page_title: Cleveland
section_title: Government and politics
hierarchical_section_title: Cleveland / Government and politics
caption_attribution_description: English: The rotunda of Cleveland City Hall
context_page_description: Cleveland, officially the City of Cleveland, is a major city in the U.S. state of Ohio, and the county seat of Cuyahoga County. It is located on the southern shore of Lake Erie, across the U.S. maritime border with Canada and approximately 60 miles west of the Ohio-Pennsylvania state border.
  Cleveland is the largest city on the shores of Lake Erie, the second-largest city in Ohio, and the 53rd-largest city in the United States. The city proper has an estimated 2019 population of 381,009. Greater Cleveland is ranked as the 33rd-largest metropolitan area in the U.S., with 2,057,009 people in 2018. A Gamma + city, Cleveland anchors the Cleveland–Akron–Canton Combined Statistical Area, the most populous combined statistical area in Ohio and the 15th largest in the U.S., with a population of 3,515,646 in 2010.
  Cleveland was founded in 1796 near the mouth of the Cuyahoga River by General Moses Cleaveland, after whom the city was named. A port city, it grew into a major manufacturing center due to its location on both the river and the lake shore, as well as numerous canals and railroad lines.
context_section_description: Cleveland operates on a mayor–council (strong mayor) form of government, in which the mayor is the chief executive. From 1924 to 1931, the city briefly experimented with a council–manager government under William R. Hopkins and Daniel E. Morgan before returning to the mayor–council system.
  The office of the mayor has been held by Frank G. Jackson since 2006. Previous mayors of Cleveland include progressive Democrat Tom L. Johnson, World War I-era War Secretary and BakerHostetler founder Newton D. Baker, U.S. Supreme Court Justice Harold Hitz Burton, two-term Ohio Governor and Senator Frank J. Lausche, former U.S. Health, Education, and Welfare Secretary Anthony J. Celebrezze, two-term Ohio Governor and Senator George V. Voinovich, former U.S. Congressman Dennis Kucinich, and Carl B. Stokes, the first African American mayor of a major U.S. city.
  Another nationally prominent Ohio politician, former U.S. President James A. Garfield, was born in Cuyahoga County's Orange Township (today the Cleveland suburb of Moreland Hills). His resting place is the James A. Garfield Memorial in Cleveland's Lake View Cemetery.
  From the Civil War era to the 1940s, Cleveland was primarily dominated by the Republican Party, with the notable exceptions of the Johnson and Baker mayoral administrations. Businessman and Senator Mark Hanna was among Cleveland's most influential Republican figures, both locally and nationally. In addition to the established support of organized labor, the Cuyahoga County Democratic Party, led by former mayor Ray T. Miller, was able to secure the support of the city's ethnic European and African American communities in the 1940s. Beginning with the Lausche administration, Cleveland's political orientation shifted to the Democratic Party and, with the exceptions of the Perk and Voinovich administrations, it has remained dominated by the Democrats ever since.
  Today, while other parts of Ohio, particularly Cincinnati and the southern portion of the state, support the Republicans, Cleveland commonly produces the strongest support in the state for the Democrats. At the local level, elections are nonpartisan. However, Democrats still dominate every level of government. During the 2004 Presidential election, although George W. Bush carried Ohio by 2.1%, John Kerry carried Cuyahoga County 66.6%–32.9%, his largest margin in any Ohio county. The city of Cleveland supported Kerry over Bush by the even larger margin of 83.3%–15.8%. As a result of the 2010 Census, Ohio lost two Congressional seats, which affected Cleveland's districts in the northeast part of the state. Today, Cleveland is split between two congressional districts. Most of the western part of the city is in the 9th District, represented by Marcy Kaptur. Most of the eastern part of the city, as well as most of downtown, is in the 11th District, represented by Marcia Fudge. Both are Democrats, two of four representing Ohio.
  Cleveland hosted three Republican national conventions in its history, in 1924, 1936, and 2016. The city also hosted the Radical Republican convention of 1864. Cleveland has not hosted a national convention for the Democrats, despite the position of Cuyahoga County as a Democratic stronghold in Ohio.
  Cleveland has hosted several national election debates, including the second 1980 U.S. Presidential debate, the 2004 U.S. Vice-Presidential debate, and one 2008 Democratic primary debate. In July 2020, Case Western Reserve University and the Cleveland Clinic announced that they will host the first 2020 U.S. presidential debate in Cleveland. Founded in 1912, the City Club of Cleveland provides a platform for national and local debates and discussions. Known as Cleveland's "Citadel of Free Speech," it is one of the oldest continuous independent free speech and debate forums in the country.
caption: Cleveland City Hall rotunda
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