CLEVELAND — Cleveland City Council President Kevin Kelley is hitting the campaign trail, trying to make his case to voters to become the city's next mayor.
One October day ahead of the election, Kevin Kelley’s day began at the La Salle Theatre on Cleveland’s east side where he attended an event as Cleveland’s City Council president. The event was the launch of Neighbor to Neighbor, which focuses on addressing the digital divide and housing stability in the city.
“I’m still the Cleveland City Council president, I’m still a husband and a father and I’m running for mayor. So I just have to balance all of that,” said Kelley.
Kelley made another stop around noon, where he met with community leaders.
“There’s events to go to every single day, there’s checking in with volunteers, just getting a sense of the operations. But mostly it’s knocking on doors, it’s being in the neighborhoods, it’s talking to people (and) it’s just getting the word out,” said Kelley.
This Poverty to Power event took place outside of the childhood home of former mayor Carl Stokes. Kelley was joined by many high-profile leaders who’ve endorsed him, including Stokes’ son, Cordell.
“Today, we have Kevin Kelley from poverty to council president over the last eight years and now is duly positioned to move this city on day one into the future,” said Stokes.
Kelley takes to the mic. He makes his case to be Cleveland’s next mayor to address poverty, a major issue for his campaign.
“All of our neighborhoods are good investments. There is no reason the private sector should have been ignoring them for this many decades. These are good investments, and every project that we do, everything that involves city expenditure, it should be done equitably. It’s going to be done correctly,” Kelley said.
During all the campaigning and running city council, Kelley still has to make time for family. The father of five girls between the ages of 12 and 24 said his family is all in.
“My wife has been fantastic; she has just been tremendously supportive as have all my kids. Sometimes on a Saturday morning when we’re getting ready to go canvas, it takes a little extra little nudge to get them out of the house, but that’s what kids do. But they’ve been fantastic,” said Kelley.
As Kelley hits the home stretch of the campaign, he’s learning more about the problems Clevelanders face and believes he’s the man to address them.
“A lot of people are hurting. And I knew that, but I guess it’s different when you read about it than when you talk to people and you really understand the experience that they’re going through. And that’s just been just a great reminder and every day in public office I try to remind myself this isn’t about reports. This isn’t about statistics. It’s really about people,” said Kelley.