Meet East Lansing City Council Candidate Liam Richichi
This is part five of ELi’s City Council candidate series. Over three days, ELi will publish articles introducing each of the six candidates in this November’s election.
Liam Richichi may be the youngest candidate in the field at just 22 years old, but the City Council hopeful started building his political resume early.
“I got started on campaigns when I was about 15 years old, and ever since then I’ve worked on local campaigns, national campaigns, consulting, fundraising, call time, field work,” Richichi said. “Organizing, being boots on the ground, it’s kind of my jam. Politics is my passion, and also my job.”
Richichi’s top priorities include encouraging development, improving relations with Michigan State University and increasing traffic safety.
Richichi is a 2025 graduate from MSU, majoring in political theory with minors in business and organizational management.
“Michigan State and this community in East Lansing grew me to become who I am today,” Richichi said. “I really love this community. I want to be able to give back, represent the city and be a voice for the students and the residents that live here.”
Candidate background
Richichi got his start in politics at 15 years old, working for Rep. Haley Stevens. In high school, he also chaired the Michigan chapter of the High School Democrats of America.
“I was trying to figure out what I wanted to do, what I wanted to major in,” Richichi said. “I was attending my local Democratic Club meetings, and I was kind of learning that this is something really interesting to me, organizing and helping to create policy that helps people and makes it easier to live, more affordable to live.”
During his time at MSU, Richichi became president of the MSU College Democrats. His tenure saw the club become the largest of its kind in the nation, with 450 members. He now works for State Rep. Jason Morgan.
Top priorities
Richichi described himself as a “very pro-development” candidate. He sees ushering in new developments as the best way of tending to the city’s budget, instead to increasing taxes on citizens.
“Instead of looking at how we can grow the assets of the city, we look at how we can tax the residents,” Richichi said. “I think at a time when so many people are really struggling to live with inflation, with the cost of goods and rent and housing going up, it’s a little disingenuous to ask people [to be taxed more]. Instead of doing that, we have developers who are ready to develop areas here.”
Richici said he has experience balancing budgets, including fundraising for congressional candidates in Florida and Michigan, as well as managing a record-level of funds for MSU Democrats.
“Obviously these are all budgets that are much smaller than the city of East Lansing,” Richichi said, “But it’s still an experience of keeping track of what’s coming in and being responsible with what’s going out, but being mindful of the people who are out paying that budget, and that means being accountable, being transparent, and meeting people where they are. Instead of asking them for more.”
Being a recent MSU graduate, the city’s relationship to the university is a key issue for Richichi, who has experience interacting with MSU President Kevin Guskiewicz and the university’s board of trustees.
“Part of the reason I’m running is to re-establish that line of communication,” Richichi said. “I know that there’s a thirst for it at the university level. It just needs to be reestablished at the city level. I think someone who’s younger, someone who just graduated from the university, has connections with the folks from the university and city leaders as well can help kind of facilitate that connection.”
Richichi said one prevalent issue he has heard about during his campaign is traffic safety. Residents of the Glencairn, Southeast Marble and Chesterfield Hills neighborhoods recently petitioned the city over the danger.
Richichi suggested traffic calming measures, such as increased medians and stop signs. He also thinks outreach to students would be helpful, as residents believe they are the primary offenders.
“I know that’s an issue in a lot of communities, but here especially, you have a lot of, frankly, students,” Richichi said. “I’m not hating on my own people. But it’s just the fact of the matter. The way we look at traffic as a society is that accidents are inevitable rather than avoidable. So by kind of starting with that and just holding more events like the town hall, where we talk about traffic safety, I think that was really important.”
Other priorities
Making a point of listening to and conversing with community members is not only important to Richich, but one of the aspects of politics he enjoys most. To increase communication between city government and residents, Richichi said he would aim to hold monthly coffee hours, where residents can sit and talk with him.
“I’ve knocked on at least 15,000 doors in my life, and throughout these conversations, you get to learn a lot about people,” Richchi said. “I find myself in people’s houses having coffee or getting dinner with them, chatting about issues. That really comes from an understanding of knowing where people are and organizing in politics.”
Along with his connections in the community and local politics, Richchi believes his lived experiences as a recent student and renter would give him a unique perspective on the Council.
“There’s so much violence and upset happening at the national level,” Richichi said. “If we can help to create a safe, welcoming place, making an environment here in the community where local officials have the most day-to-day impact on people’s lives, then I want to be a part of that.”