At UCC Power Fund, we seek to endorse candidates who boldly stand on the issues we care about. We look to align with candidates that commit to using the levers of governance to honor the inherent dignity of all human beings in our community and tend to the environment we inhabit.
For the 2026 election cycle, we invited candidates running for Grand Rapids City Commission and Grand Rapids Public School Board to apply for our endorsement.
We utilize a multi-pronged strategy, of which elections and endorsements are one part. Our endorsement does not exempt candidates from necessary accountability work which can and will include affirmation when they move in alignment with our demonstrated values.
Our sole endorsement for the Grand Rapids City Commission goes to Kelsey Perdue (Third Ward Candidate) with the expectation that she maintains her publicly stated commitment to engage in further conversations with directly impacted communities around sanctuary policy demands.
We affirm the courage and conviction that Kelsey has demonstrated to dissent and stand alongside community, even when that meant she was the lone dissenting vote, for some consequential local decisions such as the Three Towers Project. We also acknowledge her support of the Climate Action and Adaptation Plan, ongoing engagement with the community and some of the strategic imagination she offered while in conversation with us.
The UCC Power Fund endorses Erika VanDyke, Ismalis Nuñez, José Rodriguez, Antoinette Chapman, Lisa Lint, and Aarie Wade for the Grand Rapids Board of Education. We believe school board members have a responsibility to center the voices of students, educators, and families in district decision-making and to serve as allies in the pursuit of healthy and healing schools. These six candidates demonstrated a commitment to listening to and engaging with community, recognizing that the decisions made at the school board level have a lasting impact not only on students and families, but on the broader Grand Rapids community. We look forward to supporting their efforts to help build a district where those most directly impacted by decisions have a meaningful voice in shaping them.
You can watch the candidate forum below to hear directly from our endorsed candidates and learn more about their visions for Grand Rapids Public Schools:
Candidates seeking our endorsement must complete our questionnaire which seeks to surface their motivations for running, values and ethics as well as their policy stances and understanding of the elected office.
Following completion of the questionnaire, candidates are invited to participate in our candidate forum where UCC Power Fund members engage in discussion with one another and share their input on which candidates we should endorse.
Our endorsement committee factors in input from UCC Power Fund members and assess candidates’ demonstrated alignment with UCC-PF values before making endorsement decisions.
Through our endorsement process we seek to support candidates that will co-govern with us to advance a vision that honors the inherent dignity of all human beings in our community and tends to the environment we inhabit.
