Roy Schmidt

Roy Schmidt is a former member of the Grand Rapids, Michigan City Commission and Michigan House of Representatives representing the 76th district, which includes parts of the Grand Rapids metropolitan area.

Schmidt served 16 years as one of two non-partisan commissioners for Grand Rapids' 1st District, representing the city's northwest side. He was elected to the state House of Representatives in 2008 as a conservative Democrat, and was re-elected in 2010. In 2012, he quietly changed parties and filed to run as a Republican, 10 minutes before the filing deadline. He lost in the November 2012 election to Winnie Brinks, who ran as a write-in candidate in response to Schmidt's change of party. Schmidt and state Speaker of the House Jase Bolger were investigated by the Michigan State Police for potential fraud as a result of his last minute party change and the circumstances behind it, which included the recruitment of candidate to file as a Democratic candidate in his place, but no charges were pressed.

In 2016, Schmidt pleaded "no contest" to a charge of growing marijuana for sale; police had confiscated three pounds of marijuana and 71 plants at one of his two homes. He dropped his initial defense that he was acting under the state's "medical marijuana" law, and admitted that he had been supplying "no more than 20" customers who were not his patients. He was sentenced to 45 days in jail and two years of probation.

Schmidt earned a BBA from Aquinas College. He and his wife Donna have three children.