LaVerne Gore wore a Cleveland Browns shirt as she spoke about her mayoral campaign at her kitchen table in the city's Buckeye-Shaker neighborhood.
The lifelong Clevelander said her choice of attire was pointed: it was just one instance of how incumbent Mayor Justin Bibb had "failed" Cleveland.
"We have lost the Browns, OK?" Gore said, referring to the Haslam Sports Group's decision to relocate the NFL team from Downtown Cleveland to Brook Park — a move Bibb has strongly condemned and attempted to block by invoking a state law.
"The Browns were an integral part of our economic system. We have lost them, and it should have been that we didn't; we had an opportunity to keep them," Gore said. "But because of that, because of inexperience and the inability to negotiate, then we lost them."
Gore said she voted for Bibb in 2021, when he was elected after long-term former Mayor Frank Jackson, but she said she's disillusioned by how he's run the city. As a conservative, she said it's time for a change in a city that's been run by Democrats for more than three decades.
"If we have people that have not voted for anything but Democrats... I can suggest that they take the rides that I've taken around the city over these last several months," she said apparently referencing the blight in some city neighborhoods. "This is the only thing the Democrats have to ride on? Come on."
Gore is the only candidate who filed with the Cuyahoga County Board of Elections to challenge the incumbent mayor.
She has never held public office, but she's run several campaigns locally and for Congress. Despite those failed bids, she confidently said, "I'm winning this one."
"I don't think that the current occupant of Cleveland City Hall, cares about Cleveland, I think he cares about himself, and I think he cares the next level of government for him," Gore said. "This is it for me. This is where I retire."
Gore was raised in Hough on the city's East Side. The youngest of nine children to a steel mill worker and nurse, she said she's experienced the poverty that plagues Clevelanders, living in a city often ranked among the poorest in the country.
"I'd like to make things a lot more equal, and I'd like to make sure that what we're doing is in the best interest of Cleveland," Gore said. "We are certainly not focusing on that right now. ... We don't take care of kids, we don't care of elders, we don't take care our community, we don take care neighborhoods. You tell me, I don't see where we're passing on anything."
She said her experience running her own consulting firm, LA Gore and Principles, as well as her background in education, would help her attract employers and build a strong workforce.
It appears some of her top priorities match Bibb's: addressing poverty, education and public safety.
She also spoke at length about utilizing Cleveland's natural resources like Lake Erie. When asked what those plans were, she demurred, saying she wanted to keep them secret from Bibb.
"We have a plan, and it is a good one," Gore said.
During his tenure, Bibb has made significant progress on the city's two waterfronts. Last year, City Council approved a Downtown tax increment financing district to fund billions in development along the Cuyahoga River and Lake Erie. He's also developed a lakefront master plan that will proceed "with or without" the Browns.
Bibb's campaign did not respond to a request for comment for this story.
But Bibb, who entered the election year with more than half a million dollars in his re-election war chest and a first term under his belt, is likely to win a second term.
Incumbents hold a re-election advantage. A 2017, a study found that incumbent mayoral candidates are more likely to win re-election than challengers, especially in elections held the same year as a presidential election.
