Yesterday afternoon, the Franklin County Board of Elections certified the official results of the November 7, 2023 general election. As an unendorsed major party candidate who was outspent by incumbent corporate Democrat Andy Ginther by over a 60-1 margin, I collected 36 percent of the vote with 76,989 total votes.

My vote total was the highest number of votes that an unendorsed major party candidate has received in the city’s 57 Columbus mayoral elections from the year 1816 to present, and one of only two unendorsed major party candidates to run for mayor in Columbus. The other mayoral election took place 76 years ago in 1947 between insurgent Floyd Green and James Rhodes who were both Republicans.

As a losing candidate, my vote total was the third highest ever recorded. The two election losses with higher vote totals were Michael J. Dorrian’s 92,054 in 1983 and Ben Espy’s1991 loss to Greg Lashutka with 79,083. I also outvoted former mayor Michael Coleman in his 2003 unopposed election and 2007 win over Republican Bill Todd and Andy Ginther in his 2019 mayoral election that he ran unopposed in. 

Although my loss was disheartening to tens-of-thousands of Columbus voters and residents who detest four more years of a mayor who continues to show a lack of vision, leadership, political courage and willpower to address the needs of all people, the number of votes I received on a shoestring budget clearly signal a need for policy changes from our mayor’s office. And I will continue to fight for those changes and be the voice of everyday people and neighborhoods as I have for the last 40 years.    

I also strongly urge other progressives to run for office in Columbus and Franklin County and for positions in the FCDP in order to change the stranglehold that corporate shills, developers, and high-ranking political players have on our election process.