Students get their chance to quiz mayoral hopefuls

Most of the young people who gathered in the Armstrong High School auditorium Thursday for Richmond’s first ever student-led mayoral forum won’t be eligible to vote this November. But they still had some tough questions for the five candidates vying to lead the city over the next four years. 

“What concrete policy steps will you take to break ground on new school buildings and athletic facilities to bring Richmond Public Schools into the 21st century?” asked co-moderator Renecia Allen, 17. 

“Citywide, crime and gun violence is down, but this has not affected our communities. Ninety-five percent of the AP government class knows someone who was killed to gun violence before becoming 20 years old,” said co-moderator Zion Lundy, 17. “As mayor, how would you address gun violence and what steps would you take to preemptively prevent access to guns?” 

The forum, named after first Black mayor of Richmond, Henry L. Marsh III, and built around questions crafted by the high school’s AP Government class, offered a unique glimpse into what young residents of the city’s East End see as the most pressing issues facing Richmond and what they’re looking for from its next leaders. 

“We started thinking about the problems that are going on around us in our environment and in our communities,” said Ty’Asia Tolson-Wilkerson, 17, the emcee of the event. “And then we all decided that’s what we want to ask them. What are they going to do if they are elected? What are they going to do to solve those problems that we have to make the community better for us?” 

Gun violence, said Amaria Martin, 17, was one of the major problems students identified. 

“A lot of times these things happen and they kind of tend to get swept under the rug,” she said “And you know, this is not something ordinary, it’s not something normal that’s supposed to happen every day. Therefore it was an important question to bring up.” 

Over the course of 45 minutes, City Councilman Andreas Addison, former health official Dr. Danny Avula, former Council President Michelle Mosby, community activist Maurice Neblett and investor and nonprofit founder Harrison Roday offered their views on what they’d focus on as mayor and how they would ensure continued investment in the schools. 

Their answers diverged little from the pitches they’ve made to voters over the past two months, although all five put special emphasis Thursday on the need to invest more in schools and out-of-school opportunities, work closely with the School Board and listen to the perspectives of people — like youth — not typically represented in politics. 

“I had a feeling everyone was going to answer the questions with what everyone wanted to hear or what they thought we wanted to hear,” said Tolson-Wilkerson after the event. 

Of the five candidates, Mosby appeared to be the student favorite, garnering the loudest applause on several questions. Asked who they thought was going to win this November, four of six students said Mosby, while two said Avula.  

“No offense to other candidates — I’m sorry, y’all are just as equal as anybody else,” said Makayla Battle, 17, “but I’m going for Ms. Mosby.” 

“She’s very assertive,” said Martin. “She knows what she wants and she’s very direct. … She tried to get with us on a different level.” 

Whoever comes out victorious, Kahrell Hightower, 17, said “it was good for us to be able to have a sort of personal meeting with the mayoral candidates.” 

“In a republic as big as America, it’s not very often that we can interact with our elected officials,” he said. 

The event made a concrete difference to at least one student: Jahkei Chavis, 18, one of the few young people whose birthday made him eligible to vote this year, said he hadn’t been planning on casting a ballot in the runup to the forum but had changed his mind. 

“I’ve definitely got to vote,” he said.