The Cincy Precinct Project, launched by Jack Cunningham last summer, is challenging the local Democratic Party to adopt a more progressive stance. With Hamilton County shifting from a politically red region to a solidly blue one, some Democrats argue that simply winning elections is no longer enough, especially with a Republican supermajority in the Ohio Statehouse and during the second Trump presidency.

Grassroots Push for Party Reform

Cunningham, the founder of the Cincy Precinct Project, believes the Democratic Party leadership is not doing enough to address pressing issues. He told WVXU, ‘I believe that our leaders in the Democratic Party and its apparatus ought to be doing more. I believe they care — I do not believe they care enough.’

The group has recruited about 150 people to run for precinct executive positions in the May primary, aiming to influence decisions on party leadership and candidate endorsements. A precinct is a geographic area with no more than 1,400 voters, and each political party can elect one executive who lives in that precinct. These executives make up the party’s Central Committee, which elects the party’s leadership.

In Cincinnati, precinct executives vote on endorsements for city elections, including the Council and the mayor. County-wide, precinct executives help decide who sits on a smaller executive committee that chooses which candidates to endorse each election cycle.

Hamilton County has 563 precincts, but about half typically don’t have an executive for any party. This year, about 70% of precincts have at least one Democratic candidate on the May ballot. Most of them are uncontested, but about a third have two or more candidates.

Concerns Over Party Direction

Cunningham says the Cincy Precinct Project has recruited enough people to make a real difference in the Hamilton County Democratic Party. ‘We have already pushed the Democratic Party’s attention onto our effort, and we are now in a position where we have a lot of use to make decisions in the future,’ he said.

The group’s major issues include opposition to Trump’s actions in Venezuela, threats to take over Greenland, immigration enforcement, and the killing of two U.S. citizens by federal agents in Minneapolis. Debra Hackett, who is running her first political campaign to become a Democratic executive in her Norwood precinct, said, ‘I’m disheartened to find out that what I thought the Democratic Party was about, they say on paper and are not.’

Hackett said she is energized by being part of the Cincy Precinct Project, which participants call ‘do something Democrats.’ Cunningham said he is concerned about corporate control and lobbyists influencing the Democratic Party. ‘We want to bring the Democratic Party back to the roots of helping working and everyday people,’ he said.

Party Leadership’s Response

Alex Linser, who stepped into the unpaid position of Hamilton County Democratic Party Chair about a year ago, said some of the criticism amounts to speculation and even conspiracy theories. ‘My job is to win elections, and the people who win those elections, it’s their job to make policy,’ he said.

Linser said he rejects the idea that the party endorsement is inaccessible to working candidates. ‘Our [candidate] questionnaires all say specifically that our endorsement is not contingent upon a past history of giving,’ he said. ‘We do ask candidates about their fundraising plan, about their fundraising history, because we do want to see candidates that are viable and ready to run a successful campaign.’

Linser highlighted the party’s decision to endorse Ryan James for the most recent Cincinnati City Council election in 2025, despite James having little fundraising experience compared to another candidate, Raffel Prophett. ‘Prophett was an excellent fundraiser,’ Linser said. ‘But the party instead endorsed Ryan James, who’s a very young candidate without much history of fundraising.’

Linser also pointed to the party’s policy of opening endorsement meetings to the public and said he welcomes more precinct executives to the process. ‘If people want to see the candidates that we endorse move a certain way, well, we decide that together,’ he said.

Linser said the party’s top priority right now is the midterms in November. ‘We absolutely have to elect a Congress that will be able to rein in the Trump administration,’ he said. ‘But after that, there’s going to be a two-year period where the Democratic Party is going to have to have a big national conversation about, what is our platform and what is our vision for this country?’

The Cincy Precinct Project also is planning for the long-term. Cunningham said they aren’t going anywhere. ‘We are not strangers. We are not radicals. We are not here to burn the system down,’ he said. ‘We are people here who are taking what we have in the most peaceful, significant way to build up political power for working and everyday people.’

About 40 people affiliated with the Cincy Precinct Project are running unopposed in the May primary, guaranteeing them a spot on the Democratic Central Committee. Another hundred or so contested races have a Cincy Precinct Project candidate.

The election results will be the first indication of whether it’s enough to redirect the party’s priorities. If all Cincy Precinct Project candidates win, they’ll hold about a third of all occupied precincts, but the majority that matters is who shows up to a given meeting to speak up and cast a vote.

The position will appear on the primary ballot as ‘Member of Democratic Central Committee’ or ‘Member of Republican Central Committee.’

The Hamilton County Republican Party did not respond to requests for an interview. The primary election is May 5. The deadline to register to vote is April 6.