Youngstown Mayor Tito Brown wins in tight primary race

Voters in Youngstown have selected the person who will run as a Democrat in the city's mayoral election.

Incumbent Mayor Tito Brown will appear on the Democratic ticket in November as he edged out Councilwoman Samantha Turner.

Brown won a close election with 1,989 votes compared to Turner's 1,928. Brown attributes the close call to low voter turnout.

"If the voters don't come out, it gets tight like that and people can't sit at home and say 'Oh, I don't have to go I don't have to worry about it,' I'll tell everybody if you got a vote, use it," Brown said. 

Brown was first elected as Youngstown Mayor in 2017 after defeating incumbent Mayor John McNally in that year's primary election. Mayor Brown was reelected in 2021.

When asked why he wanted to run a third term, Brown told 21 News he had unfinished business.

"We've got so much work to do. We've got so many things that we're working on I mean, we've got record investment that's happening in our community," Brown said. "We've got 40 percent reduction in homicides, we're seeing new homes, infant mortality clinics are coming. We're not where we want to be but we've got so much more work to do and I wanna finish the job we started," he said.

Brown also said he will continue work to make sure families in Youngstown feel safe living in the city.

"We're going to continue walking these neighborhoods, we're gonna continue doing our prayer walks and we're going to continue working with our partners through intervention and prevention to make sure that our families are safe no matter where you live," Brown said. 

Prior to becoming mayor, Brown was the President of Youngstown City Council, 3rd Ward Councilman and a member of the Youngstown City School Board.

Samantha Turner has served as Youngstown 3rd Ward Councilwoman since 2020 and was previously the Director of Operations at Youngstown Area Goodwill Industries.

The incumbent Brown will have challengers in the general election this November. Derrick McDowell, Aleesha Foster and John White have filed to run as independents.

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