Overview & Live Results: Mayoral Primaries in Boston, Cleveland, and Toledo
By 270toWin Staff
September 14, 2021
Headlining Tuesday's election calendar is the California gubernatorial recall election. There are also state house special elections in Iowa and Tennessee as well as mayoral primaries in Boston, Cleveland and Toledo. On this page are the mayoral primaries; use the links below to see other results.
| California Gubernatorial Recall Election >> | State House Special Elections >> |
Mayoral Primary Elections
All three of these elections are nonpartisan (NPA in the results tables). In each, the top two finishers will advance to the November 2 general election.
City rankings are based on July 1, 2020 Census Bureau population estimates. They are for the city itself, not the associated metropolitan area.
Boston, Massachusetts
Boston is the 24th largest city in the United States, with a population of about 675,000. The acting mayor is Democrat Kim Janey, who is also president of the City Council. Janey took office on March 22, when Democrat Marty Walsh resigned after being confirmed as Secretary of Labor. She is the first woman and first person of color to hold the position.
All five major candidates on the nonpartisan ballot are Democrats; the city has not had a Republican mayor in nearly 100 years. Four of them are women of color, two of whom are expected to advance to the general election. As a result, Boston voters will likely elect the first woman and first person of color as mayor this November.
Recent polling has been pretty consistent with Michelle Wu leading the field with support in the low 30% range. The other three notable candidates are tightly bunched at around 20%. In addition to Janey, this includes Andrea Campbell and Annissa Essaibi George. Campbell, Essaibi George, and Wu all are members of the City Council.
Polls close at 8:00 PM Eastern Time.
Tuesday's other mayoral primaries take place in Ohio. Polls close at 7:30 PM.
Cleveland
Cleveland is the 54th largest city in the United States, with a population of about 373,000. The current mayor is Democrat Frank Jackson, who was first elected in 2005. He is not seeking a fifth term.
There are seven candidates on the ballot; all are Democrats. The last Republican mayor was George Voinovich who served in the 1980s.
Interestingly, Voinovich defeated Dennis Kucinich, who served a single two-year term.2 2Mayoral terms were changed from two to four years during Voinovich's first term. He would go on to be reelected to four year terms in 1981 and 1985. Some 42 years later, the "Boy Mayor", now 74, is attempting to win back the office.
Kucinich led the only recent poll with 20%. However, the race is wide open with five other candidates seeing between 8% and 13% support. 21% were undecided.
- Kevin Kelley, City Council President (13% in poll)
- Justin Bibb, nonprofit business executive (12%)
- Zach Reed, former City Councilman (12%)
- Basheer Jones, City Councilman (11%)
- Sandra Williams, State Senator (8%)
Toledo
Toledo is the 79th largest city in the United States, with a population of about 270,000. The current mayor is Democrat Wade Kapszukiewicz. He is seeking a 2nd four-year term. In 2017, Kapszukiewicz was elected with about 55% of the vote.
Also on the three-person ballot is former mayor Carty Finkbeiner (D) and former city councilman Jan Scotland (R).
