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Mayoral election in Cincinnati, Ohio (2025)
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← 2021
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| 2025 Cincinnati elections |
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| Election dates |
| Filing deadline: February 20, 2025 |
| Primary election: May 6, 2025 General election: November 4, 2025 |
| Election stats |
| Offices up: Mayor |
| Total seats up: 1 (click here for other city elections) |
| Other municipal elections |
| U.S. municipal elections, 2025 |
The city of Cincinnati, Ohio, is holding a general election for mayor on November 4, 2025. A primary was scheduled for May 6, 2025. The filing deadline for this election was February 20, 2025.
As of 2025, Cincinnati has term limits for the position of mayor. Mayors can serve two consecutive four-year terms and can run again after a four year break.
Elections
Click on the tabs below to show more information about those topics.
Candidates and results
General election
The candidate list in this election may not be complete.
General election for Mayor of Cincinnati
Incumbent Aftab Pureval, Cory Bowman, and Julien Spivey are running in the general election for Mayor of Cincinnati on November 4, 2025.
Candidate | ||
 | Aftab Pureval (Nonpartisan) | |
 | Cory Bowman (Nonpartisan) | |
| Julien Spivey (Nonpartisan) (Write-in) | ||
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 = candidate completed the Ballotpedia Candidate Connection survey. | ||||
| If you are a candidate and would like to tell readers and voters more about why they should vote for you, complete the Ballotpedia Candidate Connection Survey. | ||||
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Nonpartisan primary election
Nonpartisan primary for Mayor of Cincinnati
Incumbent Aftab Pureval and Cory Bowman defeated Brian Frank in the primary for Mayor of Cincinnati on May 6, 2025.
Candidate | % | Votes | ||
| ✔ | | Aftab Pureval (Nonpartisan) | 82.6 | 18,747 |
| ✔ | | Cory Bowman (Nonpartisan) | 12.9 | 2,926 |
 | Brian Frank (Nonpartisan) | 4.5 | 1,031 | |
| Total votes: 22,704 | |||
| = candidate completed the Ballotpedia Candidate Connection survey. | ||||
| If you are a candidate and would like to tell readers and voters more about why they should vote for you, complete the Ballotpedia Candidate Connection Survey. | ||||
Do you want a spreadsheet of this type of data? Contact our sales team. | ||||
Additional elections on the ballot
- See also: Ohio elections, 2025
May 6, 2025
November 4, 2025
Ballotpedia's Candidate Connection survey responses
Ballotpedia asks all federal, state, and local candidates to complete a survey and share what motivates them on political and personal levels. Candidates are asked three required questions for this survey, but they may answer additional optional questions as well.
No candidate in this race has completed Ballotpedia's Candidate Connection survey. Ballotpedia is seeking 100 percent participation so voters can learn more about all the candidates on their ballots.
You can ask candidates in this race to fill out the survey by clicking their names below:
Candidate profiles
There are currently no candidate profiles created for this race. Candidate profiles will appear here as they are created. Encourage the candidates in this race to complete Ballotpedia's Candidate Connection survey so that their profile will appear here. You can ask candidates in this race to fill out the survey by clicking their names below:
Mayoral partisanship
Cincinnati has a Democratic mayor. As of September 2025, 66 mayors in the largest 100 cities by population are affiliated with the Democratic Party, 23 are affiliated with the Republican Party, one is affiliated with the Libertarian Party, three are independents, five identify as nonpartisan or unaffiliated, and two mayors' affiliations are unknown. Click here for a list of the 100 largest cities' mayors and their partisan affiliations.
Mayoral elections are officially nonpartisan in most of the nation's largest cities. However, many officeholders are affiliated with political parties. Ballotpedia uses one or more of the following sources to identify each officeholder's partisan affiliation: (1) direct communication from the officeholder, (2) current or previous candidacy for partisan office, or (3) identification of partisan affiliation by multiple media outlets.
Help inform our readers
Take our candidate survey
- See also: Survey
At Ballotpedia, we believe that everyone deserves meaningful, reliable, trustworthy information about their candidates. We also know that good information—especially at the local level—is hard to find. That's why Ballotpedia created Candidate Connection.
We ask all federal, state, and local candidates to complete a survey and share what motivates them on political and personal levels. Our survey helps voters better understand how their candidates think about the world and how they intend to govern—information they need to feel confident they're picking the best person for the role.
If you are a candidate, take our survey here. Or you can ask a candidate to take the survey by sharing the link with them.
Submit endorsements
Endorsements can be particularly helpful for voters trying to decide between candidates in local races, which often feature nonpartisan candidates. Endorsements from individuals and organizations can help voters better understand policy differences between candidates in these cases where little or no other news coverage of policy stances exists.
Candidates, share endorsements here. Readers, share endorsements you know about here.
About the city
- See also: Cincinnati, Ohio
Cincinnati is a city in Hamilton County, Ohio. As of 2020, its population was 309,317.
City government
- See also: Mayor-council government and Council-manager government
The city government of Cincinnati blends elements of the strong-mayor and council-manager systems. While the mayor serves as the city's chief executive officer and the city council serves as the city's primary legislative body, a city-manager, whom the mayor appoints and the city council approves, serves as the city's chief administrative officer.[1]
Demographics
The following table displays demographic data provided by the United States Census Bureau.
| Demographic Data for Cincinnati, Ohio | ||
|---|---|---|
| Cincinnati | Ohio | |
| Population | 309,317 | 11,799,448 |
| Land area (sq mi) | 77 | 40,858 |
| Race and ethnicity** | ||
| White | 50.3% | 80.5% |
| Black/African American | 41.4% | 12.4% |
| Asian | 2.2% | 2.3% |
| Native American | 0.1% | 0.2% |
| Pacific Islander | 0.1% | 0% |
| Other (single race) | 1.4% | 1.1% |
| Multiple | 4.6% | 3.6% |
| Hispanic/Latino | 4.2% | 3.9% |
| Education | ||
| High school graduation rate | 88.4% | 90.8% |
| College graduation rate | 38.7% | 28.9% |
| Income | ||
| Median household income | $42,663 | $58,116 |
| Persons below poverty level | 24.3% | 13.6% |
| Source: population provided by U.S. Census Bureau, "Decennial Census" (2020). Other figures provided by U.S. Census Bureau, "American Community Survey" (5-year estimates 2015-2020). | ||
| **Note: Percentages for race and ethnicity may add up to more than 100 percent because respondents may report more than one race and the Hispanic/Latino ethnicity may be selected in conjunction with any race. Read more about race and ethnicity in the census here. | ||
See also
| Cincinnati, Ohio | Ohio | Municipal government | Other local coverage |
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External links
Footnotes
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