Cleveland voters awarded Justin Bibb a second term as mayor Tuesday night, delivering him a victory that he called “another mandate to move our city forward.”
Bibb’s win arrived early on an Election Night that will reshape Cleveland City Council, with battles between incumbents and a possible West Side upset by progressive newcomer candidate Tanmay Shah.
Two incumbents, Anthony Hairston and Rebecca Maurer, lost their seats to council colleagues Michael Polensek and Richard Starr, respectively. Those races were a consequence of council’s redistricting, which will shrink the size of the body from 17 seats to 15. Two other new faces will join council: Nikki Hudson in Ward 11 and Austin Davis in Ward 7.
Turnout was low. Just 18% of registered voters cast ballots in Cleveland.
The mayor’s family and members of his administration celebrated at a triumphant victory party at Nuevo Modern Mexican on Cleveland’s lakefront. Bibb won nearly 74% of the vote against challenger Laverne Gore.
The mayor called the election results an endorsement of the progress he has made in dealing with violent crime and modernizing City Hall. Then Bibb, who is president of the Democratic Mayors Association, turned his attention to the national political picture.
“Despite the chaos that we see coming out of D.C. these days, despite the cruelty that we see in our national politics, Cleveland will always be protected by the people,” he said. “Because government doesn’t change cities, we the people change cities. And we the people will change this country city by city.”
Immediate challenges await Bibb, even before the start of his next term. The Cleveland Metropolitan School District, which is under mayoral control, is expected to announce the closures and consolidations of dozens of school buildings Wednesday.
“For far too long, we’ve delayed hard choices about our footprint in CMSD,” he told Signal Cleveland. “I want to be the mayor that makes sure, in partnership with CMSD and the board, that we’re investing in high-quality education for every child across our city regardless of their ZIP code.”
Gore told Signal Cleveland she wouldn’t comment on the results until all precincts are counted.
Other council members will retain their seats: Charles Slife, Brian Kazy, Jasmin Santana, Kris Harsh, Stephanie Howse-Jones, Kevin Bishop, Deborah Gray, Kevin Conwell and Joe Jones.
Council President Blaine Griffin was unopposed for his Ward 6 seat. He’ll have to rally eight votes on the new City Council if he wants to keep his position as president.
Potential for a Ward 12 upset
In the City Council races, one ward appeared to be on the verge of an upset. Around midnight, democratic socialist candidate Tanmay Shah was leading Council Member Danny Kelly by just 7 votes in Ward 12 on the West Side.
The razor-thin margin in Ward 12 is close enough that uncounted provisional and late-arriving mail-in ballots could prove decisive. A final result as close as this one would also go to an automatic recount.
If Shah’s lead holds, it would be a significant victory for progressive organizers who have been trying to gain a foothold in City Council. Shah had the endorsement of the Working Families Party, a progressive third party. Kelly was backed by Bibb and Council President Blaine Griffin.
Shah said that his message on affordable housing, affordable groceries and reliable city services had resonated with voters.
“No. 1 priority has always been affordable housing,” he said at a party with supporters at Bosworth Tavern in the West Boulevard neighborhood. “But those are all important things that we’ve heard time and time again, and we absolutely believe we can chew gum and walk at the same time.”
He said he considered the results a win.
“We’re up by seven votes,” he said. “Last time I checked, that’s a victory, yeah?”
At the Harp, an Irish pub on the Near West Side, Kelly — a retired union laborer — followed the results with supporters from the building trades and other labor groups. He said he was waiting for more results from the Cuyahoga County Board of Elections.
“We just have to wait,” he said. “If the man upstairs wants my hands to stay in council, I’ll still be here. If not, I guess he’ll have my hands working somewhere else.”
“Danny’s the most pro-union candidate the city has ever had,” said 48-year-old Brent Misenko, a Ward 12 resident, electrician and treasurer of the IBEW Local 38. “I feel like the Democrats need to get back to our roots, which is being pro-union, pro-worker.”
Polensek and Starr in, Hairston and Maurer out
In Collinwood, long-serving Council Member Michael Polensek maintained his decades-long grip on office. He defeated colleague Anthony Hairston, who was drawn into the same ward as Polensek during the latest round of redistricting.
Polensek said it was his third time competing in a new ward after redistricting, and he’s won every time. The new Ward 10 links North Collinwood with South Collinwood and Euclid-Green. He credited his win to his old-school style of face-to-face campaigning.
“I answer the phone,” Polensek said. “I go to people’s homes. I go to their businesses, I respond to the emails. I’m not into texting. I’m not into tweeting. I’m not into the social media crap.”
Around midnight, Polensek was leading Hairston with 67% of the vote.
For one Polensek supporter, Tod Hirsch, the night was a full-circle moment. He recalled spending Election Night 1977 with his friend Albert Ballew — the Republican incumbent whom Polensek defeated at the start of his political career.
Hairston, 39, had described the race as a choice between Collinwood’s past and its future. Polensek, who will turn 76 this month, acknowledged that he was “no spring chicken” — but said he was committed to continuing to serve.
“This is geographically the biggest ward in the city,” Polensek said. “And there’s tremendous challenges here, so that’s why I said, whoever wins this race has got a lot of work to do, and I’m up for it.”
Starr, the Ward 5 incumbent, fended off a challenge from fellow Council Member Maurer. It was the city’s most expensive council race and one of its most contentious.
Despite that, Starr won handily with 64% of the vote as of midnight. Starr, who grew up in the Central neighborhood in Ward 5, ran on his deep roots in the community and his record representing his home ward on council.
“This victory belongs to the people,” he wrote in an Instagram post Wednesday morning. “As we move forward, let’s keep that same energy. The work continues, and the commitment to serve our community remains stronger than ever.”
At her Election Night party at Moe’s Tavern, Maurer called her loss “a minor setback.” She pointed to Shah’s narrow lead in Ward 12.
“A democratic socialist who ran in lucky number 12,” she said. “I might not have gotten to walk through the door tonight, but I’m really glad that I got to open it.”
As she concluded her speech, on the TV screen was Zohran Mamdani, the democratic socialist and newly elected mayor of New York City. Hundreds of miles away at Moe’s Tavern in Cleveland, a few people hung behind to hear his words.
