Vice President JD Vance heartily endorsed his brother in a Cincinnati mayoral primary this week. But did Vance cast a vote in the race?
He’s eligible to vote absentee in the city, according to a Hamilton County Board of Elections registered voter list. But public records suggest he didn’t do so, and Vance won’t say.
Vance’s brother, Republican Cory Bowman, emerged from the nonpartisan primary Tuesday evening as one of the two top vote getters, earning roughly 13 percent of the vote to incumbent Democrat Aftab Pureval’s 83 percent.
Vance’s office declined to answer repeated questions about whether he was among the 2,894 people who voted for his underdog brother.
But he certainly tried to persuade others, posting Tuesday on X, ‘Get out there and vote for him!’
Absentee and early voter logs are public in Hamilton County, where the election took place. And Vance, who represented Ohio in the Senate and still has a home there, was not among the names listed on the elections office ledger.
He could have theoretically snuck out of Washington and voted in person. But he had no known travel and spent most of Tuesday in and around the White House for meetings with Canadian Prime Minister Mark Carney, the FIFA Task Force, and a swearing-in for special envoy Steve Witkoff.
‘We don’t think he did that, but we can’t say for sure,’ said a person who works at the Hamilton County elections office who was granted anonymity to speak freely. The person said Vance did not request an absentee ballot. ‘One would think the vice president showing up to vote would cause a stir.’
Bowman did not respond to a request for comment.
Under Ohio law, the voting records of some key officials such as judges can be public record but not published on the local boards of elections website. The vice presidency is not one of those positions.
‘Voter history is not finalized until after certification of the election in a few weeks,’ the person familiar with Hamilton County elections said in a text. ‘You can’t be 100% sure until then. But the BOE’s records indicate there was no request for an absentee ballot.’
Vance will have another opportunity to help a brother out ahead of Nov. 4, the general election.
It will be an uphill contest. Former Vice President Kamala Harris won the Democratic bulwark with over 56 percent of the county’s vote, far ahead of President Donald Trump’s 42 percent.
But as Republican Ohio Secretary of State Frank LaRose told Bowman’s backers a few days before the election, in low turnout, off-year elections, ‘the door you’re knocking on, the voter you’re talking to, the family you’re talking to could be the difference maker in this election.’
