Pink Rose Society

Akron 2026 Elections

The local layer of an Akron voter's November 3, 2026 ballot, beneath the statewide slate. As everywhere in this sweep, there is no city race in 2026 — Mayor Shammas Malik (elected 2023) serves through 2027, and the 13-member council is on the same odd-year cycle; both are next up in 2027.

Summit County is a charter county (like Cuyahoga) and leans Democratic, but with a genuinely competitive suburban belt — so the 2026 ballot mixes safe holds with real contests, and the marquee race is the one district the statewide map drew bluer.

The races worth watching

The rest of the ballot

  • Ohio Senate: only SD-27 (above) is up; the Akron-core seat (SD-28, Casey Weinstein, D) is not up until 2028.
  • Ohio House: Akron-core seats HD-33 (Sims, D) and HD-32 (Daniels, R) are safe; HD-34 (Hall, D) is a lean-D watch; HD-31 and HD-35 (above) are the battlegrounds.
  • County: County Executive Ilene Shapiro (D) and all charter row offices are mid-term (elected 2024, up again 2028); only the three at-large Council seats are on the 2026 ballot.
  • Levies: none certified yet; the big county levies (schools, mental health, developmental disabilities, library) were all recently renewed. Summit passed a property-tax-cap charter amendment in 2025.

Why it matters

Akron sits in the one seat the map-drawers couldn't make redder — Sykes's OH-13 — which makes it the clearest local rebuttal to the packing story that runs through Columbus and Cleveland. Below it, a purple suburban belt keeps the county and statehouse races genuinely contested.

Sources