Six candidates try to make Cincinnati mayor runoff

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CINCINNATI (AP) — Voters in Cincinnati will make their choice Tuesday for the next mayor of Ohio’s third-largest city.

Six candidates are running in the primary, with the top two vote-getters advancing to the November election. The race is nonpartisan, but Democrats dominate the city’s politics.

Among the candidates are Democratic state Sen. Cecil Thomas, a former Cincinnati police officer; Hamilton County Clerk of Courts Aftab Pureval, a former Democratic congressional nominee, and David Mann, a long-time member of city council who has served as mayor before. Mann, 81, also served in Congress.

Trying to score upsets are businessperson Gavi Begtrup, retired firefighter Raffel Prophett, and educator Herman Najoli.

Polls were scheduled to close at 7:30 p.m. Tuesday.

Among key issues are guiding the city as its downtown starts to open up after pandemic shutdowns and cleaning up corruption after four council members since February 2020 have been charged on federal counts.

They are running to succeed Mayor John Cranley, who is term-limited after serving two four-year terms. He is preparing to run in the Democratic governor primary in 2022. Dayton Mayor Nan Whaley announced her Democratic candidacy for governor last month, with Republican Gov. Mike DeWine expected to seek as second term.

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