(This story has been updated. Because of a reporting error, a previous version of this story said that Joshua Ramirez-Roberts was 24 when he ran for the East Lansing City Council. He was 22.)
Severe asthma as a child helped shape Joshua Ramirez-Roberts’ life.
“I was like a bubble baby, and I think that’s how I first got into reading about news, history and politics,” he said.
As he got older and learned to better manage his condition, Ramirez-Roberts started walking the local trails and learning more about native species and potential threats to Michigan’s natural ecosystem. As his understanding of nature grew, so, too, did his concerns for the In that way, his story resembles that of Theodore Roosevelt, whose love for the environment similarly grew out of overcoming childhood asthma.
“It’s called the windshield effect,” he explained. “When you were a kid going on a road trip and you got all those bugs on your windshield. Now we don’t have that anymore. Part of that is because of invasive species, and part of it is because of pesticides, industrial agricultural runoff and habitat loss. We are watching the erasure of millions of years of ecological history and losing what Michigan is and has been for a long time.”
Ramirez-Roberts acted on his activism two years ago when at 22 he ran for a seat on the City Council in East Lansing, where he was born and raised. He was the youngest of eight candidates by more than two decades.
He was still splitting his time between his studies at Michigan State University and his membership on the city’s University Student Commission, Community Development Advisory Committee and Bailey Community Association. While he finished out of the running with 948 votes, or 6.48%, he gained valuable experience for what looks to be a lifetime of public activism.
“I was going to a lot of city meetings and had these ideas and a vision for what I wanted to see. So, I decided I was just going to go for it. The worst that could happen was that I would lose,” Ramirez-Roberts said.
He spent much of his campaign stressing the need for a major shift in East Lansing’s downtown development philosophy. Having grown weary of expensive high-rise apartments, he wanted to see the Council adopt a philosophy that supported building more affordable housing units and non-motorized transportation infrastructure, forward-thinking environmental planning and fostering a greater connection with the city’s eastward cousin.
Despite his loss, Ramirez-Roberts has stayed active in city government. Now a member of East Lansing’s Parks and Recreation Advisory Commission, he was recognized for his involvement as one of five recipients of the city’s Crystal Award last year. Handed out each year since 1988, the award recognizes residents who have “enhanced life in the City of East Lansing and made it a more welcoming and affirming place to live, work and do business.”
After graduating in 2023, Ramirez-Roberts spent last year earning his teaching certification as a student history teacher at East Lansing High School. Since then, he’s pivoted to a job with Michigan’s Technology, Management and Budget Department, due, in part, to the proximity it gives him to regional politics.
“With teaching, I found that I didn’t have any extra time. I felt like I needed to be able to get more involved,” he said.
Ramirez-Roberts’ resume also includes a two-year stint as a legislative staffer for House Democrat Alex Garza of Wayne County from 2020 to 2022. His time at the Capitol proved to be formative.
“Between my work in the Legislature and this last lame-duck period, it became clear to me that the Michigan House of Representatives is really lacking in terms of professionalism. Getting to see that dysfunctionality up close made me realize that, while I still want to be involved in politics, I don’t want to work for politicians. I want to be the one doing this myself,” he said.
While he’s not ruling out another run for City Council, he added that he’s not ready to make a firm decision on his next move just yet.
“If there’s the right opportunity for me to run for office again, I’m not going to wait. It’s still something I care about and think I can make an impact on,” Ramirez-Roberts said.
Until then, he intends to continue his political engagement — especially on the environment.
Were he elected to the City Council, Ramirez-Roberts said he would look to other cities with full-time environmental staff members, including Meridian Township, as a roadmap for East Lansing.
“We’ve hired consultants who give a talk or two for $60,000. We could have used that on a full-time, invasive species expert or to house three homeless people for a year. There’s really so many other things that money could be spent on,” Ramirez-Roberts said.
His disdain for big money in politics extended to his 2023 campaign, which he said netted him “more votes than dollars spent.”
“I didn’t want to be beholden to anyone during that election, especially with the ethics concerns around town at the time. So, I didn’t fundraise at all. I spent 900 bucks total, didn’t run any ads and literally just got signs and fliers. Mailers were too expensive, so I would just go door-to-door every night from 5:30 p.m. to sunset,” he said.
If he ran again, he admitted he’d probably fundraise a little more. However, he doesn’t regret his decision to forego that process in his rookie campaign.
“Right now, the most radical thing you can do is go and talk to your neighbor. We’re all so isolated in our own bubble, and I felt like the best solution for me at the time was just to get out there and meet people in the community.” Ramirez-Roberts said. “If I just sat there and only listened to my own opinions in my echo chamber all day, I would get out of touch pretty quickly.”
Ramirez-Roberts hopes to see other younger candidates enter the fold.
“My first run was definitely an ‘ignorance is bliss’ type of deal, and I’ve learned a lot since then,” he said. “I was never not going to start young, because there are a lot of benefits to not being beholden to traditional politics in America today. If I think I can help, that’s absolutely what I’m going to do.”
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