![Cleveland City Council President Kevin Kelley and County Councilwoman Shontel Brown were reelected as vice chair and chair. [Nick Castele / ideastream]](https://npr.brightspotcdn.com/dims4/default/872aab8/2147483647/strip/true/crop/3000x1687+0+0/resize/840x472!/format/webp/quality/90/?url=http%3A%2F%2Fnpr-brightspot.s3.amazonaws.com%2Flegacy%2Fuploads%2F2018%2F6%2F09%2F0609brownkelley.jpg)
Shontel Brown prevailed against a challenge to her leadership of the Cuyahoga County Democratic Party on Saturday, winning about two-thirds support from party central committee members.
The Cuyahoga County Council member鈥檚 running mate, Cleveland City Council President Kevin Kelley, was reelected vice chair by a similar margin.
The pair defeated former county council president C. Ellen Connally and Newburgh Heights Mayor Trevor Elkins, .
鈥淔or the good of the party, I hope you will all rally around the victor so that we can join together and all focus on winning in November,鈥� Brown said to applause from the audience.
More than 600 members of the party鈥檚 central committee voted Saturday morning at Euclid High School, representing voting precincts across Cuyahoga County.
Cuyahoga County is critical for Democrats, who derive a large portion of their statewide support from Northeast Ohio. Brown said the county party would work with the Ohio Democratic Party to boost voter turnout.
Asked how she鈥檇 bring in party members who didn鈥檛 vote for her, Brown said she would reach out to them.
鈥淕oing to meetings, answering questions, have an open-door policy,鈥� she said. 鈥淎nyone that has anything, a question, concern, suggestion, idea, I welcome that and I always have. So that will continue.鈥�
After the vote, Elkins took the lectern to throw his support behind the winning ticket.
鈥淟isten we鈥檙e going to support Shontel and Kevin,鈥� he said, 鈥渁nd we鈥檙e going to make sure Democrats win in November.鈥�
