First-time candidate Jake Ryan believes he can bring new ideas and a fresh perspective to the Peoria mayor’s office.
Ryan, a 23-year-old entrepreneurial consultant, says he’s spent most of his life in Peoria despite being born in Arizona and attending community college in Texas.
“I think what I realized at some point in time was: this is my home,” Ryan said. “This is my hometown, even if I wasn’t born here. These are the people that have taken me and accepted me, and this is the place that I love and the community that I love.
“So when I look around the empty storefronts, and when I hear about rising crime – whether that be statistically or anecdotally, just from friends of mine who live in different parts of town – that hurts me.”
Ryan joined first-term incumbent Mayor Rita Ali, longtime District 2 council member Chuck Grayeb, and at-large council member John Kelly in filing for next spring’s mayoral race. A primary will be held Feb. 25, with two candidates advancing to the April 1 consolidated general election.
“More than anything, I think that what I’d like to inspire is a culture change to where we take pride in our city and to where we try our best for our community – to improve the things that we already have, and to capitalize on the potential that we have yet to realize," Ryan said.
Both Ali and Grayeb announced their campaigns in July, with the mayor saying she believes her work to make Peoria a better place isn’t finished and Grayeb touting his total of 23 years of city council experience.
At that same time, Kelly confirmed his intent to run for mayor but said he wouldn’t begin his campaign in earnest until next year. He elaborated on his motivation in a recent interview with WCBU.
“What prompts me to seek the office is I think we have a need for new and different ideas; we have a need for good leadership. I think that the ability for us to create just a really terrific city here is available to us,” Kelly said.
“I believe that I have some ideas that are different, that are productive – some cost money, many don’t. I think that in general, we have been like most cities in the Upper Midwest, doing conventional things. Those conventional things don’t seem to work very well in other cities, and they don’t seem to work very well in Peoria.”
Ryan, a 2019 graduate of Richwoods High School who also took college courses at Illinois Central College, describes himself as a “self-starter,” especially with his consulting business Council & Associates Advisors.
“At some point I just kind of saw it to myself and I said, ‘I don’t necessarily see a path for myself to achieve what I want to in life doing this a traditional way,’” Ryan said. “So I started to think about how to get creative about it and, luckily, I made some connections personally that led me to be able to get opportunities to help other folks start businesses.”
Ryan says he’s confident that his business acumen and connections would help him bring 1,000 jobs to downtown Peoria within four years.
“Especially considering my background and the leg that I’m standing on here, I would say that I would feel like I let a lot of people down – I would personally feel like a failure if I could not accomplish that goal if I was to win the election,” he said.
“I think that that’s a good goal for the city to have in general. The way that I would go about that, I think that a lot of people look across the river and they see East Peoria and they wonder to themselves, ‘why haven’t we done that on our side of the pond?’ So what I would say is that you definitely have to take a page from successful playbooks in life, and that’s one that we, for sure, have to try and emulate.”
Ryan says he believes his age actually works to his advantage in his mayoral bid.
“I believe that I’m the youngest candidate in this race by over 40 years. So what I would say is, in terms of thinking about where we’d like to go as a city, that what I do bring is the future,” he said. “When we’re thinking about, ‘how do we set ourselves up in a successful position to be competitive in the 21st century?’ – I have those ideas, and I bring those to the table in a way that I don’t personally believe have been brought to the table up to this point.
“Just me being me, I have confidence that, in terms of leading us into what can be a golden age, I’m the guy.”
