Vice President JD Vance's brother is trying to make politics into the family business with a bid for mayor of Cincinnati, Ohio.
But in Tuesday’s primary, Vance's half brother—Cory Bowman—got absolutely clobbered.
In the Cincinnati mayoral election, the two highest vote recipients—regardless of party ID—advance to the general election. In that sense, Bowman succeeded as he advanced alongside incumbent Democratic Mayor Aftab Pureval.
However, Pureval took a whopping 82.5% of the vote, while Bowman got just under 13%—a pitiful result that shows Bowman is set to get smoked in the general election this fall.
Bowman is an evangelical pastor.
Bowman did poorly even with an endorsement from his brother Vance, who on Tuesday tweeted a half-hearted endorsement of his younger bro.
"Hey Cincinnati! My brother Cory Bowman is running for mayor and is on the ballot today for the primary. He’s a good guy with a heart for serving his community. Get out there and vote for him!" Vance wrote.
That endorsement didn't help much, as Bowman got just 2,894 votes.
Of course, winning in deeply blue Cincinnati would be a heavy lift for any Republican. The last time a GOP candidate held the mayorship in the city was in 1971.
However, it appears Bowman wasn’t even trying to win the race, with Politico reporting that Bowman—an evangelical pastor and coffee shop owner—barely campaigned in the city and instead spent his time on right-wing cable TV trying to raise his national profile and telling people that he’s JD Vance’s brother.
“I think Cory Bowman came to the conclusion he wanted to run for something, and he picked literally the first thing that he saw," University of Cincinnati political scientist David Niven told Politico. "As a Republican in Ohio, if he’d run for almost anything else, he’d be a potent candidate, but not as a mayor of Cincinnati. I do think this could be another win by losing scenario.”
According to Politico, Bowman barely knocked on doors seeking out voter support. And he skipped a debate hosted by the local NAACP chapter. The day before the debate, Bowman had posted a photo of himself meeting with a right-wing podcaster in Fort Lauderdale, Florida—1,100 miles away from the city he is apparently trying to be mayor of.
Bowman has also never even voted in a mayoral election in the city, according to a report from the Cincinnati Enquirer, literally claiming ignorance.
“I think, like many people, you’re kind of ignorant to the fact that these local elections actually happen in the years that they do,” Bowman told the paper to defend the fact that he hadn’t voted in the city he’s trying to run. “That’s not me discrediting how important these elections are, but just getting over this mega election of the presidents and senators and representatives, and you’re thinking it’s only every four years or every two years, but then you start realizing, no, these city elections happen the year right after.”
Ultimately, after a dismal showing on Tuesday, Bowman seems undeterred—likely because his goal was never to win but to get in on the right-wing media grift.
“My family and I are overwhelmed by the encouragement and support we’ve received over recent weeks, and we’re excited for all that will be accomplished in the months ahead,” Bowman wrote in an Instagram post. “Cincinnati, we love you!”
The feeling from Cincinnatians, it seems, is not mutual.
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