Based on Fabrications, Ward 4 Council Candidate Included In Magazine’s 30 And Under Class of 2024

by P.D. Lesko

According to the Jackson Magazine 2026 Media Kit for prospective advertisers, “Over 6,700 copies of Jackson Magazine are mailed out monthly….Each month a copy of Jackson Magazine is sent to every business in Jackson County.” The magazine is sent to “local State Representatives, Michigan’s Governor, Michigan Chamber of Commerce, Michigan Economic Development Corporation.” In its Dec. 2024 issue, the magazine featured residents in the community under the age of 30 who were leading “the county into the future.” Aidan Sova, who had been living in Ann Arbor since 2022, according to his AADL candidate committee formation disclosure filed with the County Clerk, was featured among the class of 2024. The accompanying article touted Sova’s accomplishments and awards—including several of which Sova fabricated.

Aidan Sova fabricated several of the same accomplishments and awards in his application to serve on the Ann Arbor Human Rights Commission (HRC), an appointment which Sova refers to in various bios as “Human Rights Commissioner, Washtenaw County.”

Big Ten Academic Conference Executive Director at the University of Michigan

In the Dec. 2024 article, Sova is recognized as having “led as the Big Ten Academic Conference Executive Director at the University of Michigan.” After being elected to the AADL Board as a trustee in 2022, Sova submitted a bio to the Detroit Regional Chamber of Commerce. In that bio, he says “Sova is a Product Solutions Consultant at Google. Prior to Google, the Big Ten Academic Conference Executive Director at the University of Michigan.” In his application to serve on the Ann Arbor Human Rights Commission, Sova correctly identified the entity for which he had volunteered during 2019-2020: the Association of Big Ten Students (ABTS). In his application to serve on the HRC, he fabricated his responsibilities in the ABTS position. In one instance, Sova claimed to have hired ABTS executives (ABTS is student-led) and to have managed 100 people. Sova also claims to have “led” the 500,000+ students of the Big Ten.

State of Michigan’s Coronavirus Task Force

The Jackson Magazine article repeats a fabrication Sova is currently using while running to represent Ward 4 on Ann Arbor City Council: “He also worked on the State of Michigan’s Coronavirus Task Force on Racial Disparities.”

Meeting minutes and video recordings of all meetings of the Michigan Coronavirus Task Force on Racial Disparities hosted on the MDHSS website include meeting participant roll calls. The public records reveal that Aidan Sova is never noted as present in any of the meeting minutes, or videos of meetings between May 2020 and June 2021, when he claims to have served. A document which lists all of the Task Force’s Work Groups and Work Group members as of June 2020, does not include Aidan Sova.

In addition, other records from the State of Michigan show Aidan Sova was not appointed to that Task Force by Governor Whitmer in April 2020, when she created it and announced the members, nor is he listed among the present or past members of the Task Force in a 2023 Final Report. Bridge Michigan reported in Feb. 2023 on that Final Report from the Task Force to which Sova has repeatedly claimed he was appointed.

Aidan Sova told the Ann Arbor Observer on June 8, 2026 in a candidate interview in support of his push to represent Ward 4 on Ann Arbor City Council, that his service on the Michigan Coronavirus Task Force on Racial Disparities was “life-saving work.” Aidan Sova’s campaign website About page states that, “at the state level, Aidan expanded his impact on the Michigan Coronavirus Task Force on Racial Disparities, where he drove efforts that successfully eliminated the COVID-19 mortality gap for Black Michiganders.”

In a May 2026 video, Sova appears with Lt. Gov. Garlin Gilchrist whom he claims appointed him to the Michigan Coronavirus Task Force on Racial Disparities. In the video, Sova says he first met Gilchrist on the Task Force. Gilchrist corrects Sova and says they first met when Sova was a student leader. At no time in the video does Gilchrist say he appointed Aidan Sova to the Task Force.

City of Jackson Youth Citizen of the Year

In 2018, Aidan Sova told MSU Today he had (the year before) been the “Jackson County Youth Citizen of the Year” (the award doesn’t exist). Three years later, in his resume to serve on the HRC, he lists under Awards, “City of Jackson Youth Citizen of the Year” (the award doesn’t exist). The Jackson Magazine Dec. 2024 article says, “Sova has been honored as Jackson’s Youth Citizen of the Year.”

He Received “Jackson’s Black Excellence Award”

Aidan Sova never received a “Black Excellence Award” associated with a program started by Yvette and Robert Wilkie, the owners at R.J.’s Heavenly Delights. Jackson’s Black Excellence Awards & Banquet annually recognizes around 10 Black residents, business owners or officials with awards. The City of Jackson is not a sponsor of the award or the banquet. Yvette Wilkie told MLive in 2024, “Creating the awards banquet was a way for business owners and officials to feel recognized for their work and to motivate other future entrepreneurs.”

In 2024, Sova was recognized with the Home Grown Jackson’s OWN award. The Wilkie’s established the award to honor someone with grass roots in the Jackson community.

The bio of Sova posted to Jackson’s Black Excellence Facebook page purports that “Aidan’s impressive resume includes serving as the Big Ten Academic Conference Executive Director at the University of Michigan…His leadership extends to the State of Michigan’s Coronavirus Task Force on Racial Disparities. Aidan’s dedication has earned him accolades like the City of Jackson’s Youth Citizen of the Year and the University of Michigan’s Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. Service Award (this award doesn’t exist).”

Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. Service Award

In the 2024 Jackson Magazine article, Sova is said to have been awarded the University of Michigan Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. Service Award. In his 2022 Detroit Regional Chamber of Commerce bio., Sova writes, “Sova is a recipient of the City of Jackson’s Youth Citizen of the Year, the State of Michigan’s Youth Volunteer of the Year, and the University of Michigan’s Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. Service Award. The University of Michigan has no such award. The University does have the Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. Spirit Award.

In 2022 in his application to be appointed to the HRC, under “Awards,” Sova states that in 2021 he was given the Dr. Martin Luther King Spirit Award. He was. To be selected for the award, Aidan Sova had to be nominated and to submit a resume.