Ypsilanti Mayor Pro Tem Nicole Brown Beats Incumbent Mayor Lois Allen-Richardson

By The Ann Arbor Independent Editorial Team Last updated Aug 3, 2022

by P.D. Lesko

For the past 22 years, Democrat Lois Allen-Richardson had been a fixture on Ypsilanti City Council. In 2020, Richardson was appointed to fill the Mayor’s seat, the first Black woman to serve as mayor of Ypsilanti. With all votes tallied, at 1:30 a.m. on Aug. 3 the County Clerk’s office posted the final results of the three-way primary:

Lois Allen-Richardson	396	459	855	28.20%
Nicole Brown	1082	877	1959	64.61%
Anthony Morgan	108	102	210	6.93%

Ypsilanti has 17,033 registered voters and just 20.58 percent (3,506) of them voted in the non-partisan mayor’s race. Nicole Brown, a graduate of EMU, was first elected to serve on Ypsilanti City Council in 2014.

During their campaigns, Allen-Richardson and Brown both identified the same challenges facing Ypsilanti: the importance of increasing housing accessibility and the need to reduce youth violence.

In response to questions from the League of Women Voters, Nicole Brown described what qualified her for the job of mayor:

“Being a social worker makes me an extremely qualified candidate for the position of Mayor. Social workers are committed to empowering and supporting every individual we encounter. We follow a code of ethics that specifically speaks to dignity and worth of the person, social justice, service, and integrity. In addition, I have been a member of city council since 2014 and have the experience necessary to serve in the capacity of Mayor of Ypsilanti. My experience with working on the city budget, goal setting, connecting with community members, interfacing with key stakeholders, and working with my colleagues to pass legislation have prepared me for this role.”

Among her goals, Brown has said she wants to focus on “developing an unarmed crisis response team within the City of Ypsilanti to assure that the basic needs of community members are met by individuals most appropriate to serve them.” She added, “I will also work with my colleagues to increase housing access, economic development, violence interruption, mental health and harm reduction, infrastructure, and climate resiliency.”

The most serious problems facing the City of Ypsilanti, according to Brown, are a “lack of affordable housing and crime.”

No Republican or nonpartisan candidates filed to run for mayor in the November general election.