CANTON, Ohio — The final showdown to become Canton's next mayor is now set, with City Council President William V. Sherer II winning Tuesday's Democratic primary.
Sherer, a longtime leader in the local ironworkers unions, bested four other rivals for the party's nomination and outlasted state Rep. Thomas West by just 66 votes. He will face businessman Roy Scott DePew in the November general election after DePew ran unopposed on the Republican side.
Born and raised in Canton, Sherer previously served as president of the Ohio Ironworkers Association and Vice Chairman of the Stark County Democratic Party before being elected city council president in 2019. His campaign has focused on pledges to improve infrastructure and increase wages and protections for working families, a nod to his organized labor roots.
"He knows that the future of Canton is directly tied to the prosperity of its workforce," Sherer's website says, "and he is ready to make meaningful change."
Outgoing Mayor Thomas Bernabei announced last December that he would not seek a third term, saying he was "hopeful that Canton will continue to move forward and prosper." The mayor endorsed City Council Majority Leader Bill Smuckler in the Democratic primary, but Smuckler finished a distant third.
For the GOP, DePew graduated from Canton McKinley just like Sherer and has worked in the private sector for more than two decades, including as a logistics account manager for Online Freight Services Inc. Along with Sherer, he has spoke of fixing the city's roads and infrastructure, but has made combatting crime the No. 1 issue of his campaign.
"Right now we have a 1 in 20 chance of being a victim of a crime," DePew claimed. "I plan on working with the Police Union and Police Department Administration to greatly reduce these numbers."
Unlike other big cities in Northeast Ohio, Canton voters have been much more bipartisan in the 21st century, with Republican Janet Weir Creighton being elected mayor as recently as 2003 (she is now chair of the Stark County GOP). Creighton lost her bid for a second term four years later to Democrat William J. Healey II, and Healey served eight years before losing a close race to the then independent Bernabei in 2015. Bernabei would eventually rejoin the Dems and be reelected unopposed in 2019.
The general election is set for Nov. 8.