Cory Bowman, Vice President JD Vance’s 36-year-old half-brother, decided to run for mayor of Cincinnati after watching President Donald Trump’s second inauguration. He told Politico earlier this year, “I was just really inspired, because I look up to my brother not just as a political model but as a role model.”
Bowman’s stated goal was to address the city’s “deteriorating infrastructure, unsafe streets, and misallocated funds.”
‘Government can’t fix everything.’
Evidently the residents of Cincinnati, who haven’t had a Republican mayor since 1971, weren’t ready for change.
According to the unofficial totals from the Hamilton County Board of Elections, the Democrat incumbent, Mayor Aftab Pureval, beat Bowman by over 55 percentage points — 78.21% to 21.76%. Bowman qualified for the general election after securing only 13% of the vote in the May primary.
“Pray for our leadership,” Bowman said after losing the race. “We have to pray for our city. We want them to win because — I’ve said this since the beginning of the campaign — we cannot copy and paste national politics when it comes to these city elections. We cannot just divide ourselves more and more when it comes to these cities. We want our cities to succeed.”
Although Bowman made abundantly clear that he is proud of his family, particularly his older half-brother, he focused his messaging during the campaign on the needs of the city. Pureval, on the other hand, appeared keen to make the election a referendum on the Trump administration, stating during the Oct. 9 mayoral debate that Bowman “represents MAGA” and “you either support the Trump agenda or you don’t.”
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Photographer: Ting Shen/Bloomberg via Getty Images
“You can’t run for mayor and not be concerned with the federal employees who are getting fired, not be concerned with the racializing of our own public safety challenges here in our community,” said the Democrat mayor, who underscored in May that Cincinnati is a sanctuary city and should remain “a global destination for top-tier talent.”
Despite previously smearing his opponent and Bowman’s supporters as “MAGA extremists,” Pureval — who first assumed office in January 2022 — indicated in his victory speech that Bowman was “very classy” in how he handled the defeat and signaled an interest in possible collaboration down the road.
Bowman was one of several Republicans who experienced humiliating defeats on Tuesday.
Winsome Earle-Sears, Virginia’s Republican lieutenant governor, lost her state’s gubernatorial election by double digits to Democrat radical Abigail Spanberger; Republican strategist John Reid lost the election for Virginia’s lieutenant governor to Democrat Virginia state Sen. Ghazala Hashmi; and Republican candidate Jack Ciattarelli lost the New Jersey gubernatorial race to Democrat candidate Rep. Mikie Sherrill.
Bowman wrapped up his concession speech with a Christian message, stating, “Government can’t fix everything, but you know what can fix everything is our relationship with Jesus Christ. And that’s why I want to encourage anybody watching, as well, if you’ve never given your heart to Jesus, if you’ve never even considered it, try it.”
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