Jamillah Richmond

Jamillah Richmond is making her first run for elected office by entering the Boulder City Council race in 2026. She has experience at various levels of civic engagement (see below), and wants to serve on Council in part because she believes she can offer a unique perspective as one of the members.

“I decided to jump in because the council that we currently have doesn’t represent some aspects of our community. I’m a single parent. I live in affordable housing. I now run and cofounded a nonprofit. I’m running because I think that the experiences that I have can be valuable, and having the conversations that help to guide this city in ways that feel like people are able to belong more, and feel more included, and a part of this space,” she said.

Mini-Bio

Richmond was born in Mount Vernon, New York, and was raised in nearby Yonkers, New York. She came to Boulder in 2019, and when asked why she came to Colorado, she said “Struggle. I was in a hard place in my life, and so I applied for jobs in multiple states, and wherever the job came is where I was going to go, and Colorado was the first place to offer me a job and became home.”

She earned a bachelor’s degree in education from Naropa University, a master’s degree in education, and is currently enrolled in a doctorate program in Leadership For Change with Fielding Graduate University. She is a single mother, and founded a nonprofit called Education Without Oppression.

Per her website, she has done several things with or related to Boulder Valley School District (BVSD). She’s served on BVSD’s District Accountability Committee, worked on policies regarding disproportionate discipline and discrimination based on hair types or clothing, supported removal of School Resource Officers (SROs), and advocated for mental health resources in schools, among other efforts.

Her campaign website is https://www.jamillahanewvoice.com/

On The Issues

Q – Has Directly Elected Mayor Been a Good Experience?

Richmond very simply said she believes “people who live in this community should be able to elect all of their officials,” and supports sticking with the current system.

Q – Contentious Council Meetings?

In 2025, there were certain Council meetings that got heated as attendees protested the situation in Gaza. Richmond said she thinks it’s difficult to comment on what happened in a way that reflects the “full spectrum of who Boulder is,” but added that it’s important to listen. “I think it’s important to understand that even if you disagree with someone, their story, their experience, their voice matters to them. As elected officials, I think it’s our responsibility to be present in that with them, even in ways that feel challenging,” she said.

Q – Boulder’s Economic Status?

Given that “the economy” is a very broad topic, Richmond noted that in her own current situation, she’s a single mother who must make tough financial choices that involve basics like food and/or rent. While Boulder is facing real challenges due in part to federal actions aimed at institutions like NOAA and NCAR, Richmond said it will be important for local officials to work in ways to ensure that “the impacts that are occurring on a federal level are not as detrimental to the people who are most adversely impacted.”

Q – Boulder’s Status on Public Safety and Ideas?

Once again, “public safety” is a broad topic, and Richmond touched on her own experiences. She said she’s a “single, low income Black parent in Boulder,” only representing a very small percentage of Boulder’s population. She added that some of her neighbors and community members are from “various countries,” and sometimes their feelings of safety depend on who they’re around. When asked about her own feelings of safety, she again noted that who she’s with matters, and stated, I like to say that I am uncomfortable everywhere, and I do it anyway. And I find goodness and loving people everywhere. So, it’s complex.”

Q – Is Boulder Ready for Sundance?

According to Richmond, the city is “trying to get ready” for Sundance, and she sees potential benefits as well as logistical challenges. On the plus side, she said the city should experience a boost in sales tax revenue and short-term rental income, but she isn’t quite as sure that a fuller range of people in the community will experience a shared benefit. She favors creating an online city dashboard where people can learn more about Sundance economic benefit, and examining rules around people in permanently affordable housing being able to do short-term rentals. Since so many people are expected to be in Boulder during the festival, she said there will be “shared discomfort,” and told a story of how a school parking lot will be off-limits to staff and parents for a time because it will be used for Sundance parking.

Q – Climate Action?

Richmond lives in southeast Boulder, and said she could actually see the flames from the Marshall Fire from her house. She has evacuated twice, once during Marshall and once during the NCAR fire. She didn’t feel like there was a great evacuation plan in place, and she and her neighbors tried to support each other with communication and trying to make sure people had a place to go. She added that some members of the community might have more difficult times dealing with an emergency that others – seniors, people with disabilities, low-income residents, or people caring for seniors among them. “How can the city help to support … because it requires a certain degree of knowing what to do in an emergency. other than to panic, right?” she asked. When it comes to climate action programs in Boulder, not just wildfire preparation, she believes the city is “leaps and bounds ahead of other cities or states within the country.”

