all that deflection is this: 'If they come for Latinos, I'll be quiet, as long as they leave me and mine alone.' But if you study history, I mean really study history, then you should already know that they never leave us alone. Not for long. I get it. Black folks are tired. We've carried the weight of every major freedom movement in this country. We've bled. We've died. And we've been betrayed. We've shown up, over and over, only to be met with anti-blackness in return. But this ain't about who likes us. It's about who's next! What ICE is doing to migrants isn't just an immigration issue. It's white supremacist violence at its core. It's separating families. It's state violence. It's stalking and snatching people from homes and workplaces and making them disappear. It's caging children. And for Black folks in America, this should all feel deeply familiar. The white supremacist machine of state violence doesn't make distinctions based on citizenship status. What ICE is doing to Latinx, West Indian, and African migrants is part of the same machinery that has policed and abused Black American bodies for centuries. We know what it means to have our families torn about by the state. We know what it means to be told that we don't belong in the land we built. We know exactly what it's like to be criminalized simply for existing, to be dehumanized by everyday language, media propaganda, policies, and bureaucrats in uniform. Black folks know what it means to live under surveillance, to be chased, cuffed, caged, and disappeared. We are the descendants of people who had to run. From plantations. From the Fugitive Slave Act and slave catchers. From the KKK and lynch mobs. Even if you were born right here in America, with ancestors going all the way back to slave ships, that border violence still echoes through Black lives. The ol' 'I got my papers, I'm safe' is a delusion. That little blue passport won't stop you from getting profiled, harassed, arrested, or shot by a cop who sees your Black skin before your citizenship status or hears your command of English. Just ask the countless Black immigrants already deported, or the U.S.-born Black folks ICE illegally detained anyway. Do you think that racist ICE agents caught up in immigration hysteria and round-up quotas will stop to check birth certificates? Just ask Peter Sean Brown, who was detained in the Florida Keys when an ICE agent mistakenly detained him as an undocumented immigrant from Jamaica. He spent weeks in custody and eventually sued. Or, ask Davino Watson, a native New Yorker who was imprisoned as a 'deportable alien' for more than three years despite claiming citizenship and then denied compensation by the court system. Source: Nick Ut / Getty ICE detentions are triggered by racial profiling, flawed algorithms, and sloppy data. Skin complexion, language, and citizenship won't shield us. Think about all the Black folks walking around without real IDs to prove they're citizens. Over a quarter of Black adult citizens do not have a driver's license with their current name and/or address and 18% don't have a license at all, according to the Center for Democracy and Civic Engagement. If ICE can mistakenly detain Black and Brown Americans born in the U.S., even if they have documentation, then no one is immune. Some Black folks are also citing the 2024 election exit polls to justify staying home and staying silent, like the ICE protests don't concern us. 'Latinos voted for Trump.' But exit polls don't tell the whole story. They only sample registered voters who actually voted, and they never account for the millions of undocumented immigrants who can't vote. They also oversample precincts that don't match the demographic reality, skewing results toward the dominant group in those districts. Most Latinos, like Black Americans, did not vote for Trump. According to national polls, 56% of Latinos who voted cast their ballot for Kamala Harris, while 42% went for Trump. Yes, Trump made gains among Latino men, but gains don't equate to dominance. The Latino vote split along familiar gender and generational lines, just like our communities. We can't turn a sampling of voter turnout into 'most Latinos voted for Trump,' and we can't let bad math be an excuse to justify apathy. And there's this one: 'I ain't marching for nobody that won't march for me.' Or its equally tired fraternal twin: 'Latinos don't like us anyway.' This is scarcity-minded, historically illiterate nonsense that treats solidarity as some sort of tit-for-tat transaction. If that's how our ancestors thought, then there wouldn't have been an Underground Railroad, no Civil Rights Act, A Voting Rights Act, or a Montgomery Bus Boycott. Solidarity is a strategy, not some popularity contest. If you're out here claiming Latinos don't march for us, then clearly you haven't picked up a history book. Y'all must not know about Cesar Chavez and Dolores Huerta who led the United Farm Workers who stood with Martin Luther King Jr. Y'all must not know about the Puerto Rican Young Lords working hand-in-hand with the Black Panther Party to run free clinics, breakfast programs, and tenant organizing drives in Chicago and New York City. Or, about the Mexican students who took their cue from SNCC and Malcolm X during the 1968 East LA walkouts and launched the Chicano civil rights crusade. In recent years, Afro-Latinos have been at the forefront of Black Lives Matter chapters, organizing vigils, raising bail funding, and pushing for police accountability across the country. In Chicago's Little Village, Latino organizers launched the 'Brown Squad for Black Lives' and established a Black and Brown Unity food pantry. Martin Luther King III has been working alongside Mi Familia Vota , a national Black-Brown coalition whose mission is to combat hate crimes, anti-immigrant policies, and attacks on voting rights— together —not as separate communities. Just because these sustained interracial commitments and coalitions aren't trendy headlines or going viral on social media doesn't mean solidarity isn't unfolding in schools, community centers, neighborhoods, and politics. It's one thing to let white folks battle each other, whether it's MAGA vs. neoliberal, liberals vs. conservatives, or Karens vs. Capitol Hill. White folks battling each other is the empire fighting over who gets to steer the ship while it is already sinking. You want to sit back and watch that unfold while sipping tea or eating popcorn? Fine. Letting white folks eat each other doesn't carry the same moral weight as turning your back on another marginalized community facing the same white supremacist violence as us. Let's also remember that anti-Blackness is global. It lives in every community, including our own. Black Americans can be just as anti-immigrant, just as colorist, just as xenophobic, just as colonized in our thinking. So, if you're sitting out because of what some Latinos, West Indians, or Africans said about us, then you're not protecting yourself. You're just waiting for your turn. So, what do we do? Source: Jason Armond / Getty We organize. We show up at ICE protests so the system doesn't get to isolate people in silence. We donate to immigrant bail funds and deportation defense teams like the Haitian Bridge Alliance, Black Alliance for Just Immigration, and UndocuBlack. Use your platforms to amplify the stories, organizing, resistance, and victories of undocumented folks. Build local coalitions to organize teach-ins, mutual aid drives and community safety networks that bridge Black and Brown neighborhoods. We also need to unlearn the anti-immigrant, anti-Black, and anti-Indigenous narratives this country feeds us because solidarity starts in the mind. Black folks cannot afford to pretend that citizenship or birthright assures our protection. A system built on racial profiling, quotas, and militarized tactics never stops at 'not us.' It doesn't send ICE to the border and leave us in peace. These immigration raids strengthen a culture of normalized, dehumanizing state violence against anyone who looks 'other.' Immigration will become the excuse to expand the surveillance state and militarized policing in Black communities. This is absolutely our fight! Dr. Stacey Patton is an award-winning journalist and author of 'Spare The Kids: Why Whupping Children Won't Save Black America' and the forthcoming 'Strung Up: The Lynching of Black Children In Jim Crow America.' Read her Substack here . SEE ALSO: Trump's Job Corps 'Pause' Is MAGA's Plan To Eliminate Poor Youth Harvard And White America's Creepy Obsession With Hoarding Black Remains SEE ALSO Dear Black Folks: The Protests Against ICE Are Absolutely Our Fight Too [Op-Ed] was originally published on Black America Web Featured Video CLOSE