Tiara Ross won the Columbus City Council District 7 election Tuesday after consolidating the support from the entire city political establishment, narrowly defeating Jesse Vogel.
Those results show Ross received 55,465 votes and Vogel got 53,813 votes. That's with 100% of precincts reporting in Franklin County and all city precincts in Delaware and Fairfield counties reporting.
The results remained almost completely at 50-50 the entire night until the last batch of votes pushed Ross ahead of Vogel. The race is outside of automatic recount territory so Vogel would have to submit a challenge if he wants a recount.
Ross, an assistant city attorney, focused her campaign on her experience as a city employee during her campaign. She framed herself as the more experienced candidate while Vogel ran as an outsider.
The entire Columbus City Council, the Franklin County Democratic Party and almost every elected Democrat in the county backed Ross. Those elected officials joined her at her campaign's watch party at Strongwater Events in Franklinton.
Ross entered the room to thunderous applause alongside most of Columbus City Council after watching the returns from the narrow race at a different location. She spoke to the crowd in tears, flanked by her grandparents.
"Tonight, Columbus said yes. Yes to new leadership, yes to community, yes to possibility, yes, to representation that looks like us, that lived like us that will continue to advocate for us," Ross said. "Yes to a black woman, because when black women lead, Columbus leads and Columbus moves forward."
The District 7 seat was vacated after Shayla Favor was elected as Franklin County Prosecutor last year. Columbus City Council first appointed Otto Beatty III, who opted not to run for re-election.
Prior to Beatty's appointment, City Council President Shannon Hardin said he wanted a Black woman to fill the seat.
WOSU did not hear back from Vogel or his campaign after repeated attempts to contact him. Vogel's campaign watched results from Nocterra Brewing Company at the Scioto Audubon Metro Park.
It's unclear if he will challenge the race, given how close it ended up being.
Ross told reporters she was excited the election turned out to be a close race. It was the most competitive and one of the most expensive in recent city history.
"I was excited about what it meant for democracy in this community," Ross said. "I excited that folks had the opportunity to choose. And I'm excited that folks chose me to lead this city, and I'm honored."
Ross said she hopes the energy from this election carries over and increases engagement in city government.
Vogel’s campaign split labor union support and outraised Ross significantly, forcing Ross to rely heavily on campaign contributions from incumbent city councilmembers.
In the closing days, she got more than $155,000 from council members Rob Dorans, Emmanuel Remy and Christopher Wyche, while Vogel raised more than $300,000 from hundreds of individual donors.
Under the city’s district system, the candidates had to live in the boundaries of District 7, but the entire city of Columbus got to vote in the race.
The race was nonpartisan on the ballot, but both Ross and Vogel identified as Democrats.
Ross and Vogel emerged from May’s primary as the winners against Independent candidate Kate Curry-Da-Souza. Curry-Da-Souza ended up endorsing Vogel and helping him campaign.
Like in the primary, Vogel ended up winning most of the precincts within the boundaries of District 7. Vogel was critical of the city's district system and said the city would be better off with a true ward system where only voters within the district got to vote on the race, rather than the whole city.
Ross said there is always room for feedback and improvement in the system, but didn't say whether she would want reform.
"I am so excited to have gotten the lion's share of the vote for this election and I'm excited to serve day one. I will be open always open to feedback in any form," Ross said.
Dorans, Remy and Wyche were the only incumbent city council members on the ballot. Each ran unopposed and won re-election.
Columbus City Attorney Zack Klein and Auditor Megan Kilgore also ran unopposed and won re-election.
