From Chairwoman Shontel Brown
Over the past four years, under my leadership, the Cuyahoga County Democratic Party has engaged voters around the county, even during a pandemic, through Zoom meeting, robocalls, direct outreach and communication and held virtual fundraisers to help support the party. During these past four years we have achieved a significant degree of both financial security and national exposure.
As a Party, we have much to be proud of. This past November, we elected 82% of our endorsed democrats. We facilitated mailing more than 330,000 pieces of literature to targeted Democrats or left-leaning voters to push for wins by our endorsed candidates.
We expanded our national outreach and visibility with visits from Vice President Kamala Harris and Representative James Clyburn. I am committed to making sure that Ohio remains a purple state in the eyes of the national Democratic leadership because I continue to believe that with strong focus, a solid plan, and the resources to ensure our plan can become a reality, we can continue turning out Democratic votes in Cuyahoga County and turn our state Blue.
We know that we have our work cut out for us. For perspective, in 2008, there were 1,111,286 registered voters in Cuyahoga County. Today, there are 877,081, a drop of 21%. This means that we have to turn out higher percentages to reach the same number of actual voters.
I am happy to report that the Cuyahoga County Democratic Party is doing its part to turn out our people. In 2016, there were 398,276 Democratic votes for president. In 2020, that number rose to 416,176, an increase of nearly 18,000 votes. And, we are adding registered Democrats – from 2020 to today, we increased from 187,000 registered Democrats to now over 222,000. Meanwhile, during my tenure as chair, the Republicans have gone from 16.65% of the overall registered voters to now just 7.5% - a drop of more than half of their members in fewer than 5 years.
I have been blessed to now be your 11th District Congressional Representative - something I work hard at every day to deliver for our community. Because of that role, and because I believe we have the party in excellent shape to continue moving forward, I announced at our endorsement meeting that I will not seek another term as Chair of the Cuyahoga County Democratic Party. Thank you to our Vice Chairs, Rudy Stralka, Kim Thomas, Cindy Marx and Troy Greenfield for their support and especially Deputy Treasurer, Vicky Warden and Executive Director Helen Sheehan for moving the Party forward.
Thank you for the opportunity to serve. Thank you for your commitment to our party and our values. We may not all agree on every issue or decision, we know that we are stronger together and we are on the right side of the issues.
[Chairwoman Brown’s term ends when newly-elected Central Committee Members elect a new Chair and Executive officers this summer]
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The Cuyahoga Democratic Party is excited to announce that Karolyn Isenhart will become our Executive director, beginning March, 2022.
Karolyn Isenhart is a committed leader for the Democratic Party and is dedicated to voter and volunteer engagement, electing Democrats to local, county, statewide and national office and organizing for issue campaigns including SB5/We Are Ohio.
Over the last 15 years, she has organized for numerous campaigns, recruiting and training volunteers geared to increasing voter turnout, coordinating with teams from the county, state and national party as well as clubs and affinity groups. She is the Lakewood City Leader, member of the Lakewood Democratic Club, serves on the Steering Committee for the Cuyahoga Democratic Women’s Caucus and is a longtime member of Cleveland Stonewall Democrats.
Ms. Isenhart has worked in the auction industry for the sales of fine art and estates and as a live auctioneer, pro bono, at dozens of benefits. Her career also includes seven years at Ulmer & Berne LLP working in Marketing and Recruiting and managing the firms’ charitable giving budget, website and coordinating events. Leveraging her deep experience in technology and marketing, Ms. Isenhart worked at Xerox as a project manager and most recently at Penton Media, now Endeavor Business Media, doing project management, producing webinars for their Manufacturing brands including IndustryWeek and EHS Today.
Ms. Isenhart holds a B.A. from Baldwin-Wallace University in Political Science.
The CCDP thanks Helen Sheehan for stepping up and serving as Interim Executive Director during the past eight months.
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January 26, 2022 was an exciting evening! More than 500 Executive Committee members joined together on Zoom to endorse candidates in County-wide races for the May, 3, 2022 Primary Election. State House and State Senate endorsements will occur once the District lines are finalized. Click on the image for the full list of current endorsements.
