At least one new face will join Akron City Council next year, according to unofficial results from Tuesday's primary election.
Just two of Akron's council seats were on the May primary ballot: representatives for Ward 1 and Ward 8. In each ward, council members had been appointed to replace the winners of the 2023 election who resigned from office before the end of their term.
In Ward 1 in central Akron, Fran Wilson defeated Councilmember Samuel DeShazior in a three-way race which also included attorney Emily Durway. Wilson came out on top with nearly 52% of the vote according to unofficial results from the Summit County Board of Elections.
Wilson, who uses they/them pronouns and identifies as nonbinary, plans to tackle affordable housing. They plan to crack down on out-of-town landlords, protecting renters’ rights and revising the housing code, they said.Wilson, previously ran for an at-large seat on city council in 2023 and is a community organizer in the West Hill neighborhood.
“I see a desperate need for accountability in the housing space,” Wilson said. “We need renters’ protections and subsidies. We need to keep fighting out-of-state, negligent landlords, and we need to revamp our housing code desperately to make sure that there is teeth and that the places that we are renting and living are safe.”
DeShazior was appointed to the council seat in January 2024 after Nancy Holland resigned.
In Ward 8, Councilmember Bruce Bolden won 56% of the vote to defeat challenger N.J. Akbar, according to unofficial results.
Bolden was appointed in June of 2024 following the resignation of James Hardy.
Bolden previously served on council in the 1990s. The Wallhaven resident has also served on the city’s board of zoning appeals.
Bolden plans to prioritize development of the Merriman Valley neighborhood and tackle excessive speeding in the ward. Specifically, Bolden would like to build on the city’s existing traffic calming measures, such as speed tables. Speed tables are long, flat mounds placed in the middle of a roadway designed to get drivers to slow down
Akbar, a consultant who lives in Northwest Akron, was previously the president of the Akron Public Schools Board of Education.
Ward 8 covers much of the city’s northwest side, including parts of the Merriman Valley, Wallhaven, Northwest Akron and Fairlawn Heights.
Bolden will run unopposed in the November general election.
According to the Summit County Board of Elections, Acacia Noel Viola Reynolds filed by the May 5, 2025 deadline to run in the Ward 1 race in the general election in November.
No Republicans filed to run in either contest.
