Lisa Westerveld

Elisabeth Marij "Lisa" Westerveld (born 16 November 1981) is a Dutch politician serving as a member of GroenLinks in the House of Representatives of the Netherlands since 2017. Between 2014 and 2017 she was a member of the municipality council of Nijmegen.

Lisa Westerveld
Member of Municipality Council of Nijmegen
In office 27 March 2014 – March 2017
Member of House of Representatives
Incumbent
Assumed office 23 March 2017
Personal details
Born	Elisabeth Marij Westerveld (1981-11-16) November 16, 1981 (age 43) Aalten, Netherlands
Political party	Groenlinks (since 2010)
Other political affiliations	SP (until 2010)
Alma mater	Radboud University Nijmegen

Early life and career

Westerveld was born and raised in Aalten. She is from a family that were loyal voters of the Christian Union.^[1] She attended Christelijk College Schaersvoorde when she was a teenager.^[2]

She moved to Nijmegen for university, where she studied philosophy at the Radboud University Nijmegen. From 2007 until 2009 she was chairwoman of the National Student Union (LSVb). In 2010 she graduated with a master's degree in political philosophy.^[1] After completing her studies she started to work as a spokesperson and political lobbyist for the General Education Union.^[1][2]

Politics

She was first a member of the SP.^[2] She became a member of Groenlinks after she stopped at the National student union in 2009.^[1] For the 2012 Dutch general election, she was placed 22nd on the party list and therefore wasn't able to get elected as Groenlinks only obtained four seats. In 2014 she got elected into the municipality council of Nijmegen, where she was placed second on the party list. She got the most votes of women candidates in Nijmegen in that election.^[3]

In 2017, Groenlinks won 14 seats in the House of Representatives. Westerveld was placed 14th on the party list which would initially be enough to be get a seat, but because a candidate placed 19th on the party list was elected with enough preference votes she almost lost the seat. Westerveld garnered 18.000 preference votes which was eventually enough to get a seat in the House of Representatives.^[4] In 2021 she was re-elected based on preferences votes again. Groenlinks won 8 seats but Westerveld was placed 10th on the party list, she got 33,172 preference votes was passed the threshold to get a seat.^[5] She received a third term in the November 2023 general election as part of the shared GroenLinks–PvdA list, and she became the party's spokesperson for culture, youth care, mental healthcare, homeless sheltering, disability policy, inclusion, racism, and discrimination.^[6]

Electoral history

Electoral history of Lisa Westerveld

Year	Body	Party		Pos.	Votes	Result		Ref.
						Party seats	Individual
2012	House of Representatives		GroenLinks	17	1,458	4	Lost	[7]
2014	Nijmegen Municipal Council		GroenLinks			8	Won
2017	House of Representatives		GroenLinks	14	17,828	14	Won	[8]
2018	Nijmegen Municipal Council		GroenLinks	50[a]		11	Lost
2019	Provincial Council of Gelderland		GroenLinks	50[a]		6	Lost
2021	House of Representatives		GroenLinks	10	33,172	8	Won[b]	[9]
2022	Nijmegen Municipal Council		GroenLinks	50[a]	294	9	Lost	[10]
2023	House of Representatives		GroenLinks–PvdA	5	141,064	25	Won	[11]

Notes

1. Westerveld participated as a lijstduwer.
2. Westerveld received enough preference votes to be elected despite her party's result.