MANSFIELD — A businessman and a community health worker will square off in November to represent the 1st Ward on Mansfield City Council.
Republican Michael Miranda and Democrat Amber Thompson both emerged victorious on Tuesday in contested primary races.
The winner this fall will replace current 1st Ward Councilwoman Laura Burns, who announced in December she would not seek re-election due to ongoing issues from an injury she sustained while ice skating in December 2023.
Miranda earned 60.48 percent of the votes cast to defeat Lori Cope, according to final, unofficial vote totals from the Richland County Board of Elections.
The store manager for Van’s Tire Pros in Mansfield received 381 votes compared to 249 for Cope, who served as the city’s safety service director from 2011 to 2021.
Thompson, a community health worker for the Third Street Family Health Services in the Moms and Babies First program, received 52 percent of the vote to defeat Amy Rainey, a union steelworker.
Thompson received 126 votes, compared to 117 for Rainey.
Just 13.8 percent of the ward’s 6,292 registered voters cast ballots.
Miranda congratulated Cope for a good campaign.
“I think I ran a very balanced and well informed campaign and had tremendous support from a lot of folks, including the bulk of elected officials,” he said Tuesday night.
“At the end of the day, Mansfield is moving in a very good direction and we need to make sure we have people with good business sense and a true passion for the 1st Ward,” he said. “I am proud and thankful for everyone who voted for me.”
“It’s time to make sure people know we need a good business person in the office. At the end of the day, the city is a big business and needs to be run like a business,” Miranda said.
Thompson, a 2019 Mansfield Senior High School graduate who earned a bachelor’s degree in public health from Kent State University in 2023, said she and Rainey had similar campaign strategies.
“We showed up at all of the same events … both of us looking to see who could past the primary,” she said.
Thompson knows she faces a tough task in November in a district that has voted heavily Republican for at least the past three decades. A Republican has represented the 1st Ward for more than 30 years.
“I really think I will need to get out and go door-to-door. That is the number one way to reach people in our ward,” she said.
“I will let people know what I stand for … the type of person I am and the work I am already doing in this community,” Thompson said.
