By Rieley McDonnell, Head Copy Editor

The Cintas Center’s James and Caroline Duff Banquet Center hosted and brought student voices to the Cincinnati mayoral debate between sitting Mayor Aftab Pureval and challenger Cory Bowman.

Before debate between the candidates began Xavier University President, Dr. Colleen Hanycz, hosted an event called “The Exchange” between different politically minded students on campus. With a panel of political science professors, Dr. Mack Mariani and Dr. Kathrine Robiadek, students were guided through conversations about campus safety, community on and off campus and how economic prospects can influence if people stay in Cincinnati. Students were given the microphone to talk about their takes on these issues which segued into the debate between Pureval and Bowman.

The debate was hosted in conjunction with Xavier University, The Enquirer, Cincinnati CitiCable and the Ohio Debate Commission. Opinions and Engagement Editor of The Enquirer, Kevin Aldridge, moderated the debate. Questions were posed by Editor-in-Chief of The Xavier Newswire, Clare McKinley and The Enquirer’s politics editor Carl Weiser.

Bowman, half-brother of Vice President JD Vance, was given the first question about if he thought Cincinnati was a safe city. He drew on his experience as non-denominational pastor at River Church Cincinnati to answer. 

“We see the gunshots as they go by,” Bowman said.

 Pureval’s rebuttal was that crime was a top priority issue from him and that while the perception of the people is important, the facts of lower crime statistics also matter. He believes that the police are interacting more with the community and enforcing a curfew which he believes is a useful tactic to keep crime down. 

“It shows a sign of how much we’ve fallen from civil discussion and speaking on issues facing people versus now just attacking each other,” Philosophy, Politics and the Public (PPP) and criminal justice double major Shane Griffin said in reference to the cutting in from each candidate. There were some attacks made by each candidate as Pureval accused Bowman of wanting to remove the Collaborative Agreement with Bowman claiming that Pureval and city council were “shackling cops’’ from doing their jobs.

After a continued conversation about the police and how to best support them, McKinley posed a question to both candidates about how they felt about the detaining of immigrants in Cincinnati. Bowman was given the first word on the question and said that the city council had defined Cincinnati as a sanctuary city but has not given the police any clarity on what that meant.

“He seems to have a lot of questions about how the city is actually run…so let me educate him,” Pureval responded. It was the previous city council who made Cincinnati a sanctuary city and if people are being taken from the city then the mayor needs to have an opinion on it. 

He further elaborated that if a person broke the law the Cincinnati Police Department would handle them. Other than a breaking of local law there is no need for CPD to enforce federal immigration law. 

Pureval said he would not rule out an income tax increase, while Bowman said he would not push for a tax increase. Next, Pureval said he would serve his full four-year term. Bowman was given a question of if there was anything he would criticize the Trump administration for.

“Yeah, I don’t like his hair,” Bowman responded.

Bowman’s closing statement focused on how he believed that local politics should not be a copy paste of national politics and that local government needs to be concerned with filling potholes and getting snow removed. 

Pureval focused his closing statement when he began as mayor the city was dealing with corruption and that city council got to work. 

After the debate, Xavier Newswire got the chance to ask each candidate the question of what does it mean for you to be mayor of Cincinnati and what motivates you to run?

“This city is incredible…we are the best kept secret in the entire country. I want to change that so people see Cincinnati as that destination, to give our residents hope to make sure we are growing our city to have the resources to build housing, to invest in our police officers. We can’t do that by standing still or moving backwards, we need to continue to reach for the horizons,” Pureval said.

“It’s for the people of Cincinnati. For me being a pastor…we are running for the people. When I get in I will hear the voices of the people, it’s not just, you vote for me and now I get to do what I want. It’s about considering what everyone in the 52 neighborhoods is going through, and that’s what we use as the basic motivation to run city hall,” Bowman said.