Incumbent Cuyahoga County Prosecutor Michael O’Malley is likely headed for a third term in office after declaring victory over challenger Matthew Ahn in the Democratic primary.
According to unofficial results from the Cuyahoga County Board of Elections, O'Malley captured 59% of the vote. Ahn got 41%.
O’Malley moves on to face Republican write-in candidate Anthony Alto in the November 5, general election. In the two previous general elections, O’Malley has run unopposed. In Cuyahoga County, which is considered a Democratic stronghold, Democrats outvoted Republicans in the 2020 presidential election by 34 points.
Voters appear to have been swayed by O’Malley’s experience — 38 years in public service and 31 as a lawyer including time as safety director in Parma, first assistant prosecutor in the Cuyahoga County Prosecutor’s Office, two terms as elected prosecutor and on Cleveland City Council — along with endorsements from Cleveland Mayor Justin Bibb, 11th District Congresswoman Shontel Brown and the Cleveland Police Patrolmen’s Association.
During the campaign, O’Malley went after Ahn for claiming to know how the office should be run without any experience as a prosecutor. Ahn is a visiting professor at Cleveland State University and has been a lawyer for about ten years, working as a public defender for part of that time.
The Democratic primary was a surprisingly spirited contest, with Ahn gaining support by questioning O’Malley’s track record running the office and slamming his policies on sending juveniles to adult prison, seeking the death penalty and retrying defendants in several high-profile cases after an appeals court threw out the original convictions.
Ahn was able to make those the central issues in debates and on the campaign trail. He also narrowly blocked O’Malley from receiving the county party’s endorsement.
O’Malley was first elected in 2016, following another hotly contested primary. In that election, he challenged incumbent Tim McGinty. During the campaign, O’Malley criticized McGinty for mismanaging the office and unfairly criticizing judges for the way they handled attorney assignments in cases that couldn’t be taken by the public defender’s office.
During his time in office, O’Malley helped launch the county diversion center, which was meant to help lower the county jail’s population by diverting people headed to the jail who are in need of mental health and substance abuse treatment. He also fought against the previous Cuyahoga County Executive Armond Budish’s plan to build a jail at a contaminated site near Downtown Cleveland, helping to derail the plan completely.
