Youngstown mayoral candidate withdraws from Democratic primary race

YOUNGSTOWN — Mayoral candidate Teresa A. Johnson, whose eligibility was to be the subject of a Tuesday hearing, has withdrawn from the race.

The city charter requires mayoral candidates to “be an elector and resident of the city for the five years immediately preceding the mayor’s election.”

Johnson, who was running for elected office for the first time, said she moved back to Youngstown in May 2013. She registered to vote in May 2014, according to a Mahoning County Board of Elections document.

The charter requirement “was a stumbling block for me,” she said today, the day she withdrew from the Democratic primary. “The charter stands at five years. I think the charter needs to be updated.”

Johnson’s withdrawal leaves two candidates, both Democrats, in the mayoral race: incumbent John A. McNally and Jamael Tito Brown, a former council president who lost the Democratic primary to McNally in 2013 by only 142 votes.

The two are seeking the endorsement Saturday of the county Democratic Party.

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