Political newcomer Tanmay Shah is on the verge of an upset after unofficial election results showed the attorney leading Cleveland City Council incumbent Danny Kelly by seven votes.
If his lead holds, Shah will be the only new face to successfully unseat a sitting council member this fall in races dominated by incumbents.
Shah, a 29-year-old resident in Cleveland's Jefferson neighborhood, defines himself as a democratic socialist. Backed by endorsements and fundraising from progressive groups like the Better Cleveland for All political action committee and the Working Families Party, he ran his campaign to stand up to what he calls the "establishment" of Cleveland politics.
"For me, it was just seeing a big disconnect what City Hall was doing and what people needed actually on the streets," said Shah, whose campaign centered on affordable housing, affordable groceries and reliable city services.
He said that disconnect is apparent among City Council members, many of whom he said are historically more focused on constituent services than legislating.
"I see this as a group project that requires more people to participate," Shah said. "The way our ward system works has enabled City Council members to only focus on their narrow sliver and not work as much on the bigger pieces that we should be doing together. ... We want to work toward making sure that we actually have a functioning legislative body that is able to provide an effective check and support for the mayor."
Under new maps, Ward 12, which extends from the West Side's Edgewater neighborhood to West Boulevard, most closely resembles Danny Kelly's current Ward 11. Kelly, a lifelong laborer who championed workers' rights in office, was appointed by his predecessor Brian Mooney in 2023 and won the special election that fall to confirm his spot in office. This was Kelly's first competitive race, armed with a mayoral endorsement and financial backing from the Council Leadership Fund, a political action committee controlled by City Council's president. Kelly held an 18% lead over Shah in the September primary.
Shah said while the general election's unofficial results may come as a surprise to some, he and his team were far from shocked. With more than 150 volunteer canvassers knocking on 10,000 doors, he said his team was embedded in the community and well-versed on residents' needs.
"For far too long, our establishment politics have favored people who are appointed into power and not actually elected into power," Shah said. "And even after they have that incumbent advantage that becomes really difficult to overcome, we knew that whether or not we would win wasn't the question. It was whether or not we can reflect back the reality of what people face."
Shah emigrated from India to a small town outside Dayton when he was nine years old. He later relocated to Northeast Ohio, where he studied at Kent State University and earned his law degree at Case Western Reserve University.
Shah said his work with the Legal Aid Society of Cleveland catalyzed his leap into politics in an effort to address the city's affordable housing "crisis."
"As a housing attorney, I represented low-income tenants against their landlords... and time and time again, I saw the failures of our policies in order to protect people," he said. "In eviction court, and I would see people who couldn't pay $500, $600, $700 in rent. And when I'm driving home, every time I see luxury apartments and condos being built and the question kept coming back to me, who's actually gonna live here? And I know it wasn't my clients."
Shah said there's no "silver bullet" to address affordable housing, but said Mayor Justin Bibb's Residents First legislative package was a "good start." He'd like to see more abatements for affordable housing, as well as a citywide tenants' union.
"In the current Ward 11, which Danny Kelly represents, five new housing units were built in two years. That's just not enough to cut it," Shah said. "So we have to build more, but we have make sure it actually is affordable housing and not a public subsidy under the guise of affordable housing that goes towards market rate."
Now, it's a waiting game. The Board of Elections is counting provisional ballots and must certify results by November 25. In the meantime, Shah and Kelly are both undertaking preliminary council duties, such as last week's unit rule vote to keep Blaine Griffin as council president. The new council cohort will be officially sworn in in January.
"No matter what happens with the recount, we know we've already won because we achieved that goal of reflecting back to the people what we heard on the streets of affordable housing, affordable groceries and reliable city services," Shah said. "Those are what was driving people. And we knew that if we gave them something to vote for, then they would come out and vote."
Kelly declined to comment on the race, noting that "everybody worked hard and ran a great campaign" as he awaits final results.
