J. D. Vance

Cory Bowman lost his bid to become Cincinnati’s next mayor on Tuesday despite the strong endorsement of his half-brother, Vice President JD Vance.

The Ohio Republican was defeated by incumbent Mayor Aftab Pureval, who was first elected in 2021, according to The News. Although the position is officially nonpartisan, Pureval’s party of preference is Democrat.

Election results provided by the Cincinnati Enquirer showed Pureval taking 78% of the city’s vote, compared to Bowman’s 22%.

Bowman, 36, responded to her loss with a lengthy note on her social media platforms on Monday.

“Last night I spoke with Mayor Aftab and congratulated him on his re-election,” he wrote on Instagram. “I told him I would pray for him and his beautiful family, along with all the leaders elected to City Hall.”

He went on to note, “To every person reading this, whether you supported me or opposed me, whether you agreed or disagreed, whether you reached out for encouragement or are about to leave a negative comment, know that I love you, but most importantly, Jesus loves you.”

Bowman shares a father, Donald Bowman, with Vance. While on the campaign trail, the pastor and small business owner didn’t try to distance himself from his family connection to President Donald Trump’s administration, but he still insisted his focus was on local politics.

via News

“Let’s address the elephant in the room. My brother is JD Vance,” he said during a mayoral debate on October 9, according to USA Today. “But the thing is, we’re running this race through Cincinnati. And time and time again, people have tried to make me badmouth my brother, or make me ashamed. I will never be ashamed of my family.”

When asked if there was any issue he and Trump disagreed on, he joked: “I don’t like his hair.”

Vance, who represented Ohio in the Senate and still owns a home in the Buckeye State, wholeheartedly endorsed Bowman in the mayoral primary in May.

“Hello Cincinnati! My brother Cory Bowman is running for mayor and is on today’s primary ballot,” he wrote on X, formerly Twitter. “He’s a good guy with a heart to serve his community. Come out and vote for him!”

However, just a week before Election Day, Bowman faced an allegation of voter fraud when it was reported that two addresses affiliated with him and his wife, Jordan, were not located in Cincinnati’s “West End,” where the couple said they had voted in October and moved “right after the primary” in May. Bowman did not respond publicly to those accusations.

Bowman’s defeat, of course, was one of many the Republican Party experienced on an election night widely characterized as a rebuke of the Trump administration.

Democrats won governorships in New Jersey and Virginia, added seats to the Virginia House of Delegates, and successfully passed Proposition 50 in California, a direct response to Trump’s efforts to control more Republican seats in the House.

And in New York City, Democratic socialist Zohran Mamdani defeated Trump’s preferred candidate, former Gov. Andrew Cuomo, in a crucial mayoral race.