4 File to Run for Youngstown Mayor

YOUNGSTOWN, Ohio – Three Democrats will compete to be the party’s nominee for Youngstown mayor, including incumbent Jamael Tito Brown.

As of Wednesday’s 4 p.m. filing deadline, four candidates filed to run for mayor at the Mahoning County Board of Elections. 

Julius Oliver, 1st Ward councilman and owner of Kingly Hand Wash and Wax, and Ryan Kelly, a local restaurant operator, both filed petitions to challenge Brown for the Democratic nomination. 

Local talk show host Tracey Winbush filed petitions to run in the Republican primary. She is a former vice chairwoman of the Mahoning County Republican Party and served as treasurer of the Ohio Republican Party.

Candidate petitions are slated to be certified by the elections on or around Feb. 16. Winbush, who now serves on the elections board, is expected to resign her seat once her candidate petitions are certified. If she is certified and proceeds to the general election, she would be the first Republican nominee to run for Youngstown mayor since 2005, when Jay Williams was elected to his first term.

Brown, who previously served on city council and as chief deputy treasurer for Mahoning County, was elected mayor in 2017, defeating incumbent John McNally in the Democratic primary. In the general election, he beat former building and grounds commissioner Sean McKinney, who ran as an independent candidate, and three other candidates.

Democrat DeMaine Kitchen, the current president of council, will run unopposed to retain the seat.

Independent candidates have until May 3, the day before the primary, to file to run in the Nov. 2 general election. 

Copyright 2024 The Business Journal, Youngstown, Ohio.