Ned is running for State Representative in the Michigan House 53rd District.  

During his senior year of high school Ned Staebler spent nearly every Wednesday at a halfway house in Detroit tutoring residents with learning disabilities in reading and math. It wasn't easy work, harder when a student would get frustrated and lash out in anger, and like most teenagers, Ned sometimes wished he were doing something else. But the Jesuits at University of Detroit High School exhorted their students to become "Men for Others" and Ned took those words to heart. 

It is a message Ned has carried with him his whole life.

Devotion to public service has defined the Staebler family. Ned's great grandfather, Edward Staebler, was the mayor of Ann Arbor (1927 –1931), and his grandfather Neil Staebler served in Congress, representing Michigan-at-large from 1963 – 1965 before challenging George Romney for the Governorship. He was often referred to as "Mr. Democrat," and served as party chair for 12 years. 

Ned remembers his grandfather’s mantra, "Democracy is not free. Its price is participation." 

For the last four years, Ned has worked in Lansing to live up to his granddad's call for civic involvement. As a Vice President at the Michigan Economic Development Corporation (MEDC), the State’s official economic development corporation, Ned has helped to create jobs and diversify Michigan’s economy. In particular, he has overseen the investment of the 21st Century Jobs Fund, a $2 billion, ten-year initiative to transform Michigan’s economy. 

The MEDC has been an excellent venue to combine Ned’s professional background with his commitment to public service. After graduating cum laude from Harvard, Ned launched a successful business career in Chicago and London, spending nearly a decade in the capital markets with the Helios Group and Bear Stearns, where he learned first-hand how companies fund growth and how the global economy functions. 

In 2003, Ned left the banking world to earn a Masters of Science degree in Comparative Politics at the London School of Economics. At LSE, Ned graduated with Merit (Magna cum Laude), and focused on political economy, globalization, and US public policy. Ned, all too aware of Michigan's economic difficulties, wrote his dissertation on state-level economic development policy using his home state of Michigan as a model – what works, what doesn’t, and why. 

Ned returned to Ann Arbor in 2005. Becoming a part of state government wasn't a career move. Ned recognized how economics is intrinsically linked to social opportunity and justice and decided to apply his skills and talents to help drive Michigan’s recovery. Along with his duties at the MEDC he immediately devoted himself to political, professional, and public service. He has dedicated countless hours promoting human services and affordable housing through his work with the City of Ann Arbor’s Housing and Human Services Advisory Board (Chairperson), the Community Development Executive Committee (Vice-chair), the Ann Arbor Area Community Foundation (distribution committee), and the Ann Arbor Social Capital Fund (founding member). 

Ned has also worked to protect Michigan’s environment as a board member of the Michigan League of Conservation Voters and has been deeply involved in both City and County politics, serving as Treasurer of the Ann Arbor City Democratic Party and on the Washtenaw County Democratic Party Executive Committee. He is an elected Fourth Ward Precinct Delegate and in 2007 was a Fellow in the Michigan Political Leadership Program.

Ned lives in the Fourth Ward with his wife Annie, a veterinarian at the Ann Arbor Animal Hospital, and their two-year old son Teddy.