Information provided by Hamilton County Board of Elections
Twenty-five people are officially going to be on the November ballot for Cincinnati’s City Council, according to the Hamilton County Board of Elections.
The candidates include:
- Audricia Brooks
- Former city council member Laketa Cole
- Jerry Corbett
- Don Driehaus
- Kevin Farmer
- Gary Favors
- Steven Goodin
- Ryan James
- Dawn Johnson
- Dale Mallory
- Linda Matthews
- Brandon Nixon
- Raffel Prophett
- Stephan Pryor
- Donald Washington
- Aaron Weiner
- Former Vice Mayor and City Councilmember Christopher Smitherman
In addition, several are running for re-election. They include:
- Anna Albi
- Vice Mayor Jan-Michele Kearney
- Jeff Cramerding
- Mark Jeffreys
- Scotty Johnson
- Seth Walsh
- Evan Nolan
- Meeka Owens
Council member Victoria Parks is the lone incumbent not seeking reelection.
Currently, all nine members of city council are Democrats, in addition to Mayor Aftab Pureval.
The top nine vote-getters will each win seats on council in a single ballot held at-large across the city. The specific amount of votes a winning candidate receives over the others makes no difference on the results among the top nine, with all entitled to seats during council’s 2026-27 session.
The candidates were required to submit at least 500 signatures and no more than 1,000 signatures of registered voters by last Wednesday to be able to run.
According to the Board of Elections, there are three candidates whose petitions have been filed, but are still under review.
Those candidates include:
- Former City Council Member Liz Keating
- Sol Kersey
- Gwen Summers
In addition to the City Council candidates, the Board of Elections has released the rest of the county candidates running for office, including for mayor and municipal court judge.
Mayor Aftab Pureval is running for re-election against Vice President JD Vance’s half-brother Cory Bowman.
Candidates running for municipal court judge include:
- Dwane Mallory (re-election)
- Rodney Harris
- Bernard Mundy
- Josh Berkowitz (re-election)
- Danielle Colliver
- Athena Stefanou
- Betsy Sundermann
- Mike Peck (re-election)
- Gwen Bender (re-election)