Stay tuned for more!
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VOTE BY MAIL
KEY DATES FOR THE MAY 3, 2022 PRIMARY ELECTION
Early Voting at the Board of Elections and Vote by Mail begins April 5, 2022
REDISTRICTING
The Ohio Redistricting Commission missed another deadline for new state legislature maps imposed by the Ohio Supreme Court. The Commission chose to adjourn Thursday evening without an approved map on the table.
Earlier Thursday, Republicans on the Commission voted down a map proposed by Democrats, but did not propose a new plan of their own. The two sides are now at an impasse with just 75 days to go before Ohio’s May primary election.
What happens next is so far up in the air. The Commission was given until midnight Thursday, 2/17/22 to approve new electoral maps for the General Assembly after their last two attempts were struck down by the court for being too biased toward the GOP. Under the Ohio Constitution, the maps must not favor any one party over another.
The Commission will reconvene to debate U.S. Congressional maps soon. A potential scenario is for the May 3, 2022 Primary Election to move forward for county-wide offices and potentially push Statehouse, Congressional Primary Election to August.
Stay Tuned for more!
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Ohio Democratic Party Executive Committee Votes to Endorse Candidates in Senate, Supreme Court Races
On February 17, 2022, the Ohio Democratic Party (ODP) held a virtual meeting of its Executive Committee. Per ODP bylaws, the Committee is required to consider endorsements of statewide candidates before the primary election. The Executive Committee voted to endorse Rep. Tim Ryan for Senate, Justice Jennifer Brunner for Chief Justice and Judges Marilyn Zayas and Terri Jamison for Supreme Court.
“Ohio Democrats are proud to endorse Rep. Tim Ryan, Justice Jennifer Brunner and Judges Marilyn Zayas and Terri Jamison, and we’re excited about the strong candidates we have running. We’re confident we have a strong, diverse ticket coming out of the primary elections that will show voters we’re on their side and lead us to victory in November,” said Chair Walters.
At the request of both candidates, ODP’s Executive Committee did not endorse in the race for governor.
“We respect Mayor Cranley’s and Mayor Whaley’s request for the party not to endorse in the governor’s race. We’re confident that our eventual nominee will provide Ohio voters a much better alternative to the failed leadership and corruption coming out of Mike DeWine’s statehouse,” said Walters.
The Executive Committee will meet again in March to consider endorsements in the other statewide races.
According to ODP bylaws, the Executive Committee shall be called for a meeting before the primary election and the Committee must carefully consider an endorsement in each race. Before tonight’s endorsement vote, the Party convened a screening committee made up of members of the Executive Committee that met with each candidate. The candidates also filled out questionnaires and were vetted thoroughly.
TRAINING OPPORTUNITIES FOR CURRENT AND POTENTIAL CANDIDATES
The ODP is excited to launch the 2022 Main Street Initiative, the Ohio Democratic Party's training series to prepare current and future Democratic candidates to run strong campaigns and win, in collaboration with LEAD Ohio PAC and Rust Belt Rising.
Click here to learn more about the program schedule and to register. Trainings will cover topics like fundraising, media, digital, voter engagement, messaging, ODP resources, and more. They will take place over Zoom on weeknights and weekends. The first half-day trainings will take place in April 2 and 9. There will also be some optional in-person events.
· Current Democratic candidates who have filed to run in 2022, their staff and lead volunteers, and Democratic elected officials will be accepted into the program. They just have to fill out the form.
· Potential candidates - those who plan to run for offices with later filing deadlines in 2022, or seriously want to run in 2023, or in the future - can also apply and should do so before Friday, March 18. We will vet these folks with county party leaders as they roll in.
There are several other free training opportunities available right now:
· LEAD Ohio still has openings in their Campaign Staff Academy, which includes 40 hours of instruction between late March and early May for current and aspiring political staffers. They will even slot in a few candidates, even though the training focuses on staff. The deadline to apply is 12 noon on Monday, March 7.
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