Vice President J.D. Vance delivers remarks to the Munich Leaders Meeting, hosted by the Munich Security Conference, at the Willard Hotel on May 7, 2025, in Washington, D.C. (Kevin Dietsch / Getty Images)
By Lorri Wickenhauser May 8, 2025 at 6:49pm
A political newcomer who hopes to become mayor of Cincinnati, Ohio, advanced in Tuesday’s primary after his half-brother, Vice President J.D. Vance, put in a good word for him.
Vance put out a post on Tuesday via social media platform X, urging locals to consider supporting his relative.
“Hey Cincinnati!” Vance wrote. “My brother Cory Bowman is running for mayor and is on the ballot today for the primary.”
Vance added, “He’s a good guy with a heart for serving his community. Get out there and vote for him!”
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!
— JD Vance (@JDVance) May 6, 2025
Democratic incumbent Aftab Pureval was the top vote-getter, with 18,505 votes, WCPO-TV reported. Bowman was in second place with 2,894 votes in the three-way contest. Republican Brian Frank finished third with 1,022 votes and was eliminated from the running.
“Cory Bowman shares a father with Vance and credits the vice president with inspiring his foray into politics,” NPR reported.
Cincinnati NPR outlet WVXU-TV reported that Bowman, founding pastor of The River Church in Cincinnati, was inspired to jump into politics after attending Vance’s inauguration in January.
Have you ever been to Cincinnati?
“But when it comes to this race, we are running for Cincinnati,” Bowman told the outlet.
“I need people to see that — that our job isn’t to copy and paste what’s going on in the nation. Our job is to say, however the nation’s going, what’s going to be best for the city of Cincinnati?”
NPR said Bowman’s campaign issues will focus on “money management, crime, and infrastructure.”
His campaign website mentioned “safeguarding the unborn” and “protecting Cincinnati’s children from domestic violence, sexual abuse, and trafficking.”
“What I tell people when it comes to budgets is that the two most important things are principles and priorities,” Bowman said Tuesday.
“Your principles are, you are not going to take on more debt, you’re not going to take on more burden for the city. And then also, your priorities are going to dictate what you spend the money on.”
He called Vance an “incredible role model,” but said his half-brother is “not a political counselor to me.”
Bowman’s opponent, Pureval, “is viewed as a Democratic up-and-comer” in a “predominantly Democratic city,” NBC News reported.
Pureval’s resume includes service as a former special assistant U.S. attorney and Hamilton County clerk of courts.
He has also previously run for Congress.
“He won the 2021 mayor’s race with nearly 66% of the vote to lead Ohio’s third-largest city,” according to NBC.
WVXU also said Bowman faces “a significant uphill battle in the strongly Democratic city.”
“All nine City Council seats also will be on the ballot in November. Although those races are also non-partisan, all nine candidates endorsed by the Democratic Party won seats in 2023, the most recent election.”
Lorri Wickenhauser has worked at news organizations in California and Arizona. She joined The Western Journal in 2021.
Lorri Wickenhauser has worked at news organizations in California and Arizona. She joined The Western Journal in 2021.
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