Yemi Mobolade intends to blaze a new trail for Colorado Springs.

The Nigerian-born mayoral candidate doesn’t look like most of the men and the woman who’ve previously served the now 152-year-old city and its now roughly 479,000 residents as mayor. A political newcomer, his resume doesn’t include past stints in political office like many of his predecessors and his current opponent – and it doesn’t necessarily need to, he’s said.

Colorado Springs Mayoral candidate Q&A: Yemi Mobolade

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In a small meeting room called The Nest, tucked away from the Friday afternoon bustle inside The Wild Goose Meeting House downtown, one of two cafe-style eateries Mobolade co-owns, the candidate repeated a vision he’s often shared over the past year on the campaign trail. 

If elected, he intends to bring a “new kind of leadership” that will realize Colorado Springs as “an inclusive, culturally rich, economically prosperous, safe and vibrant city on a hill that shines,” he said in an interview with The Gazette ahead of attending the 98th, 99th and 100th candidate meet-and-greets of his campaign, where he spoke with voters less than two weeks before the May 16 mayoral runoff election night.

He’ll help lead the city in that direction by drawing from his entrepreneurial career and experience as a business leader, he told a crowd of voters who gathered at the Luczak Group at Keller Williams Clients’ Choice near the Chapel Hills Mall, Mobolade’s first event of the night.

“I will look at the issues in our city with fresh eyes, without being beholden to special interests. Actually, I do have a special interest. It’s you,” Mobolade gestured at the crowd. “… I am so humbled to be an agent of good disruption. We will move the city forward in a way that is … pragmatic.”

Early life and business experience

Born in Nigeria to two bi-vocational parents, his mother also worked as a high school teacher and his father worked in finance with international oil and gas company ExxonMobil – Mobolade and his three siblings, an older brother and two younger sisters, learned about the importance of education from a young age, he said.

“(My parents) were both products of opportunity,” he said. “They grew up in rural Nigeria without any opportunity and it was education that saved their lives. At a young age we were pushed to go as high as we can with more education.”

When he graduated high school in Nigeria, Mobolade followed in his brother’s footsteps and came to the United States in August 1996 to pursue higher education. Friends of the family who lived in northern Indiana offered to serve as guardians for Mobolade’s older brother and seek out scholarships so he could attend college. Not long after, Mobolade and his two sisters followed.

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“When we graduated from high school, that was the end of opportunities for us. That’s significant for the way I just view our country (the U.S.). The opportunities are endless, because (in Nigeria) we were stuck. There were no jobs, no colleges or universities to go to,” Mobolade said.

As a child, Mobolade said he “(learned) leadership and discipline at a young age,” attending the Nigerian Navy Secondary School military academy in junior high school. In college, Mobolade earned his undergraduate degree in business administration and computer information systems at Bethel University near South Bend, Ind., and then received a master’s degree in management and leadership from Indiana Wesleyan University, in Marion, Ind., he said. He also earned a seminary degree from A.W. Tozer Theological Seminary in Redding, Calif.

In 2010, Mobolade moved to Colorado Springs and founded a church with the Christian and Missionary Alliance. Later, he served as a ministry leader at First Presbyterian Church of Colorado Springs from 2015 to 2017, where he mainly focused on forging partnerships with local mission organizations and was also a worship leader, he said.

While he was with First Presbyterian, Mobolade co-founded the nonprofit COSILoveYou and the CityServe Day movement that united more than 100 churches in service to the community.

After he left his position at First Presbyterian, Mobolade served from 2017 to 2019 as the Colorado Springs Chamber & EDC’s vice president of business retention, promoting the growth of the city’s employers, implementing the chamber’s business retention and expansion program, working with industry-specific employer groups and partnering with economic development staff on projects that would attract new businesses, he previously said.

Mobolade co-founded restaurants Good Neighbors Meeting House and The Wild Goose Meeting House, as well as business consultant company Niche Coaching and Consulting, and previously served as Colorado Springs’ small business development administrator from 2019 to 2022, supporting small businesses and startup companies and promoting local economic development.

Not ever having held political office, the candidate has said throughout his campaign the experience that counts in the mayor’s seat is his background as an entrepreneur, business leader and nonprofit founder. Mobolade has promised to use his business background to tackle some of the city’s most pressing issues including home affordability, housing and water availability, crime, public safety, homelessness, infrastructure and sustaining a thriving local economy.

“While I may be a political newcomer, I am not a newcomer to city leadership,” Mobolade told voters at a meet-and-greet event Friday night.

His lack of ballot experience isn’t necessarily getting in the way of her support for Mobolade, resident Maureen Basenberg said. His energy and vision are more important to her.

“I think there’s opportunity in that,” she said. “How the machine has worked in the past is through longtime connections. Someone new could bring new connections. The Springs is poised to be an incredibly important city and we need new leadership, we need a new approach. I think Colorado Springs has been run on the status quo for quite some time and it’s exciting to think we can bring in more passion.”

