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In Cincinnati, Ohio, residents headed to the polls on Tuesday to elect their next mayor, a decision that carries significant national weight.
Current Democratic Mayor Aftab Pureval is seeking re-election for a second term, with projections favoring his victory over his Republican opponent, Cory Bowman, who happens to be Vice President JD Vance’s half-brother.
This election marks a notable moment, as it is the first instance in 16 years that a Republican candidate has been featured on the ballot for the city’s nonpartisan mayoral race. During the May primary, Pureval captured approximately 83% of the vote, while Bowman garnered around 13%, earning him a spot on the general election ballot.
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Republicans face a daunting challenge in this predominantly Democratic city, which has not seen a Republican mayor in over half a century.
Bowman’s connection to Vance could hurt his chances after voters in Hamilton County, where Cincinnati is located, favored Democrat Kamala Harris by 57% during the 2024 presidential election.
During the campaign, Bowman downplayed his connection to Vance, choosing to focus instead on crime as his major issue along with infrastructure and city management. The city was in the spotlight earlier in the year when videos of a violent beating downtown went viral, raising questions about how the city was dealing with public safety.
The focus on crime echoes sentiments from the Trump administration about the level of crime in Democratic cities. The president has taken the unprecedented move of deploying National Guard troops in U.S. cities to fight crime against the wishes of state and local officials, though some of those deployments have been blocked by the courts.
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Pureval, for his part, has said public safety would be his priority if he were to be reelected, while also pointing to his record of increased economic investment.
Polls close at 7:30 p.m. ET. Follow along with election results as they come in using the tracker below:
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