Q – Concerns About Automated Cameras and Privacy?

Simply, Richmond said she’s very concerned about “how our privacy is being eroded by these cameras and where the information is stored.” There is current community controversy around the use of Flock cameras, but Richmond added that she’s concerned about surveillance in general.

Q – Does Boulder Need to Continue Pushing for More Housing?

Richmond participated in a recent “capsule” regarding 15-minute neighborhoods, and said she came away understanding that many people wanted mixed-density and mixed-use neighborhoods that did not segregate populations so people of different income levels could live closely together. She said she has heard a great deal about the need for middle-income housing, but she personally knows people of lower income who had to leave the city because they couldn’t afford housing, including her neighbors and single parents like herself. “I would like to see more housing, and I’d like to see more housing that is accessible to the full spectrum of Boulder, and its residents,” she said.

Q – Should City Council Engage in International Affairs?

According to Richmond, the city includes a very wide spectrum of people with different beliefs and needs, and different levels of passion around different issues. She said it is up to the Council to serve its constituency, but posed a rhetorical question about what that might mean within the context of Council rules. Like with the question about contentious meetings, Richmond said she intends to listen a lot, “even if I disagree, or if I agree, whether you’re yelling, whether you’re crying…” while trying to figure out next steps on how to operate.

Q – Should the City Move Toward Greater Reliance on Fees and Property Tax?

Richmond said while she’s aware that not everybody would support increased property taxes, the early years of COVID taught a lesson that sales tax isn’t always a reliable stream of revenue. “So we do need to diversify how we generate income for this city, to ensure that the spaces that are utilized every single day are cared for,” she said.

Q – Is Boulder on the Right Track with Homelessness?

Again, Richmond said she knows of former neighbors who had been forced out of Boulder because they couldn’t afford housing, and might have become homeless for a period of time. “It’s not because they weren’t working hard, but because working hard isn’t enough for everyone,” she said. She is concerned about how unhoused people might be “criminalized,” or how there might be community perceptions that make the unhoused feel less than welcome in Boulder. In this mid-September interview, Richmond did not support moving services for the homeless out of the Downtown area, saying “segregating them to the outskirts of the city” increases difficulties, including even finding a way to get to where people are supposed to be.

Q – Downtown Development Authority?

Like many candidates, Richmond said she thought the DDA offered some promise, but there was dissatisfaction during the process as there was not fully inclusive stakeholding and engagement, and groups felt left out of the conversation. She added that she believes it’s not only Downtown Boulder and University Hill that could use business district improvements, saying there are also businesses in south Boulder that are struggling. “I’d like to see a plan that is inclusive of the businesses throughout the city,” she said.

Q – Rec Centers and Deferred Maintenance?

This interview took place not far from the South Boulder Rec Center, and Richmond agreed that it needs to be replaced. While South Boulder seems to be a candidate for full replacement, she said it will be important to build maintenance funding into city budgets, and added that she believes “that’s already happening, to some extent.” She did not want to blame any past Councils for not ensuring enough maintenance of existing facilities, but said “we need to do better with how with deferred maintenance, and with how we protect and preserve the spaces that people love and need access to.”

2026 Ballot Measures

  • City of Boulder $400 Million Bond: Richmond said in mid-September that she was currently at “undecided, leaning toward ‘no.’” She had said in past forums that she supported it, but now believes there might need to be more community conversation in efforts to get greater buy-in.
  • City of Boulder Residential Vacancy Tax: Yes
  • Boulder County Childcare Tax: Yes
  • City of Boulder Debt Limit Increase: In mid-September, she said she needed to learn more about this one and wasn’t ready to take a position.
  • City of Boulder Firefighter Collective Bargaining: Yes
  • Boulder County Increase 3 Commissioners to 5: Yes

Endorsements: Richmond has received organizational endorsements from Boulder Progressives, Better Boulder, Working Families Party Colorado, and Boulder Democratic Socialists of America.

Follow The Money: Richmond has received maximum $100 donations from Mayor Aaron Brockett; and former Council member Lauren Folkerts.