From the Planning Table to the State Senate: Dave Ward's Record of Building a Better Community

Before the campaign signs went up, Dave Ward was already doing the work.

Long before Dave Ward decided to run for State Senate District 24, he was showing up — month after month, meeting after meeting — as a member of the York County Planning Commission. No cameras. No campaign. Just a neighbor who cared enough to give his time to the community he loves.

For Dave, the Planning Commission wasn't a stepping stone. It was a calling. Sitting at that table, he saw firsthand how decisions made at the local and state level shape the places people call home — the roads families drive, the neighborhoods children grow up in, the green spaces communities treasure. He learned that good planning isn't just about zoning maps and variance requests. It's about people. It's about the kind of place you want to leave behind for the next generation.

What Dave also saw from that seat was how much state funding — or the lack of it — determines what's possible at the local level. Time and again, he watched promising community projects stall because the money just wasn't there. That experience lit a fire in him. He believes the state has a responsibility to send more resources back to the cities and counties, empowering local commissions like the one he served on to do more for the people they represent.

His years on the Planning Commission didn't just give Dave policy experience — they gave him relationships. He knows the developers, the neighborhood advocates, the business owners, and the everyday residents who show up to those meetings because they care about where they live. He's listened to all of them. And he's taken that listening seriously.

That's the Dave Ward who's running for State Senate. Not a politician who discovered public service on the campaign trail — but a community member who has been doing it quietly for years, and is now ready to take that commitment to Richmond.