ONONDAGA COUNTY — Josh Davis, a resident of the city of Syracuse, has announced he will be running on an independent line separate from the Republican and Democratic parties for the Onondaga County Legislature’s District 7 seat. He will be facing off against Democrat Dan Romeo.

Aiming to appear on the ballot with People First next to his name this election season, Davis said he chose to go somewhere down the middle because he sees too much divisiveness coming from both sides of the political aisle.

“There’s too much bickering and not enough getting done,” he said. “I can see both sides, and both sides have good things, but both sides have to come together.”

Davis said he hopes to be a “facilitator” and “liaison” who can build a bridge between the Democrats holding office in the city and the Republican majority on the legislature.

Comprising Eastwood, a sliver of DeWitt and the Sedgwick neighborhood where Davis lives, the redrawn seventh district is currently represented by Democrat Mary Kuhn, with a close vicinity covered by fellow Democrat Peggy Chase. Both legislators intend to step down from their positions this year.

In 2020, Davis started his dive into politics by kicking off his run for Syracuse Common Council District 1, a seat that would have had him oversee about a third of the county legislature’s seventh district.

He later became involved with a bipartisan Leadership Greater Syracuse program that connected him with his campaign manager, Liam O’Connor, and local officials who shared the nuts and bolts and the dos and don’ts of how to run for elected offices.

Though that campaign for council did not culminate in a victory, Davis said he has talked plenty with people residing in District 7 about their opinions by way of his work as a field technician for Verizon.

“My district that I’m running for now, I’ve already been in with my day job for 25 years,” he said. “I know every street that’s in there. I know every little pocket, every little neighborhood. I see what people want because I’m talking to people on my job just normally.”

With his present campaign, Davis seeks to make his platform more concrete the more he converses with residents and learns of their general and specific concerns through the petitioning season.

As it stands, he said inflation, crime and troubles scraping by faced by residents and business owners are among the issues he will try to tackle as legislator. He said he plans to bring money secured through sales tax revenue generated by the county into his district for purposes of greater Main Street development.

In the meantime, he said a main objective is to get voters motivated.

“It’s not a presidential election year, and people have had it about up to here with politics,” Davis said. “What it’s about is getting in front of them and getting them engaged.”

Davis also operates a catering company out of the upstairs part of the Palace Theatre on James Street and runs two housing businesses primarily for the Tipperary Hill area alongside his wife and brother.