Pictured is Dennis Kucinich Clevelandurbannews.com and Kathywraycolemanonlinenewsblog.com

By Kathy Wray Coleman, associate publisher, editor-in-chief

CLEVELAND, Ohio- Former Cleveland mayor Dennis Kucinich, also a former Congressman and an ultra liberal Democrat who has twice run for president, announced Monday that he is joining the crowded race for Cleveland mayor as the Sept. 14 non-partisan primary election nears.

The much anticipated announcement comes as no surprise to political insiders, and has been talked about in political circles over the past year.

Flanked by supporters and his wife Elizabeth, Kucinich said "I love Cleveland."

He said his campaign will focus on poverty, crime, housing, and community development, and he wants more police on the streets and on the city's police force, the city currently a party to a court monitored consent decree for police reforms with the U.S. Department of Justice following several questionable police killings of Black people, including 12-year-old Tamir Rice in November of 2014.

He said he would fight homelessness and prioritize neighborhoods, and would not misspend the millions in COVID-19 stimulus monies the city will get.

"We are getting $540 million in government aid. The money is there," Kucinich said. "It's a matter of priority."

The youngest mayor in Cleveland history, Kucinich, 74 and a west side resident, was elected mayor in 1997 at 31, drawing the nickname "boy mayor."

He left office after one term following an unsuccessful recall, losing reelection and leaving the city in default.

If he wins the 2021 mayoral race he would become Cleveland's oldest mayor behind four-term Black Mayor Frank Jackson, 74 and the city's longest serving mayor.

Kucinich was a Congressman from 1997-2013, losing an election to 9th Congressional District Congresswoman Marcy Kaptur in 2012, an election that pit the two Democratic lawmakers against each other after Ohio's then 18 congressional seats were cut to 16 because of the state's declining population.

He lost a Democratic primary bid for governor in 2018 to Richard Cordray, a former consumer watchdog for the Obama administration who cruised through the primary but went on to lose the general election to current Gov. Mike DeWine, a popular Republican.

Since 2013 he has been a Fox News Channel contributor, and he has national media contacts, if not international.

And in spite of some criticisms inside his party that he fraternizes too much with Republicans, he remains popular as a Democrat, and he has support from a cadre of Black leaders in Cleveland and Cuyahoga County, a 29 percent Black county and the second largest of Ohio's 88 counties.

Both Cleveland and Cuyahoga County are Democratic strongholds courted by prominent politicians like gubernatorial and presidential candidates.

Other high profile candidates for mayor include former Cleveland councilman Zack Reed, who lost a mayoral runoff to Jackson in 2017, state Sen Sandra Williams, Cleveland City Council President Kevin Kelley, non-profit executive Justin Bibb, Ward 7 Councilman Basheer Jones,  and Attorney Ross Dibello.

Whether the candidacy of Kucinich will deny Council President Kelley a run-off spot since both will be drawing votes from the city's largely White west side remains to be seen, both of them White in a majority Black major American city of some 385,000 people.

Mayor Jackson has been a Kelley ally but has not yet endorsed him.

Races for city council are also this year, and are crowded like the mayoral race.

Cleveland is nearly 60 percent Black and is governed by a mayor and a 17-member city council, nearly half of them Black.

The top two September primary winners for mayor and for city council will advance to the Nov. 2 general election.

All 17 city council seats are held by Democrats, and the city's last three mayors, including Mayor Jackson, have also been Democrats.

Clevelandurbannews.com and Kathywraycolemanonlinenewsblog.com, the most read Black digital newspaper in Ohio and in the Midwest, and the most read independent digital news in Ohio. Tel: (216) 659-0473. Email: editor@clevelandurbannews.com. We interviewed former president Barack Obama one-on-one when he was campaigning for president. As to the Obama interview. CLICK HERE TO READ THE ENTIRE ARTICLE AT CLEVELAND URBAN NEWS.COM, OHIO'S LEADER IN BLACK DIGITAL NEWS.