Darren Leach believes Columbus has “all the ingredients” to be a great city.
“Columbus is resource rich. They are sitting right between two waterways. They have an Air Force base, a small university,” he said Friday. “… We’re sitting right next to industrial sites.”
The main thing holding Columbus back is its people not working together, Leach said. If elected mayor, he hopes to change that.
“There are a lot of people with a lot of great ideas who don’t talk to each other,” Leach said.
Leach, 58, filed as an independent Friday to run for mayor, becoming the fourth candidate in the 2025 field. He joins Democrats Leroy Brooks and Stephen Jones, along with fellow independent Bill Strauss.
Leach, who holds a bachelor’s degree in mechanical engineering from Tennessee State University, worked as a corporate consultant for more than 10 years before returning to his native Columbus in 2007 and founding Genesis Church on Northside, where he still serves as pastor.
“We started with 5 1/2 members – me, my wife, three kids and she was pregnant,” he said.
If elected, one of Leach’s priorities will be “dovetailing” with the county, instead of each entity trying to duplicate what the other does well. That means complementing the county’s industrial might with entertainment, services and other amenities.
“They make a living with the big jobs,” Leach said. “They ‘do life’ with the services, the entertainment and the recreation we can bring to the city. … Build the things that are not the niches of the county so we can bring county people to the city for the things we do well. We go into the county for the things they do well. That’s what working together looks like.”
His candidacy carries the endorsement of sitting mayor Keith Gaskin, who announced in September he would not seek a second term.
Leach said Gaskin’s administration had “done a great job” bringing transparency to city government and getting the city’s financial house in order. While he appreciates the mayor’s endorsement, Leach said he is his own man in the race.
“I have my own relationships with people,” he said. “People know me. … A lot of the people who know the candidates I’m running against know me as well. They know what I do in the community.”
The candidate qualifying period runs through Jan. 31. Party primaries are April 1 and the general election is June 3.
Zack Plair is the managing editor for The Dispatch.
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