Columbus City Council member Shayla Favor says she's running for Franklin County prosecutor

Recently reelected City Council member Shayla Favor, a Democrat, has announced she is running in 2024 to succeed retiring Franklin County Prosecutor Gary Tyack.

Surrounded by fellow council members and former Columbus Mayor Michael B. Coleman, Favor announced her candidacy Thursday at The Historic Pythian Theater on Columbus' Near East Side, where she lives.

"I am running for Franklin County prosecutor because I believe that we can become a model county that addresses public safety while also working to reform an unjust and inequitable system," Favor said.

Favor will face at least two other Democrats who have announced their candidacy for county prosecutor: Delaware City Attorney Natalia Harris and Anthony Pierson, deputy chief counsel in Tyack's office whom Tyack has endorsed.

Only one Republican, local defense attorney John Rutan, has announced he's running for prosecutor.

Whoever wins the Democratic primary in March will likely win the general election in November. Franklin County has become such a Democrat stronghold that three Republican judges have switched their parties to Democrat in recent years to gain reelection.

Favor, 42, was appointed to the city council in 2019 to fill the unexpired term of Judge Jaiza Page, who was elected to the Franklin County Court of Common Pleas. Favor was elected in 2019 and reelected this November when she ran unopposed.

Favor said Thursday she did not decide to run for prosecutor until long after she filed paperwork to run for reelection to city council. She does not plan to resign from council while she campaigns for prosecutor and said she remains committed to the residents of Columbus.

While on the city council, Favor became executive director of a nonprofit funded by Ohio State University and the city council aimed at redeveloping the Near East Side immediately around Ohio State University Hospital East. She was in that role at Partners Achieving Community Transformation for nearly two years until July.

Before her time on city council, Favor was an assistant city attorney for five years in the environmental division of Columbus City Attorney Zach Klein’s office.

In that role, according to Favor, she worked with city leaders to improve Columbus' neighborhoods and address criminal activity, vacancies, abandonment and blight.

Unlike Harris and Pierson, Favor has no experience as a criminal prosecuting attorney.

Hardin acknowledged that often, when the public thinks of the county prosecutor, they only think of the criminal justice system.

"As some of the most powerful actors in the system, prosecutors also have the responsibility to reduce and repair harms caused by our inequitable and unjust system," Favor said.

Favor said she wants to reimagine the culture of the prosecutor's office and would prioritize evidence-based justice programs that improve outcomes and reduce crime.

jlaird@dispatch.com

@LairdWrites

This article originally appeared on The Columbus Dispatch: Columbus City Council member Shayla Favor running for county prosecutor