Cory Bowman, Vice President J.D. Vance’s younger half-brother, is running for mayor of Cincinnati as a Republican this November, he told The Enquirer.
Bowman, pastor of a nondenominational Christian church in the city for the past four years, needs to turn in a petition with 500 signatures by Feb. 20 to qualify, according to the report published Tuesday. None of the candidates so far have qualified, according to the report.
Eight people, including sitting Democrat Mayor Aftab Pureval, have pulled petitions to run. No Republican has run for Cincinnati mayor since 2009, according to the report, when sitting Rep. Brad Wenstrup, R-Ohio, lost by 16 points to a Democrat incumbent.
Bowman attended the inauguration of President Donald Trump and Vance last month and said he spoke to his half-brother about running.
"There's nobody that cheered louder when he was getting sworn in than me, because he's my brother," Bowman told the Enquirer. “I will say he’s an incredible role model of mine.”
Vance and Bowman shared the same father, Donald Bowman, who died in 2023, according to the Enquirer. Donald Bowman was the second husband of Beverly Aikins, Vance’s mother.
The mayoral race is a non-partisan field where the top two vote-getters emerge from the May 6 primary. The election is Nov. 4, 2025.
Mark Swanson ✉
Mark Swanson, a Newsmax writer and editor, has nearly three decades of experience covering news, culture and politics.
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