Commission President Stephanie Summerow Dumas will retain her seat on the Hamilton County Board of Commissioners.
Summerow Dumas withstood a challenge from former Cincinnati council member Christopher Smitherman, who was running as an Independent, and likely split the conservative vote with the Republican candidate, Matt O'Neill, who finished in second place.
Summerow Dumas credits the trust she says she built with voters for her victory.
"I think they believed that I was fair and that I was honest and that I was in it for them," she said at an election watch party Tuesday night.
Summerow Dumas says her agenda in her second term is balancing the county's budget while prioritizing affordable housing, the county's response to domestic violence and finding productive uses for federal American Rescue Plan funds, which must be spent by 2026.
Summerow Dumas also said the county's stadium deal with the Cincinnati Bengals will be a key focal point.
"I'm elated that I'll be part of that conversation again," she said. "I'm going to really scrutinize that agreement this time and make sure we get a better shake in 2026."
When Summerow Dumas was sworn-in in 2019, she became the the first African American to serve on the Hamilton County commission, and was the first African American woman to serve as a county commissioner in Ohio.
Prior to her time on commission, Summerow Dumas served 12 years in Forest Park, first as vice mayor, then as mayor. She was also village manager for Lincoln Heights for four years.
Split vote was 'tough' Smitherman says
Despite Smitherman having the support of a lot of Hamilton County Republican officials, it was Matt O'Neill, a relative unknown in politics, who had the "R" beside his name and likely picked up a lot of votes from people voting strictly along party lines.
"It's always tough when you see this," Smitherman said late Tuesday night as it became evident he wouldn't have enough votes to come in second, let alone unseat Summerow Dumas, "but we're splitting the vote."
Despite that acknowledgement, Smitherman remained steadfast Tuesday night in his commitment to being an Independent.
"I'm an Independent," he said resolutely. "It's not a difficult answer."
"This is what Independents talk about all across the United States of America. We tend to be in the dark — I say kind of politically in the closet — where the two parties tend to rely on us during elections, but when we want to run and we want to be the candidate, we're unable to get that support."
Smitherman says he thinks Independents will start organizing more and really push to expand from the two party system.
"It's getting more and more frustrating because you have two parties and people — we heard this all day — that people are on the fringes and that we believe that most of our greatest solutions are in the middle. So yes, we split the vote tonight. I think that's what you saw between the Independent and the Republican."
Smitherman isn't ruling out another run for political office, but he plans to reassess and focus on his financial planning business for now.
Smitherman would have been the first African American man elected to the county board. This was his first campaign for a county-wide job. He's previously served on Cincinnati City Council, first elected in 2003 as a member of the Charter Committee. He was later re-elected to council in 2013 and 2017 and served as vice mayor under then-mayor John Cranley.
