CINCINNATI — A second Democrat has officially entered the 2022 race for Ohio governor.
Cincinnati Mayor John Cranley launched his campaign Tuesday morning and is expected to give a formal announcement later in the day. He has led Cincinnati since 2013 and is the city's 69th mayor.
Cranley told Spectrum News 1 he has a plan to rebuild the middle class.
"I'm running for governor because Ohio needs a comeback. Ohio, the once great middle-class state — the pioneers of flight and astronauts and presidents... Now the average Ohioan makes less money than the average American. It used to be the other way around. The wages are going down," Cranley said.
His plan includes creating 30,000 jobs a year that pay $60,000 or more, implementing high-speed internet across the state, building back manufacturing jobs and offer families $500 a year from natural gas drilling.
Cranley said he plans to legalize marijuana, and the revenue made from that will go toward education as well as construction to fix roads and bridges.
Cranley joins his friend, Dayton Mayor Nan Whaley, in the Democratic field. She announced her bid April 19. Republican Gov. Mike DeWine is expected to run for a second term.
On the Republican side, former U.S. Rep. Jim Renacci and farmer Joe Blystone of Canal Winchester are running for the position.
Cranley, 47, had been exploring a bid for the Democratic nomination for months and had raised more than $1.3 million for the effort as of July. Whaley reported raising more than $1.6 million.
Whaley unveiled her own jobs plan on Monday, just steps from Cranley’s office in Cincinnati. It calls for a $15 minimum wage and, like Cranley’s, investments in renewable energy. She also proposes directing state money and assistance to those businesses that pay a fair wage and kickstarting a ReInvent Ohio initiative for entrepreneurs.
He and Whaley, also first elected mayor in 2013, consider each other friends and are in communication most weeks.
“She is a close friend and I think she’s done a lot of good things for Dayton,” Cranley told the Associated Press. He said, with both running, “that means we’re going to end up with a good candidate for governor.”
The Associated Press contributed to this report.