Cincinnati is a blue city. Democrats win the city’s presidential vote by roughly 77% to 23%, hold every seat on the nine-member city council, and control the mayor’s office along with the major Hamilton County elected positions. The surrounding suburbs and exurbs vote Republican, which makes Cincinnati a Democratic core inside a red region of an increasingly red state.
How Cincinnati Votes for President
Within city limits, Democratic presidential candidates routinely take about 77% of the vote. Kamala Harris hit that mark in 2024, matching Joe Biden’s 77% in 2020.
Hamilton County, which contains Cincinnati and its inner suburbs, is bluer than the state but not as blue as the city. Biden carried the county with roughly 57% in 2020, and Harris won it in 2024 with 56.54% to Donald Trump’s 42.03%.1Hamilton County Board of Elections. Hamilton County OH General Election 11/5/2024 Results The county has backed the Democratic nominee in every presidential election since at least 2008, with the margin growing over time.
Local Offices Are Almost Entirely Democratic
Mayor Aftab Pureval, a Democrat, first won in 2021 with about 66% of the vote and won re-election in 2025 by a wider margin.
The city council is where the lean is starkest. The nine council members are elected at-large in officially nonpartisan races, but party endorsements drive the results. In 2023, all nine Democratic-endorsed candidates won, shutting Republicans out of council for the first time in the city’s history. Democrats repeated the sweep in 2025, with all nine endorsed candidates winning; the closest non-Democrat, Republican Liz Keating, finished 10th by about 9,000 votes.2WVXU. Democrats Sweep Cincinnati City Council Race for a Second Term
At the county level, both the Hamilton County sheriff and the county prosecuting attorney are Democrats. Those offices were historically competitive between the two parties.
Congress and the Statehouse
Cincinnati sits in Ohio’s 1st Congressional District, represented by Democrat Greg Landsman, who won re-election in 2024 with about 54.6% of the vote.3Greg Landsman. Congressman Greg Landsman – Home
Nearly every Ohio House district drawn inside Cincinnati’s city limits is held by a Democrat, with one Republican-held district on the city’s edge.4Ohio Legislature. House Directory Cincinnati-area state senate seats are split, with Democrats holding a slight edge.
Where the Blue Ends
Cincinnati’s Democratic lean stops at the city and county lines. In 2024, Butler County gave Trump over 62% of the vote, and Warren and Clermont counties were even more lopsided toward Republicans. Even inside Hamilton County, the suburbs and unincorporated areas pull the countywide margins closer than the city’s own numbers suggest. Looking only at county totals understates how Democratic Cincinnati proper actually is.
Why the City Leans This Way
Cincinnati’s politics track patterns common in American cities. The population was about 309,317 at the 2020 census, roughly 49% white and 36.5% Black.5U.S. Census Bureau. QuickFacts Cincinnati City, Ohio The city skews younger than the country, with a median age around 33 against a national median of 39.1.6U.S. Census Bureau. Older Adults Outnumber Children in 11 States, Nearly Half of Counties About 41.8% of adults 25 and older hold a bachelor’s degree or higher, above the national average. Several large universities and a substantial healthcare sector add to the professional workforce.
Stacked together inside a dense urban core, those factors line up with the way Cincinnati votes: reliably Democratic in a state that has otherwise moved decisively Republican at the statewide level.