Cincinnati voters have chosen the two candidates to face off for city mayor in the November election.
With 100% of precincts reporting, incumbent Democrat Aftab Pureval won the most votes Tuesday with 82.53% (18,505 votes). Republican Cory Bowman came a distant second with just over 12.91% (2,894 votes).
The race is nonpartisan and party affiliation is not listed on the ballot; the two candidates with the most votes advance to the general election in the fall. Republican Brian Frank came third with 4.56% (1,022 votes).
Little else was on the Cincinnati ballot in this primary election — the only other item was statewide Issue 2. Voter turnout in Cincinnati precincts was just 8%, below the 8.97% turnout for Hamilton County overall.
Pureval is running for his second term as mayor after easily winning his first term in 2021. He says the major concerns of constituents have not changed much over the last three-and-a-half years.
"They continue to be public safety, and that is by far the single issue that we hear the most in City Hall," Pureval said Tuesday. "But of course, housing continues to be a challenge. With the uncertainty in the national economy, people are worried about our local economy, about the jobs that we're able to create, and about continuing to grow our population. They're concerned about pedestrian safety; they're concerned about litter."
Pureval says when he entered office in 2022, it was to "several crises" of political corruption, a housing shortage, and the ongoing global pandemic. He says the city has made significant progress since then.
"Cincinnati is on the right track — we are really at the precipice of extraordinary growth," Pureval said. "Now is the time to continue that consistency and give us another opportunity to try and put points up on the board for the next four years."
Bowman is running his first ever campaign, and is the first Republican (along with Frank) to run in a mayoral election in 16 years. He's a College Hill resident and the pastor of a church in the West End, as well as the co-owner of a coffee shop in that area.
Bowman says his top priorities as mayor would be money management, crime, and infrastructure.
"What I tell people when it comes to budgets is that the two most important things are principles and priorities," Bowman said Tuesday. "Your principles are, you are not going to take on more debt, you're not going to take on more burden for the city. And then also, your priorities are going to dictate what you spend the money on."
Bowman says that includes being more proactive about things like potholes and snow removal. And he says his job as mayor would be to continually listen to constituents.
Bowman says he decided to run for mayor on his way home after the inauguration of President Donald Trump and Vice President JD Vance, Bowman's older half-brother.
Vance was quiet about the local election until Tuesday afternoon, when he posted (formerly Twitter): "Hey Cincinnati! My brother Cory Bowman is running for mayor and is on the ballot today for the primary. He's a good guy with a heart for serving his community. Get out there and vote for him!"
Bowman says his relationship with Vance is important to him and he's grateful for the endorsement.
"But when it comes to this race, we are running for Cincinnati," Bowman said. "I need people to see that — that our job isn't to copy and paste what's going on in the nation. Our job is to say, however the nation's going, what's going to be best for the city of Cincinnati?"
Bowman faces a significant uphill battle in the strongly Democratic city.
All nine City Council seats also will be on the ballot in November. Although those races are also non-partisan, all nine candidates endorsed by the Democratic Party won seats in 2023, the most recent election.
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