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Mobolade’s vision and message of unity inspired resident Adam Edwards, who has been part of the Colorado Springs community since 2002, to do something he’d never before done: vote in the city’s regular April election.

In past municipal elections, Edwards said he never felt passionate about his choices for city candidates. After hearing Mobolade speak at Pulpit Rock Church earlier this year, he felt compelled to participate this time around in both the regular election and the mayoral runoff.

“(Mobolade’s) authenticity certainly is apparent, his willingness to connect. The integrity he shows, that sense of wholeness that he has and desire to bring people together. There’s a unifying piece of his message that resonates with me. … For someone to come in and bring people together, even with different backgrounds, to potentially find a common way forward, that’s the kind of leader I’d like to see for our city,” Edwards said.

The American Dream and the run for office

In Colorado Springs, he’s achieved the American Dream, Mobolade said. He’s started businesses, added jobs to the local workforce, added to the local tax base, and “leveraged that influence to help other businesses,” he said.

He also started a family. Mobolade and his wife, Abbey, a nurse educator, have three children, ages 9, 6 and 3.

After 21 years of living and working in the U.S. on student visas, work visas, religious visas and a green card, “it was a proud moment when I became a citizen” about six years ago, Mobolade said. “I transitioned from the leader that many people in our city would ask for my opinion around the issues, and yet I couldn’t participate in it. … That all changed about six years ago, and then it gave me the push for that next step, to be able to participate even more fully and have the opportunity to run for office.”

Leading Colorado Springs as mayor would be a natural extension of that dream, Mobolade said. 

If he wins the runoff election, Mobolade would make local history as the first Black mayor elected by Colorado Springs voters, an opportunity he sees for more inclusivity.

Leon Young served as Colorado Springs’ first Black mayor, stepping in as interim mayor in 1997 after former Mayor Bob Isaac retired early and resigned from the seat. Young was first elected to the City Council in 1973 and appointed vice mayor in 1981, a position he served in until 1997. After serving for a short time as mayor, Young continued to serve on the City Council until he died in 2001.

“I’m aware I am a Black leader and that tells a story,” Mobolade said between the Friday night meet-and-greet events. “I hope the story it tells is that Colorado Springs is an inclusive city, that it’s a new day for our city. … Young African American kids have said they’re excited to see someone who looks like them running for this office. I hope to inspire the next generation of minority leaders to do great things in this city, as well.”

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It would also give him a different perspective in ensuring a good working relationship between the mayor’s office and the Police Department as the Springs, like other cities, continues discussions about race and how police intersect with the community. Forging good relationships is something he’s already doing with local law enforcement, Mobolade said.

“We have already been in the foxhole together trying to bridge that relationship with the Black and Brown communities, so I’ve been doing the work already,” Mobolade said. He has good existing relationships with Police Chief Adrian Vasquez; former Police Chief Vince Niski; former El Paso County Sheriff Bill Elder, who has endorsed Mobolade for mayor; and other regional law enforcement leaders, he said.

While local municipal elections are nonpartisan, Mobolade’s opponent in the race, Wayne Williams, has presented himself through at least one campaign ad as the conservative Republican candidate Colorado Springs should choose over Mobolade, whom Williams’ ad presents as the more left-wing candidate in the race.

Though El Paso County voting records show Mobolade is an unaffiliated voter, he’s earned endorsements from local former Republican officials like Elder and Sallie Clark, a former Colorado Springs councilwoman and El Paso County commissioner who came in a close third in the mayor’s race in the April 4 regular election.

Williams is a well-known Republican leader who most recently served on the Colorado Springs City Council and is a former El Paso County commissioner, El Paso County clerk and recorder and former Colorado secretary of state.

Williams previously defended the ad to The Gazette as highlighting the differences in how both candidates would approach various issues if elected mayor.

“(Mobolade has) certainly said different things when he speaks to some groups versus other groups. I have always tried to talk about the issues in the campaign, and I will continue to do so,” Williams previously said.

Vance Brown, the co-founder and executive director of business development support company Exponential Impact who has given nearly $41,000 to Mobolade’s campaign, said turning a nonpartisan race political is “manipulation.”

“These are issues that we all care about equally, and making it partisan is a political gimmick,” said Brown, who describes himself as a conservative Republican. Brown is also the co-founder of and an executive elder at Thrivers Leadership Institute, which offers leadership mentoring, coaching and consulting. 

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“Yemi is the best collaborator I’ve ever seen. That’s what we need, someone who can bring us together, not separate us,” Brown said. “… We have to deal with homelessness. We have to have safety for our citizens. We’ve got to have water resources and water rights. … I’m a Republican and I don’t think that’s partisan. My Christian values tell me to care for people.”

Mobolade said if elected, he will lead with the people in mind.

“The very essence of government is ‘we’ – we the people. … We’re serving the diversity of our residents,” he said.

The Colorado Springs City Clerk’s Office sent out ballots for the May 16 runoff election to active, registered voters in city limits the week of April 24. Voters can return their ballots at any of the 26 secure drop-off locations throughout the city through 7 p.m. on Election Day. Postmarks will not count.

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