Viewpoint: Hess endorses Davis for mayor

Jordan Hess

Serving as Missoula's Mayor for the past year has been an honor and a privilege. Over the past decade in local government as a member of City Council and as mayor, I’ve seen the power of our community to come together to address complex challenges.

Missoula is a community that cares about people and place, and we must continue to be a community that takes care of one another.

Our world is a challenging place right now. We are living through a worsening climate crisis—the existential threat of our generation—making wildfire smoke worse, causing catastrophic storms, and instilling climate anxiety in our kids. We’re facing escalated housing prices, and safe, decent, affordable places to live are becoming less and less attainable as income inequality worsens.

We’re seeing more and more people in crisis—people experiencing homelessness, untreated mental health issues, addiction—unable to have their immediate basic needs met. And we’re living with a legislature that is more interested in taking away civil liberties from people in our community than in solving our state’s broken property tax system.

With the backdrop of these challenges, I’m endorsing Andrea Davis as we come together to elect our next mayor. I believe in the power of local government to help address these challenging, society-scale problems. I believe local government can be a transformative force for good in the lives of the residents we serve. I believe in Missoula’s ability to be a leader. And I believe Andrea has the leadership, skills, and temperament to lead our community.

I’ve known Andrea Davis for more than a decade. She is kind and compassionate, thoughtful and innovative, hopeful and optimistic. She seeks consensus and builds relationships. She shares my values.

Andrea is a leader on housing. As a nonprofit housing developer, her organization has built housing Montanans can afford, educated homebuyers, and preserved income-qualified housing from becoming unaffordable. She understands how housing is built and what barriers exist to creating quality housing that our community can afford.

Andrea is a leader on climate action. As a long-time member of the Mountain Line board, she helped bring electric buses to Missoula and helped lead our transit agency to be named the Transit System of the Year. She understands the importance of our work to achieve 100% clean electricity by 2030 and will prioritize this work.

Andrea is a leader on economic development. She knows that our community only thrives if we have a strong workforce and if families have safe, decent places to live. She’s a member of the Missoula Economic Partnership board and values the importance of our community’s small businesses.

Lastly, Andrea prioritizes the importance of collaboration and partnerships. She’s been active at the legislature and has built diverse coalitions of housing advocates to work for change. She listens and seeks feedback. She knows that we can accomplish more when we work together.

I’d like to thank everyone who supported and encouraged me throughout my campaign to serve as mayor. I am grateful for your friendship, for the trust you placed in me, for your advice and guidance, for your wise counsel and good humor. I couldn’t have done this without you.

I’d like to encourage all my supporters to cast your ballot for Andrea Davis. She’ll serve our community well and will lead Missoula forward.

Jordan Hess serves as the 51st Mayor of Missoula.