Play Live Radio
Next Up:
0:00
0:00
0:00 0:00
Available On Air Stations
0000017a-3b40-d913-abfe-bf44a4f90000Howard Wilkinson joined the WVXU news team as the politics reporter and columnist in April 2012 , after 30 years of covering local, state and national politics for The Cincinnati Enquirer. On this page, you will find his weekly column, Politically Speaking; the Monday morning political chats with News Director Maryanne Zeleznik and other news coverage by Wilkinson. A native of Dayton, Ohio, Wilkinson has covered every Ohio gubernatorial race since 1974, as well as 16 presidential nominating conventions. Along with politics, Wilkinson also covered the 2001 Cincinnati race riots, the Lucasville prison riot in 1993, the Air Canada plane crash at Cincinnati/Northern Kentucky International Airport in 1983, and the 1997 Ohio River flooding. And, given his passion for baseball, you might even find some stories about the Cincinnati Reds here from time to time.

Yvette Simpson Joins Leadership Of Democracy For America

Yvette Simpson
Provided

Former Cincinnati council member and mayoral candidate Yvette Simpson has been named the new chief executive of Democracy for America, the progressive organization founded in 2004 by then-presidential candidate Howard Dean.

Howard Dean's brother, Jim Dean, is stepping down as chair of the grassroots organization and making Simpson the new chief executive, while the current executive director, Charles Chamberlain, will take the role of chair.

"After an election year defined by historic firsts and the profound impact of women of color, I couldn't be more excited about Democracy for America's future with Yvette Simpson as its new chief executive,'' Jim Dean said in a news release.

Simpson said she was "incredibly excited to take the helm of an organization that has been supporting candidates at every level for nearly 15 years."

"We know that the future is female and that our country is becoming more diverse,'' Simpson said. "The leadership of our country, from City Hall to the White House, needs to reflect the life experience and strategic vision of these changing demographics."

She begins in the job on January 1. In the second half of 2018, she served as federal election manager for Democracy for America.

A lawyer, Simpson was first elected to Cincinnati City Council in 2011 and re-elected to a four-year term in 2013. In 2017, instead of running for re-election to council, she ran for mayor, winning by 11 percentage points. But paired against fellow Democrat John Cranley, the incumbent, in the fall, Simpson lost the general election.

Democracy for American has more than one million members nationwide. Since its founding in 2004, its members have raised more than $62 million and made more than 25 million volunteer calls to help elect 1,006 progressive candidates nationwide.

Howard Wilkinson is in his 50th year of covering politics on the local, state and national levels.