State Rep. Juanita O. Brent is hoping to trade the Ohio Statehouse for Cleveland City Hall.
The District 18 representative has filed to run for Cleveland City Council's Ward 1 seat against incumbent Joe Jones. That ward includes the East Side neighborhoods of Lee-Harvard, Lee-Seville, Union-Miles and Mt. Pleasant.
Brent grew up and lives in Lee-Harvard. She said her platform is a “clean, safe and connected” community.
"I live here. I'm very invested in here," Brent told Ideastream. "Everything just kept pulling me back. And I was like, 'I don't want to leave where I live in a worse situation than what was given to me when I was a kid.'"
Brent is currently in her fourth term in the Ohio House of Representatives. Throughout her tenure, she said she's worked to address systemic issues that face marginalized communities by introducing and supporting legislation that "prioritizes justice and equity."
She authored a law passed in 2020 that waived or reduced license reinstatement fees for people facing financial hardships.
If elected, Brent hopes to leverage her relationships in the Statehouse to work with local government.
"I talk to everybody: Republicans, Democrats, the crazy ones, the lonely ones," she said. "I mean I'm already talking to them right now, and that's why I've been able to be very intentional about getting money even through our capital ... and state budget because of those relationships. Relationships are everything."
Prior to her time in the Statehouse, Brent sat on the board of trustees for the Harvard Community Services Center and the Lee-Harvard Community Development Corporation.
Brent said she is running to bring the neighborhood back to the basics.
"I've definitely seen a change in the community," she said. "I remember there was a time our community was way more clean than it is right now. And so people who live in clean communities, also there's a definite connection to a community being also considered safe."
Brent said she also wants to meet voters where they're at through door-knocking, social media, physical and digital newsletters, text messages and more. She said communication will benefit residents not only in election years, but with information about grants and other programs that may benefit them.
"People want to be informed so they can have realistic expectations," she said. "And then being the servant of the people is altering those expectations of what's going to happen based off the needs of the people."
Ward 1 is currently represented by Councilmember Joe Jones, who has served the district since 2018. He won that race by eight votes against incumbent Terrell Priutt, with just over 5,000 people voting in a ward with about 20,000 residents.
Jones previously resigned from his council seat in 2005 after pleading guilty to mail fraud charges. His conviction made him ineligible to hold public office until it was expunged in 2017.
Voter turnout is often a struggle in Cleveland election years, as they do not coincide with major presidential or midterm races. Brent said she plans to be out in the community to get the word out about the upcoming primary and general election.
"So many people have never been courted, they've never been talked to, they have never be considered at all when it comes to voting, they never even had somebody knock on their door," Brent said. "You got to talk to them. That's the basic thing because no one will have the overall vision of what you're trying to accomplish if you're not talking to them."
Jones has filed to run for re-election, as have three other candidates: Aylwin Bridges, Marc Crosby and Lesa Jones Dollar.
Ward 1 is one of seven wards in which incumbents are being challenged. But Brent believes any incumbent can be unseated, as Jones himself did in the 2017 election when he beat Terrell Pruitt, especially after this year's once-in-a-decade redistricting process redrew Cleveland's boundaries and reduced the number of wards from 17 to 15.
"You're going to see a lot of races that's going to possibly just change the face of what this council is," Brent said. "The mayor needs a strong team of City Council people that he can work with and get the vision done. I'm looking to be part of that so we can be able to fight on behalf of Clevelanders and work with the state, work with the federal government, work with our nonprofits and different entities to do that."
Jones's re-election efforts could be affected by a recent controversy at City Hall that concluded with one-on-one professionalism training after a report found credible several women's allegations of sexual and non-sexual harassment. Jones has apologized for the behavior.
Jones did not respond to multiple requests for comment.
According to his council bio, Jones helped secure more than $100 million in new development projects in Ward 1 during his first seven years in public office. Since Jones took office in 2018, the new Frederick Douglass Recreation Center and John F. Kennedy High School have opened in his ward.
The Sept. 9 primary will narrow the field of candidates in each city council race to two, who will face off in the November general election. The winners of each City Council race will assume office in January 2026.
