CLEVELAND, Ohio- Newcomer Justin Bibb, a former Barack Obama intern and progressive who ran on the political platform of decreasing crime and reforming the city's troubled police department, won the Cleveland nonpartisan runoff election for mayor Tuesday night over veteran Cleveland City Council President Kevin Kelley to become the city's fourth Black mayor and its youngest behind former mayor Dennis Kucinich.
In spite of never holding public office before, Bibb, 34, won with a whopping 63 percent of the vote compared to Kelley's 37 percent, unofficial results of the Cuyahoga County Board of Elections reveal. Both of them are Democrats.
"The work is just beginning," the mayor-elect said Tuesday night during an election night watch party at Olivet Institutional Baptist Church, one of the city's most prominent Black churches. "Tonight we will celebrate, and tomorrow we are going to roll up our sleeves and do the hard work of moving our city forward, in a better direction."
Flanked mainly by Black people, including Black preachers who championed his bid for mayor, Bibb promised to revitalize Cleveland and said change is on its way.
He became the city's fourth Black mayor behind the election of Carl B Stokes in 1967, who was the city's first Black mayor, Michael R. White in 1989, and Mayor Frank Jackson in 2005, Jackson, 75, the city's four-term mayor who opted not to seek an unprecedented fifth term this year.
His victory on Tuesday over Kelley, 53 and a White councilman who has represented west side ward 13, was not all that surprising, though political pundits were torn on whom they believed would become the city's next mayor.
Kelley placed second in the seven-way primary race last month and Bibb, armed with an endorsement from the Cleveland Plain Dealer, Ohio's largest newspaper, and political heavyweights like U.S. Sen Sherrod Brown and former mayors Jane Campbell and White, placed first, winning with 27 percent of the vote to Kelley's 19 percent. And though Kelley had establishment support going into Tuesday's election, and the backing of Mayor Jackson and a handful of the 17 members of city council, including five of the eight Black east side council persons, including Ward 6 Councilman Blaine Griffin and Ward 9 Councilman Kevin Conwell, he still lost. In fact, it was a political shake up by all accounts. It was, no doubt, the old guard vs the newcomers
In a well written editorial published at its online affiliate of Cleveland.com and as a cover story in its Sunday's printed edition, the Plain Dealer's endorsement of Bibb before the primary election in September said that though Bibb, who graces the cover, is young at 34 and has no political experience, he has the vision to lead the largely Black major American city of some 385,000 people. That message apparently resonated with voters as well.
"In this pivotal moment for Cleveland.....we believe the candidate with the vision for the successful city we wish to be is Justin Bibb," the editorial reads in part.
Kelly conceded at his watch party Tuesday night at the Harp restaurant on the city's near west side with his wife and daughters by his side and said he ran for mayor because he wanted to make Cleveland a better place to live for all Clevelanders.
"We believe in Cleveland," said Kelley, an 18-year councilman who has been council president for the last eight of those years, and an ally of Mayor Jackson.
A nonprofit executive and former banker with a law degree from Case Western Reserve University, Bibb is a product of Cleveland's public schools who went on to earn a law degree from Case Western Reserve University. When he was younger he interned for Obama when Obama was a junior senator from Chicago, Illinois.
The son of a social worker and Cleveland cop, Bibb ran a grassroots campaign with the support of young progressives across racial lines who embraced his ideas and political stances. He knocked on doors and met with small community groups across the city long before the primary election got underway, and it paid off in the end when he won the crowded primary over six other candidates.
East side voters, Black voters specifically, voted overwhelmingly for Bibb, an indication that Blacks continue to want a Black mayor of a majority Black city.
He endorsed Issue 24, a charter amendment that voters overwhelmingly approved on Tuesday that establishes a citizen-driven police commission to adopt police policies and to have the final say on issues ranging from recruitment to testing exams, police misconduct and excessive force, and outreach efforts. Kelly, however, opposed Issue 24 and campaigned against it as he was simultaneously running for mayor, a strategy that proved to be ineffective, particularly among Black voters.
A major American city, Cleveland is roughly 58 percent Black and most of its residents live in poverty. It is the most segregated city in the nation behind Boston and most Blacks reside on the city's east side and Whites on the west side, the two sides separated by the Cuyahoga River. Bibb is poised also to revamp the city's largely Black Cleveland Metropolitan School District, which the city mayor has controlled since 1998 per a state law that eliminated an elected school board and replaced it with appointees of the mayor.
Elections for mayor and city council are held simultaneously in the same year, which keeps most of the city legislators on the city council from giving up a relatively safe council seat for a possible, and often unlikely, mayoral win.
Two of the 17 city council members lost their seats relative to the November election with Ward 5 Councilman Delores Gray, a Black east side councilwoman, losing to Richard Starr and Ward 12 Councilman Anthony Brancatelli, a White west side councilman, getting outed by Rebecca Maurer. And state Rep Stephanie Howse won over former councilman T.J. Dow in Ward 7 to replace outgoing councilman Bashear Jones, who chose to run for mayor rather than for reelection to city council and lost in last month's mayoral primary.
Delores Gray's twin, Deborah Gray, won over Eric Walker in Ward 4, which was represented for decades by former councilman Ken Johnson, who is serving a six year prison sentence for public corruption and tax evasion. Johnson's successor, the controversial and outspoken Marion Anita Gardner, who was appointed to replace Johnson after he was indicted on criminal charges and suspended from office earlier this year by the Ohio Supreme Court, did not seek election to the Ward 4 council seat. And In Ward 13, community organizer and housing advocate Kris Harsh defeated Kate Warren to replace Kelley on city council
In short, Deborah Gray, Stephanie Howse, Richard Starr, Rebecca Maurer and Kris Harsh are the five new members of city council, and Kevin Kelley, Marion Anita Gardner, Delores Gray, Bashear Jones and Anthony Brancantelli are the five council persons who will leave office in January.
