Fargo Mayoral Candidates, a Series: Shannon Roers Jones

Last Word | May 28th, 2022

Shannon took my call while doing some grocery shopping during a busy weekday evening.

“I’m usually pretty busy, there’s always things going on, but at the same time there’s always time for talking to people.”

Shannon lives in South Fargo in the Maple Valley neighborhood. She chose to raise her kids here because it is close to her family. She spends a lot of time supporting her talented kids as they pursue a variety of after school activities, including swimming and theater.

When she isn’t cheering her kids on, Shannon really enjoys playing volleyball or meeting friends for coffee. She rotates between a number of Fargo’s coffee shops, including those close to her south-side neighborhood and those located in the downtown community.

“I just enjoy meeting people and visiting all of the different places around town. I probably drink too much coffee but I enjoy it.”

A current state representative, Shannon is looking forward to using the relationships she has built in the legislature across the state to bring as many opportunities to Fargo as possible.

“I think Fargo is ready for a fresh perspective in the mayor’s office. Fargo has made some great strides over the last few years but I think we have some missed opportunities. I am hoping to take and bring a new perspective to Fargo, and look for opportunities to capitalize on really promoting Fargo, building our workforce population, and looking for opportunities to bring new people to the community. Really also take advantage of the people who do live here in the community already, make sure we can get everyone really connected and engaged in the community.”

Shannon did not want to discuss the plans that she will pursue as mayor. Her web page also does not list any identified policies.

“I think that there's a lot of different things that I want to look at for the city of Fargo but not one that I want to get into detail in right now.”

From the many large flyers I have gotten from Shannon’s campaign I think the campaign is focused on an anti-defund-the-police message. I’m not sure why though; to my knowledge none of the other candidates are saying defund the police.

“The safety of our community is one of our key features of why people love to live in Fargo, and we need to make sure that we continue to provide our law enforcement professionals with the resources they need whether that’s manpower, funding, support, whatever the case may be, to make sure that we can maintain the safety in our community.”

In the end, Shannon and I chatted for about ten minutes and Shannon did not seem particularly passionate about any particular idea for the City of Fargo during our call.

From her webpage, Shannon seems to be an experienced development professional. She is a real estate broker and works as general counsel for her family’s Roers Construction and Development company, a large development firm currently embroiled in a controversy with the Fargo City Commission over their ongoing project in the Roosevelt Neighborhood.

“I’m just excited to bring a little bit of youth and a new perspective to the race and engage in a great dialogue to talk about the best plans for taking Fargo to the next level.”

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