HOLLAND (WHTC-AM/FM) — The end of Nancy DeBoer’s 14-year tenure on Holland City Council — the last five as the city’s first female mayor — hinged on voter turnout.
With 7,212 casting ballots, nearly 29 percent of the city’s 25,306 voters, which may be a record for an off-year election. Ottawa County Clerk Justin Roebuck told WHTC he’ll be running those numbers this week to see if that is so.
Nathan Bocks, who won Holland’s mayoral election by 490 votes, said praised DeBoer for running what he called “a clean campaign,” adding that he and she were friends before the election and he expected that friendship to continue. He echoed that sentiment later in the evening, as a TV crew went with DeBoer from her election party at the Holland Marriott, to Bocks’ party at Our Brewing Company.
DeBoer told reporters Tuesday night that predicting the outcome was impossible, but added that it “has been the honor of my life” to serve Holland as an elected official.
Her campaign focused on development in and around Holland, and the many awards and honors the city seems to routinely get for beeing a good place to live. But the upbeat nature of the campaign hit a few snags, first when she made remarks on WHTC about a drag-queen brunch at Holland’s Civic Center Place, for which she later apologized. Then for a an anti-LGBTQIA flyer she and at-large city council candidate Vicki-Lynn Holmes shared at a private event, with those sentiments repeated in some campaign literature.
DeBoer maintained that, as a Christian, she loves everyone equally. One element of the campaign that she criticized: A mud-slinging flyer sent by an independent group, aimed at Bocks, sent from the other side of the state. DeBoer decried that effort.
Lyn Raymond and Vicki-Lynn Holmes, each first-time candidates for the city’s at-large seat, finished 3,725 to 3,100 votes, respectively. Raymond said she hopes to work with Holmes, who is a current member of Holland’s Human Rights Commission.
Late Tuesday, Holmes — who spent much of Election Day teaching classes at Hope College, where she is a math professor — shared the following statement on her campaign’s Facebook page: “Thank you to everyone who came out today and voted for me! It’s been my honor to meet so many of the great citizens of Holland. Congrats to Lyn. I am sure we will all do great things together.”
Jay Peters, Nicki Arendshorst, and Dave Hoekstra, all running unopposed for council seats, were also elected. Peters and Hoekstra are incumbents; Arendshorst is a newcomer to Holland City Council, with experience as a Park Township trustee.
