By Kathy Wray Coleman, editor-in-chief

CLEVELAND, Ohio- Governor hopeful Ed FitzGerald, a Democrat who will likely resign from his Cuyahoga County Executive job by the end of this year or early next year, has chosen a Black state senator from Cincinnati, Ohio for his lieutenant governor running mate in hopes of unseating Republican Gov. John Kasich in next year's gubernatorial race in Ohio.

A former FBI agent and mayor of Lakewood who won the county executive slot in 2010, FitzGerald announced last week that he has chosen state Sen Eric Kearney to join him on the Democratic ticket to braze the campaign trail for what is sure to be the most watched political showdown in Ohio for 2014.

"Building on the momentum of today's running mate announcement, the Democratic ticket for governor of Ed FitzGerald and lieutenant governor Eric Kearney will launch a two-day brainstorming tour of Ohio to discuss their plan to get Ohio back on track," FitzGerald said in a press release on Wednesday to Cleveland Urban News.Com, Ohio's leading digital Black newspaper.

The duo toured Toledo, Youngstown, Cincinnati, Columbus and Dayton, the state's largest cities, during a two day sweep beginning on November 20, the press release said.

A president Obama ally, Kearney, 50, is Minority Leader of the Ohio Senate and a partner in the Cincinnati based office of the law firm of Cohen, Todd, Kite & Stanford, LLC. He is also publisher of the Cincinnati Herald, the Dayton Defender, and Our Week, Black Ohio Newspapers.

He earned a bachelor's degree in English from Dartmouth College, and a law degree from the University of Cincinnati. He is married to Jan Michelle Kearney and the couple has two children.

Cuyahoga County is the state's largest of 88 counties and includes the largely Black major metropolitan city of Cleveland. It is roughly 30 percent Black. Cincinnati is roughly 45 percent Black and sits on the north bank of the Ohio River. It is a municipality of Hamilton County, which is situated on the southwest corner of the state and has a 23 percent Black population, U.S. Census reports reveal.