Cleveland Mayor Frank Jackson Wins Fourth Term

Cleveland Mayor Frank Jackson secured an unprecedented fourth four-year term Tuesday night, staving off a challenge from Councilman Zack Reed.

Jackson won about 59.6 percent of the vote to Reed’s 40.4 percent, according to unofficial results from the Cuyahoga County Board of Elections.

“This campaign actually helped me to get reconnected in a way that I had not been connected in a long time,” Jackson told supporters after declaring victory.

Jackson said he wanted to thank the public “for being very honest with the mayor.”

“Even those who didn’t support me, I want to thank them because they gave me a new education,” Jackson said. “A new education about governing, and about what it means to serve, and about the pain and the suffering that people go through.”

He said it’s public officials’ responsibility to relieve that suffering, “and to create an environment where they and their families can have prosperity and quality of life and just plain peace.”

Reed said his fundraising disadvantage against Jackson made it harder to get his message out. But the Ward 2 councilman said his candidacy pushed the mayor to make public safety a higher priority. 

“My hope, my wish and my desire would be, over the next few weeks, months and years, that we will stop this violence in the city of Cleveland,” Reed told his supporters. “And that we will begin to rebuild these neighborhoods and rebuild the people in the neighborhoods.”

Voter turnout was low: 23 percent of registered Cleveland voters cast ballots, slightly higher than the 2013 citywide election.