Photo Courtesy of Jared CrockettJared Crockett, Ferris stu­dent and Applebee’s bar­tender, is run­ning for Mayor of Big Rapids.

Jared Crockett, a full-time Ferris stu­dent and Big Rapids cit­i­zen, has recently decided to try his hand at local politics.

Crockett, 33, decided to chal­lenge incum­bent Mark Warba in the may­oral elec­tion that will take place late in November. Crockett has never ran for office before, but said that he wanted to bring together the Ferris and Big Rapids communities.

“This town would be noth­ing with­out the stu­dents, and the stu­dents would have noth­ing if the peo­ple who lived here didn’t work at the place that they want to go to,” said Crockett.

Crockett is a pub­lic rela­tions major at Ferris and a bar­tender at Applebee’s. He has lived in Big Rapids for the major­ity of his life, pro­vid­ing him with a knowl­edge of the peo­ple of the area.

“I’d like to think that so many peo­ple know me that peo­ple will swing by my house and tell me about their prob­lems,” said Crockett.

He cited the fact that with the recent pres­i­den­tial elec­tion last November, around 2,000 new stu­dents reg­is­tered to vote in Big Rapids and would be eli­gi­ble to vote in this elec­tion as well. He plans on reach­ing out to the Ferris com­mu­nity to get reg­is­tered stu­dents to vote in the elec­tion. He recently vis­ited the local estab­lish­ment Different by Design to acquire cam­paign paraphernalia.

“I really don’t know how to get stu­dents to care about city issues,” said Crockett.

Some of the points that he men­tioned in a recent inter­view that he wants to con­cen­trate on include allow­ing soror­ity houses within the city, improv­ing off cam­pus stu­dent hous­ing, and allow­ing fra­ter­ni­ties to dis­play their let­ters on the out­side of their house.

Crockett was very prag­matic about his chances. Warba, the cur­rent mayor, is an attor­ney and has served one term as Big Rapids mayor. In the pre­vi­ous elec­tion, Warba won with a total of 690 votes.

“I’m the underdog…but I’m going to give it my all…I’m ready for it. I’m just enough in the pub­lic eye where peo­ple can talk to me,” said Crockett.

Being some­one who has not been pre­vi­ously involved in pol­i­tics, Crockett wants to come off as not intim­i­dat­ing and some­one who is avail­able at any time to be reached about city problems.

“If you have a prob­lem, swing by. You don’t have to go to a city coun­cil meet­ing, just come by my house on a Sunday when I’m watch­ing the [Detroit] Lions,” said Crockett.

When dis­cussing the pos­si­bil­i­ties of doing a may­oral debate, Crockett said he would be inter­ested, but was unsure of what the turnout would be.

He also said that with Ferris cel­e­brat­ing its 125^th anniver­sary this year, being the first Ferris stu­dent to be elected mayor would make it all that much more exciting.

Although he dis­cussed a vari­ety of issues both city and stu­dent related, Crockett mainly stressed his desire of unit­ing the Big Rapids and Ferris communities.

“My slo­gan is…one city, one uni­ver­sity, one com­mu­nity,” said Crockett.

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