Cincinnati City Council member Seth Walsh is running for Ohio Treasurer. The official announcement comes just one day after Walsh took the oath of office for his second full term on City Council.
Walsh, a Democrat, was appointed to City Council in late 2022 to fill the vacancy left by now-Congressman Greg Landsman. He went on to win a seat at City Hall in 2023 and again in 2025.
Before joining Council, he was CEO of the College Hill Community Urban Redevelopment Corporation, and previously worked with the Sedamsville Community Development Corporation and the CDC Association of Greater Cincinnati.
"I built an organization that ended up having an operating budget north of $2 million, over $30-plus million in assets. I led over $85 million in development," Walsh told WVXU. "That doesn't just happen overnight, and that doesn't happen without a lot of financial experience and background ... including building out reserves, learning your own investments and developing a strategy."
Walsh ran for Hamilton County treasurer in 2016, losing to Robert Goering by about 10 percentage points.
Current state Treasurer Robert Sprague is running for Secretary of State this year. A Republican primary election will take place in May between former state Sen. Niraj Antani, current state Sen. Kristina Roegner, former state Rep. Jay Edwards and Lake County Treasurer Michael Zuren.
Walsh says the state Democratic party approached him in mid-December to ask him to join the race.
"We have a really great Democratic ticket, and so I think there's a real chance that they're going to make an impact," Walsh said.
He says he’s committed to serving Cincinnati even while running a statewide campaign.
"I feel confident that I will be able to do that," Walsh said. "I will then be able to campaign during the off time around that, being other days of the week or hours of the day that are not City Council involved. And a lot of the work I do at City Council also is just like phone calls, so that doesn't require me to be anchored in Cincinnati to be able to still have that positive impact."
If Walsh wins the statewide race, he will need to resign from City Council. Per the city charter, his "successor designee" would choose someone to complete the rest of his Council term, which runs through the end of 2027.
Walsh has chosen Council member Meeka Owens for that job. Owens went through this process once before, when former Council member Reggie Harris resigned in 2024 to take a job with the Biden administration. Owens appointed Evan Nolan to the vacancy, a decision that sparked some community pushback at the time because it changed the racial majority of Council. Nolan went on to win his seat in 2025 election.
Mayor Aftab Pureval and other members of Cincinnati City Council did not immediately respond to a request for comment.
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