Cory Bowman lost his bid to become the next mayor of Cincinnati Tuesday despite a ringing endorsement from his half-brother, Vice President JD Vance.
The Ohio Republican was defeated by incumbent Mayor Aftab Pureval, who was first elected in 2021, according to The Associated Press. Though the office is officially nonpartisan, Pureval’s party preference is Democratic.
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Election results provided by the Cincinnati Enquirer showed Pureval nabbing 78% of the city’s vote, compared to Bowman’s 22%.
Bowman, 36, responded to his loss with a lengthy note on his social media platforms Monday.
“Last night, I spoke with Mayor Aftab and congratulated him on being reelected,” he wrote on Instagram. “I told him I will be praying for him and his precious family, along with all the leadership elected to City Hall.”
He went on to note: “To every person reading this — whether you supported me or opposed me, whether you agree or disagree, whether you reached out with encouragement or are about to leave a negative comment — know that I love you, but more importantly, Jesus loves you.”
Bowman shares a father, Donald Bowman, with Vance. While on the campaign trail, the pastor and small business owner didn’t try to distance himself from his family connection to President Donald Trump’s administration, but nonetheless insisted his focus was on local politics.
Cory Bowman, right, is seen with Vice President JD Vance and his wife, Usha Vance. The Ohio Republican lost his bid to become the next Cincinnati mayor after being defeated by the incumbent, Aftab Pureval via Associated Press
“Let’s just address the elephant in the room. My brother is JD Vance,” he said during an Oct. 9 mayoral debate, according to USA Today. “But the thing is that we’re running this race for Cincinnati. And time, and time again, people have tried to get me to bad-talk my brother, or to get me to be ashamed. I will never be ashamed of family.”
When asked if there was any issue with which he and Trump disagreed on, he quipped, “I don’t like his hair.”
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Vance, who represented Ohio in the Senate and still owns a home in the Buckeye State, heartily endorsed Bowman in the mayoral primary in May.
“Hey Cincinnati! My brother Cory Bowman is running for mayor and is on the ballot today for the primary,” he wrote on X, formerly Twitter. “He’s a good guy with a heart for serving his community. Get out there and vote for him!”
Just one week before Election Day, however, Bowman faced an allegation of voting fraud when it was reported that two addresses affiliated with him and his wife, Jordan, weren’t located in Cincinnati’s “West End,” where the couple said they’d voted in October and had moved to “right after the primary” in May.Bowman didn’t publicly respond to those accusations.
Bowman’s loss, of course, was one of many experienced by the Republican Party on an election night widely characterized as a rebuke of the Trump administration.
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The Democrats won governorships in New Jersey and Virginia, added seats to Virginia’s House of Delegates and successfully passed Proposition 50 in California, a direct response to Trump’s efforts to gerrymander more Republican House seats.
And in New York City, democratic socialist Zohran Mamdani defeated Trump’s candidate of choice, former Gov. Andrew Cuomo, in a decisive race for mayor.
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