Thank you!

This has been the experience of a lifetime. And I am immensely grateful to everyone who made it possible.

While I am disappointed to have not made the top six on election day, I am proud of the campaign we ran, take comfort in what we achieved, and am grateful for the support I received and the opportunity to run for office in this great city.

We started this campaign with the goal of winning. Unfortunately, we fell short on that one.

But we also sought to use this campaign to change the path of our city’s government: To end its push for divisive policies such as building adult housing on school grounds, reducing travel lanes on major roadways, eliminating single family housing zoning, promoting density without a plan and eliminating green space — and instead pursue policies that seek to bring us together as a community by focusing on quality of life issues that matter to residents on a daily basis.

We ran an entirely positive campaign focused solely on issues. About how City Hall needs to focus on the basics: fixing our storm drains and infrastructure; keeping our schools and community safe; getting our traffic moving; managing our growth; and preserving our green space.

As we entered the heated campaign season, I was pleased to see the debate focus on these quality of life issues; with the City adopting my proposal to appoint a Storm Drain Czar; the Council reversing itself on its decision to pull Resource Officers out of our schools; and candidates talking about issues that matter to residents as opposed to policies that divide us. Hopefully this will be the path our Council takes over the next three years.

On a personal level, this has been the experience of a lifetime.

I am grateful for the widespread support our campaign received, including from the many people who told us I was the only Republican for whom they had voted in decades - or ever, and also from our friends and neighbors. I will always be thankful to those who stepped up to volunteer for our campaign or supported it financially, most of whom did so unsolicited. And, thanks to our team at OnMessage, Inc. for putting in a world-class effort for a city council race.

And, at its core, this has been a family venture, with our daughter, Kelly guiding our policy proposals (and nudging me into running), our son Drew managing the campaign, its media and its messaging, and my wife, Lori, keeping everything on track, and spending hours knocking on doors and talking with voters.

Having knocked on more than 1,400 doors and having met thousands upon thousands of residents from all walks of life from all parts of our city has been personally transformative. I have learned how privileged we are to live in such a unique city, one with neighborhoods that feel like small towns within a diverse and caring community, situated in one of the most exciting and vibrant regions of our nation. And for that, I am especially grateful.