YOUNGSTOWN — Mayor Jamael Tito Brown said he’s running for re-election next year with Tracey Winbush, a Republican member of the Mahoning County Board of Elections, all but certain she’ll seek the office and Councilman Julius Oliver giving it serious consideration.

Also, Louis Mosco, a former city employee who was a general manager for a car-leasing company in Columbus, said he’ll run as an independent candidate.

Feb. 3 is the filing deadline for those wanting to run in the Democratic or Republican primaries, which is May 4. Independents don’t have to file until May 3, the day before the primaries.

Brown said: “We’ve got so much that we’ve been able to do, but we’ve got so much more to do. We’re moving in the right direction. My relationship with the governor, other Ohio mayors and the president-elect (Joe Biden) will be a big help to the Valley.”

Brown recently wrote an opinion piece in The Washington Post with seven other mayors — including those from Dayton, Columbus and Cincinnati — “to demand real investment in our shared region, which has fueled the U.S. economy for generations yet never gets the attention it deserves.”

The eight called for “a Marshall Plan for Middle America” from the federal government “to save our industries and communities from destruction.”

That includes a “new regional and federal collaboration (to) rebuild and reposition these regions to be economically competitive domestically and globally” in the form of $60 billion annually over the next 10 years in federal block grants, state utilization of tax credits and leveraging of lending programs and strategic equity investment.

While he’ll seek a second four-year term, Brown said his “No. 1 priority right now is to get through this pandemic and the surge.”

POTENTIAL CHALLENGERS

Winbush said it is her “intention to run for mayor. I haven’t made a final decision yet, but I’m 99.1 percent sure I’ll run for mayor.”

If Winbush runs, it would be as a Republican.

“It would be disingenuous to run as an independent,” she said.

Once Winbush’s candidacy is certified, she would have to resign from the board of elections, which oversees the election, under state law.

Winbush said she is talking to various people including former council members, pastors and friends to determine if they would support her candidacy.

“My message is: We have to make this a city we want to live in and a city we want our kids to stay in,” she said. “I have a message of great hope. Our community deserves better leadership.”

Winbush was elected to the Youngstown school board in 1999 and served a four-year term. She unsuccessfully ran for city council president as a Republican in 2003.

The last Republican elected in a partisan race in Youngstown was Richard Atkinson in the 3rd Ward in 2003. Jack Hunter was the last Republican mayor of the city, winning his first term in 1969 and serving eight years.

The last independent to be elected mayor in Youngstown was Jay Williams in 2005.

While Donald Trump won Mahoning County by 1.9 percent, he lost Youngstown by about 50 percent to Biden.

Winbush said she hopes to keep the Republican base and get crossover support from Democrats and independents in the general election.

Winbush is the president of the Ohio Black Republicans Association, a former Ohio Republican Party treasurer and state central committeewoman, the former vice chairwoman of the county Republican Party and was Trump’s 2016 Mahoning County coordinator.

Oliver, who was elected in 2019 to his second four-year term, said of running for mayor: “I’m giving it some serious thought,” but isn’t prepared to make a decision yet. He declined to say if he’d run as a Democrat or an independent.

Oliver ran as a Democrat in both of his council campaigns but has been critical of the local party. He’s also been critical of Brown and backed Sean McKinney, an independent, in the 2017 mayoral election.

“Somebody’s got to lead the city in the right direction,” Oliver said. “The city needs a real vision and a real direction. I’m tired of being adrift at sea.”

Mosco is a former Democrat who is now a registered Republican. He plans to run as an independent.

“I want to spend my money in the general election,” Mosco said. “I don’t want to run in the Republican primary. I don’t want to spend my money in a primary.”

He moved back to Youngstown, where he was born and raised, in 2014.

He unsuccessfully ran for the 7th Ward seat in the late 1970s. During the early 1980s, he worked for the city’s Human Relations Commission as minority business manager and fair employment investigator. Mosco then got into the car business and moved to Columbus.

“I’m passionate about this town and the next generation,” he said. “I can bring business here. The city needs change. Nothing positive is happening.”

Several attempts to reach John A. McNally for comment on whether he’s considering a run were unsuccessful.

McNally was elected in 2013, beating Brown in the Democratic primary by 2.16 percent, and then beating DeMaine Kitchen, who ran as an independent, in the general election by 11.09 percent.

Brown beat McNally in the 2017 primary by 5.68 percent. A year before the 2017 primary, McNally pleaded guilty to four misdemeanors for crimes he committed while a Mahoning County commissioner and received a year of probation.

Kitchen said he is definitely not running for mayor and will seek re-election next year to council president. He won a four-way Democratic primary for the seat in 2017 and captured 96.06 percent of the vote in the general against a write-in candidate.

No one else yet has expressed interest in challenging Kitchen.

As for mayor, Kitchen said, “I think we can do better, but I’m not it.”