The 36-year-old political newcomer will now oppose incumbent Democrat Aftab Pureval and attempt to become the city’s first Republican mayor since 1978.
Cory Bowman, Vice President JD Vance’s younger brother, advanced from the Cincinnati mayoral primary on May 6, setting up a direct challenge with the incumbent Democratic mayor Aftab Pureval in November’s general election.
With 95 percent of the precincts reporting, Pureval gained 18,505 votes (82.53 percent), compared to 2,894 (12.9 percent) for Bowman, and 1,022 for Republican Brian Frank (4.6 percent), according to The Associated Press.
Under the rules of Cincinnati’s mayoral primaries, only the top two finishers continue to the November general election. Frank was eliminated.
In a Facebook post after learning he had advanced, Bowman thanked Cincinnati voters.
“The greatest gift local government can offer its residents is a choice. That’s exactly what voters will have this November. There’s much work ahead, and we’re ready to show our great city that we’re the best candidate for the job,” he wrote.
A political newcomer, the 36-year-old Bowman is the pastor of a church in the city’s west end, not far from the coffee shop that he owns and operates.
Late last month, after making espressos and talking to customers at the coffee house, he told The Epoch Times that fundraising and further building his volunteer campaign team would be immediate objectives if he finished in the top two on May 6.
Like Bowman, Vance is an Ohio native. He and his wife, Usha Vance, own a home in Cincinnati’s East Walnut Hills neighborhood. He served as a U.S. Senator before getting a promotion in January.
Bowman told The Epoch Times that he decided to run for mayor of Cincinnati after attending President Donald Trump’s inauguration in January and watching his older brother, who he calls a role model, become vice president.
Vance has not taken an active role in his brother’s campaign but he offered him a last-second endorsement on X on May 6.
“Hey Cincinnati! My brother Cory Bowman is running for mayor and is on the ballot today for the primary. He’s a good guy with a heart for serving his community. Get out there and vote for him!” Vance wrote.
Deep Blue Cincinnati
Ohio has a strong Republican presence.
Trump comfortably won the state in the last three elections. Vance was elected senator in 2022, replacing longtime Republican lawmaker Rob Portman. The Trump-endorsed Bernie Moreno defeated longtime Democratic Sen. Sherrod Brown in November. Ohio has a Republican governor, Mike DeWine, and a Republican super-majority in the state Legislature.
Ten of the 15 U.S. House members in Ohio are Republicans.
Yet Democrats control Cincinnati, which has an all-Democratic city council.
Last November, when Trump registered a resounding victory, 77 percent of Cincinnati’s electorate voted for then-Vice President Kamala Harris.
Ohio’s 1st Congressional District, which includes Cincinnati, is represented by Democrat Greg Landsman, who defeated incumbent Republican Steve Chabot in 2022 and Republican challenger Orlando Sonza last November.
If Bowman can defeat Pureval in November, he will become the first Republican mayor of Cincinnati since Ken Blackwell held the post from 1978 to 1980.
Until Bowman and Frank entered the race this year, a Republican hadn’t run for mayor in the city since 2009, when Brad Wenstrup lost before eventually becoming a U.S. Representative.
The City’s Future
Pureval, 42, is seeking a second term as Cincinnati’s mayor. The Democrat is a lawyer and former special assistant U.S. attorney who served as Hamilton County Clerk of Courts before winning the 2021 mayoral race with around 66 percent of the vote.
In a statement on the evening of May 6, Pureval said the city deserves a “substantive and healthy debate of ideas about the future of our city” leading to November’s general election.
“There is work ahead of us in Cincinnati, but I am incredibly proud of what we’ve accomplished over the past few years,” Pureval said.
“We have made meaningful, tangible progress for folks across our community, and this is a moment to keep building on the momentum we’ve worked so hard to create,” he added.
Pureval noted that issues that are important to Cincinnati voters now are similar to when he ran the first time.
“They continue to be public safety, and that is by far the single issue that we hear the most in City Hall,” Pureval said on May 6. “But of course, housing continues to be a challenge. With the uncertainty in the national economy, people are worried about our local economy, about the jobs that we’re able to create, and about continuing to grow our population. They’re concerned about pedestrian safety; they’re concerned about litter.”
On the afternoon of May 6, Bowman gathered with voters and diners at Price Hill Chili.
“I tell people I’m extremely nervous and extremely confident at the same time. It’s a crazy feeling to have but I’ve been encouraged by people getting out and voting,” Bowman told a Cincinnati television station.
He added that he was “joking around about Star Wars” with Vance on May 5.
“That’s just the relationship we have to where I put first and foremost that he’s a brother above a political candidate or political advisor,” Bowman said.
Bowman earned a degree in economics and business administration from Miami University in Oxford, also located in southwest Ohio.
He moved to Tampa to study for the ministry at River University, where he met his wife, Jordan, who is from Oklahoma.
“I prayed that the Lord would place it in her heart to love Cincinnati as much as I do. After a visit, she told me this is where she wanted us to raise our family,” Bowman said.
The couple moved to Cincinnati in 2020, after living nine years in Tampa. They launched The River Church Cincinnati in 2020 and opened Kings Arms Coffee in 2022.
Bowman said he and Pureval have different opinions on the current state of Cincinnati, and the short-term and long-term future of the city.
Bowman’s platform is centered around reducing gun violence and improving economic development and overall living conditions in neighborhoods like the west end and downtown. Other sections of Cincinnati are not getting the same attention from city government as the downtown area, Bowman believes.
Pureval supports Cincinnati’s status as a sanctuary city, while Bowman opposes it.
“We have a 100 percent Democrat-controlled council and a mayor that’s simply just echoing all of their views, and those views haven’t worked the last four years,” Bowman told The Epoch Times on April 25. “I truly believe that the people of Cincinnati should have the option to elect another leader.”
Bowman’s relationship with a figure who is prominent in national politics doesn’t reflect his plans for serving as Cincinnati’s mayor, he told The Epoch Times.
“The conversations I have with people about running for mayor don’t start out with, ‘Are you red or blue, right or left?’ Bowman said. “They want to know my ideas and plans to make the city a better place.”