Being the half-brother of Vice President JD Vance appears to not be enough of a campaign platform to become the mayor of Cincinnati, as Republican candidate Cory Bowman decisively lost to the Democratic incumbent Aftab Pureval.

The current mayor received more than 78 percent of the vote trouncing Mr. Bowman who only received 21 percent, according to The Associated Press.

Along with city Republicans, Mr. Bowman ran on a campaign that painted the city as being overrun with crime. The incumbent Mr. Pureval responded by claiming that city leadership had countered crime by implementing strict curfews and recruiting more police officers.

In a recent debate, Mr. Pureval painted Mr. Bowman and his supporters as “MAGA extremists.”

Mr. Bowman, who shares the same father with Mr. Vance, first announced his run in February, saying he felt inspired after attending the presidential inauguration a month earlier.

“Weeks ago, my flight touched down at CVG [airport], returning home from the most monumental inauguration in my generation,” he wrote on Instagram. “When I landed, I knew the city where my family and I live and love cannot fall behind in the critical years ahead.”

But evoking his well-known sibling was not enough to secure enough votes in the traditionally Democratic city. Mr. Vance also appeared to be absent on the campaign trail.

The vice-president didn’t contribute to Bowman’s campaign, and he didn’t get involved publicly beyond a single post on X on primary day, urging people to vote for his half-brother, according to the Cincinnati Enquirer. Voting records show Vance, who lives and is registered to vote in Cincinnati’s East Walnut Hills neighborhood, didn’t manage to vote in the primary.

Mr. Bowman has said that he wasn’t looking towards his half-brother for political support. When the pair talk, it’s usually about “Star Wars” or their children, he said.

“He’ll ask how the campaign’s doing, and I’ll ask him how being vice president is, and it’s usually a short talk,” he said to the newspaper. 

“At the end of this, I would rather have a brother than a political advisor.”