New faces to occupy city council, but many incumbents hold on

Cleveland City Council will look very different come January as five seats will have new occupants, according to the Cuyahoga County Board of Elections’ unofficial results. 

Those five new council members will fill seats in Wards 4, 5, 7, 12 and 13. Of those five seats, two were won from incumbents in Wards 5 and 12, but 10 other incumbents held onto their seats. 

Unofficial results can be found here.

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Turnout figures can be found here.

Ward 1 | 26.7% turnout | Joe Jones

Lee-Harvard, Lee-Seville, Union-Miles and part of Mt. Pleasant

Sitting council member Joe Jones, earning 2,787 votes, easily held onto his seat with 1,474 more votes than his challenger, Kimberly Brown, who earned 1,313 votes. 

Ward 2 |  20.9% turnout | Kevin Bishop

Mt. Pleasant, Union-Miles and Mill Creek Fall

More than 70 percent of Ward 2’s voters voted to reelect Kevin Bishop, who earned 1,940 votes. That’s 1,207 more than his competitor, Monique Moore, who won 733 votes. 

Ward 3 | 23.6% turnout | Kerry McCormack

Downtown, Tremont, Ohio City and Stockyards

Kerry McCormack, Ward 3’s incumbent, swept his race, too, by nearly 2,000 votes. McCormack earned 2,925 votes while his challenger, Ayat Amin, earned 982.

McCormack has been preparing a bid for council president. He will face Ward 6’s Blaine Griffin for the role once Kevin Kelley’s term as president expires in January. 

Ward 4 | 24.0% turnout | Deborah Gray

Shaker Square and portions of Buckeye-Shaker, Woodland Hills and Mt. Pleasant

Deborah Gray, earning 1,938 votes, beat Erick Walker, who earned 1,135 votes, by 803 votes in the open race for Ward 4’s council seat following former council member Ken Johnson’s corruption scandal 

Ward 4’s turnout shot up by about six percent from where it lagged during the primary. 

Ward 5 | 13.0% turnout | Richard Starr

Central, and parts of Kinsman, Midtown, downtown and North Broadway/Slavic Village

Richard Starr, who ran unsuccessfully against Phyllis Cleveland in 2017, edged out his competitor, Delores Gray, who Cleveland recommended as her replacement earlier this year. Starr, earning 800 votes, defeated Gray, who earned 623 votes, by 177 votes. 

Ward 6 | 19.9% turnout | Blaine Griffin

Fairfax, Larchmere, Little Italy, Woodland Hills, and parts of Buckeye-Shaker, University Circle, North Broadway, Slavic Village and Union-Miles

Blaine Griffin defeated a write-in candidate by more than 2,000 votes. He garnered 2,182 votes while his opponent had 66.

Griffin will face Ward 3’s Kerry McCormack for city council presidency come January. Griffin endorsed sitting Council President Kevin Kelley in the mayoral race while McCormack endorsed Justin Bibb, who won.

Ward 7 | 17.1% turnout | Stephanie Howse

Hough, St. Clair-Superior, Midtown and Asia Town

In Ward 7’s open race to replace Basheer Jones who unsuccessfully ran for mayor, State Rep. Stephanie Howse earned 1,430 votes to win. She was 533 votes ahead of former Ward 7 council member TJ Dow, who earned 897 votes. 

When Howse and Dow last faced each other for Ward 7’s council seat in the 2008 special election following the death of the renowned Fannie Lewis, Dow narrowly defeated Howse.

Ward 8 | 26.3% turnout | Mike Polensek

North Collinwood and part of Glenville

Mike Polensek’s more than 40-year reign as Ward 8’s council representative will continue for at least four more years. Earning 2,835 votes, he decisively defeated Aisia Jones, an activist with Black Lives Matter Cleveland who earned 820 votes, by 2,015 votes. 

Ward 9 | 18.5% turnout | Kevin Conwell

Glenville and part of University Circle

Sitting council member Kevin Conwell did not face a challenger. He garnered 2,011 votes.

Ward 10 | 18.5% turnout | Anthony Hairston

South Collinwood, St Clair-Superior, Glenville, Euclid Park and Nottingham Village

Sitting council member Anthony Hairston did not face a challenger. He garnered 1,816 votes.

Ward 11 | 17.9% turnout | Brian Mooney

Edgewater, Cudell, West Boulevard, Jefferson and Bellaire-Puritas 

Incumbent Brian Mooney held a few hundred votes over his challenger, Michael Hardy. Mooney earned 1,351 votes, which is 261 votes more than the 1,090 votes Hardy earned. 

Ward 12 | 22.4% turnout | Rebecca Maurer

Slavic Village and parts of Tremont, Brooklyn Center and Old Brooklyn 

Rebecca Maurer, a progressive newcomer, unseated the 14-year city council veteran Tony Brancatelli in Ward 12. With 1,544 votes to Brancatelli’s 1,476, she won by just 68 votes. 

Ward 13 | 30.8% turnout | Kris Harsh 

Old Brooklyn

Kris Harsh, with 2,730 votes, solidified his place as Ward 13’s council representative over Kate Warren, who earned 1,619 votes. That’s a 1,111 vote difference. 

Harsh is the housing director at the Metro West Community Development Corporation, while Warren works as a researcher at the Center for Community Solutions. 

Ward 14 | 12.8% turnout | Jasmin Santana 

Clark-Fulton, Stockyards and parts of Brooklyn Centre, Tremont and West Boulevard

Sitting council member Jasmin Santana defeated challenger Nelson Citron, repeating the results of the 2017 council race in Ward 14. Santana earned 1,034 votes to defeat Citron, who earned 546 votes, by 488 votes. Ward 14 had the lowest turnout of all of Cleveland’s wards. 

Ward 15 | 23.7% turnout | Jenny Spencer

Edgewater, Cudell, Detroit Shoreway and parts of Ohio City and Stockyards

Incumbent Jenny Spencer swept Ward 15’s race, defeating her opponent Chris Murray by more than 2,000 votes. Spencer earned 2,779 votes to Murray’s 514. 

Ward 16 | Brian Kazy  

Bellaire Puritas, Jefferson, and parts of Cudell

Incumbent Brian Kazy did not face a challenger this election cycle. He garnered 2,616 votes.

Ward 17 | 41.8% turnout | Charles Slife  

West Park, Kamm’s Corners and Puritas

Charles Slife, Ward 17’s sitting council member, defeated a challenge from Mary Kathleen O’Malley. O’Malley earned 2,531 votes while Slife earned 4,274 votes. 

Michael Indriolo is a reporting fellow at The Land