Vice President JD Vance’s little-known half-brother is making his own foray into politics, announcing on Tuesday he is running for mayor of Cincinnati, Ohio.
Cory Bowman, 36, a pastor at a local nondenominational church and the co-owner of a city coffee shop, pulled petitions to run for the city’s highest petition, the Cincinnati Enquirer reports.
He then announced on social media that he is collecting signatures to get on the ballot in November.
‘Weeks ago, my flight touched down at CVG, returning home from the most monumental inauguration in my generation,’ Bowman wrote on Instagram.
‘When I landed, I knew the city where my family and I live and love cannot fall behind in the critical years ahead.’
He went on to say he is running ‘to provide a choice to the people of Cincinnati: A choice to see years of prosperity, growth and joy in our amazing downtown.
‘A population should never be complacent with how things are,’ Bowman continued. ‘They should have the choice to decide their own future.’
Bowman is now the first Republican to run for mayor since 2009.
Cory Bowman, 36, announced on Tuesday he is running for mayor of Cincinnati, Ohio
Bowman is the younger half-brother of Vice President JD Vance
Bowman grew up on a farm north of the city, and moved to Cincinnati with his wife and children in 2020.
That same year, he founded The River Church in the city’s West End, which teaches about the Rapture and encourages speaking in tongues, according to the Daily Beast.
‘My heart fell in love with it,’ Bowman said of the neighborhood, where he also co-owns Kings Arms Coffee.
He told the Enquirer he had already been considering getting involved in the local government as a way to give back, but after he attended his brother and President Donald Trump’s inauguration, he became more determined.
‘There’s nobody that cheered louder when he was getting sworn in because he’s my brother,’ Bowman said of the vice president, whom he said is ‘an incredible role model of mine.’
Bowman also said he spoke to his brother in the ‘initial stages’ before he officially put his hat in the ring for Cincinnati mayor.
He and Vance share the same father, Donald Bowman, who was Vance’s mother’s second husband.
Their father put Vance – who would later take his grandfather’s last name – up for adoption when he was in kindergarten, but Vance was able to develop a relationship with Donald and his half-siblings as a teenager.
Bowman said he spoke to his brother in the ‘initial stages’ before he officially put his hat in the ring for Cincinnati mayor
The future vice president even lived with the family at their Ohio farm house for a few weeks one summer, he recounted in his memoir, Hillbilly Elegy.
In the book, Vance described his father as a ‘devout Christian,’ which inspired Vance to experiment with his own religious views – ultimately converting to Catholicism as an adult.
Cory also described his father as religious, and said he mostly aligns with conservative values.
He pointed to ‘red tape’ slowing development and the concentration of low-income housing in the West End – which caused 10 residents to file a federal housing complaint against the city – as something he would like to tackle as mayor.
But Bowman faces a potentially crowded field in the race, with eight people pulling petitions for mayor.
None of the candidates, though, including incumbent Democrat Aftab Pureval, have turned in the required 500 signatures to be on the ballot, which are due on February 20.
Yet Hamilton County Democratic Party Chairman Alex Linser did not seem overly worried, saying, ‘Mayor Pureval has done a great job and anyone can see the city is better run today than before he took office.
‘The voters of Cincinnati have put a lot of trust in Democratic leaders,’ he added. ‘It is a safe, well-run city where you can raise a family.
‘We don’t need the kind of chaos that is coming out of the Trump presidency infiltrating City Hall,’ Linser said.
