Two years ago — the last time Cincinnati voters elected a City Council — hardly anyone wanted to take on the Democratic majority in City Hall.
That may not be the case in 2025.
In 2023, all nine seats — eight of them held by Democrats — were up for election; and 10 candidates were on the ballot.
And the 10th was a Democrat, Anna Albi, who squeezed out the only non-Democrat on Council, Republican Liz Keating.
It was an unmistakable sign of the power of that Democratic slate card — a printed list of endorsed Democratic candidates — that ended up in the mailboxes of thousands of Democrats and independents in the city and was passed out at the polling places in precincts where Democratic voters were plentiful.
The power of the slate card carried the day.
Democratic party leaders in Cincinnati believe it can do so again in this year's November 4th election.
“We don’t take anything for granted,” said Hamilton County Democratic Party Chair Alex Linser. “But people in Cincinnati have put a lot of trust in the Democratic Party.”
And, yes, Cincinnati and Hamilton County have been reliably and indelibly Democratic blue since the 2008 election when Barack Obama won the county. Last fall, 77% of voters in the city chose Kamala Harris over Donald Trump. That trend has flowed from the top to the bottom of the ticket in this county; and is not likely to change any time soon.
But, in 2025, both the Republicans and the Charter Committee, Cincinnati’s independent political party, sense an opening, an opportunity for non-Democratic candidates in an atmosphere where they see issues like public safety, affordable housing, and the controversial Hyde Park Square redevelopment project breaking their way.
On some fronts, the Democratic incumbents are going to have to switch from offense to defense.
How big will the council field be?
Too soon to tell.
The filing deadline for candidates is 4 p.m. Thursday, Aug. 21 — nearly a month away.
As of Tuesday, only 12 had qualified for the ballot by filing at least 500 valid signatures on their petitions. And most of those are Democratic incumbents.
According to the Hamilton County Board of Elections website, 41 people pulled petitions to run for Council.
That most certainly does not mean 41 people will end up on the November ballot. It’s likely that at least half of those people will never file petitions or, if they do, will fail to get the required 500 valid signatures of Cincinnati residents, which is harder to do than you might think. If a candidate approaches a stranger and asks if he or she is a “Cincinnati voter,” that person might say yes and it turns out later that he or she lives in Blue Ash. Or Norwood. Or somewhere else not inside the city limits.
But the number of candidates who actually file and qualify for the ballot is likely to be in the neighborhood of 20 or slightly more.
Who is running for Cincinnati City Council?
The Democrats have nine endorsed candidates — Jan-Michele Lemon Kearney (the top vote-getter in 2023), and incumbents Albi, Seth Walsh, Evan Nolan (his first time on the ballot), Scotty Johnson, Jeff Cramerding, Mark Jeffreys, and Meeka Owens.
Incumbent Victoria Parks is not running for re-election; the party chose Ryan James of the West End and policy director at the United Way, to take her place. Parks was not happy about that. She wanted the party to endorse former firefighter and mayoral candidate Raffel Prophett, but the party went with James. Prophett has qualified for the ballot and will likely run as an independent.
Last week, the Charter Committee endorsed a slate of five candidates.
One is Steve Goodin, a former Republican Council member who is now “convenor” of the Charter Committee, which is Charter-speak for “president.”
The other Charter candidates are:
- Laketa Cole, a former Democratic Cincinnati City Council member who served from 2003 to 2010
- Don Driehaus, of West Price Hill, a member of the well-known Driehaus Democratic political family, who ran for Council in 1995 and lost
- Dawn Johnson of North Avondale, president of the North Avondale Neighborhood Association
- Aaron Weiner of Clifton, a realtor and board member for the Jewish Community Center and the Jewish Federation of Cincinnati
Hamilton County Republican Party chair Russell Mock said he expects that the GOP will endorse “three to five” Council candidates before the end of August, but after the filing deadline. Linda Matthews of North Avondale, a longtime party activist and trustee at Central State University, is likely to be one of those endorsed Republican candidates.
Suddenly, running for Cincinnati City Council appears to be a popular career move.
A Part 2 is coming Thursday: A closer look at the issues that are going to dominate this Cincinnati City Council race.
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