From Public Service to Public Impact: The Remarkable Rise of Aftab Pureval
Aftab Pureval, mayor of Cincinnati, has won a second term in office after decisively defeating Republican challenger Cory Bowman in the 2025 mayoral election.
Pureval, first elected in 2021 as Cincinnati’s first Asian American mayor, ran a strong campaign focused on economic development, inclusive growth, and sustainability.
He also secured over 80% of the vote in the nonpartisan May primary.
Biography:
Aftab Karma Singh Pureval (born September 9, 1982) is an American attorney and politician serving as the 70th Mayor of Cincinnati, Ohio, a role he first assumed in January 2022.
- He was born in Xenia, Ohio, to immigrant parents — his father is Punjabi Indian and his mother is Tibetan.
- Pureval studied political science at The Ohio State University and later earned his Juris Doctor (JD) from the University of Cincinnati College of Law.
- Early in his legal career, he worked as a Special Assistant U.S. Attorney before joining Procter & Gamble as a global brand attorney.
- In 2016, he entered politics, winning the position of Hamilton County Clerk of Courts, becoming the first Democrat in over a century to hold that office.
- Pureval is married to Dr. Whitney Whitis, an internal medicine physician. They have two sons.
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