Why a nonprofit director is dropping out of Columbus Council race weeks after joining
Shawna Love, who began her 2026 campaign for the District 7 Columbus Council seat on Oct. 7, has decided to withdraw from the race and announce her support for Christopher Kelley.
With this move, Kelley is now the only candidate running for the District 7 seat. Incumbent Joanne Cogle has announced that she is running for mayor in the May 19 election.
Love does not view the move as “giving up,” she told the Ledger-Enquirer.
“I’m choosing to join forces with him, rather than splitting up the community’s time, energy, people and resources,” Love said. “I’ve just chosen to reunite them. I’m not stepping back to the sidelines.”
Before Friday, Love was all-in on her candidacy for the District 7 seat. But on Friday, she was canvassing in District 7 when she ran into people on Kelley’s team doing the same for their chosen candidate.
“That’s when I’m like, ‘Hey, what are we doing here?,’” Love said.
Love, who is the founder and executive director of Boyz 2 Men Development, Inc., began to consider how she could utilize her nonprofit to help the community rather than running for the Columbus Council against Kelley.
She worried that not only would the campaign divide members of the district who would otherwise be united, but that running for council and, possibly, serving on council, would limit the growth of Boyz 2 Men.
“When you get on the City Council, there are things that I’m not going to do,” Love said. “I’m still working for the community. But I can be more personable in my organization and with people through my programs.”
Kelley, who is no stranger to politics as a congressional staffer working for U.S. Rep. Sanford Bishop, was impressed by the “depth of humility” that Love displayed in deciding to step down, he told the Ledger-Enquirer.
“Oftentimes, when a person is set on running for office, it really takes an unshakable resolve to do it,” Kelley said. “You open yourself up to a level of scrutiny that you probably have never experienced before in life. What she did is something that, to me, sets a new narrative, at least here in Columbus, that politics does not have to be as divisive as oftentimes politicians have made it.”
A private meeting
On Saturday, Love took time to consider her options.
“I made sure this was something that I was going to be at peace with,” she said.
Love had filed her declaration of intention to run for the District 7 seat and had a team ready for her campaign.
“We knocked on about 150 doors last Friday,” Love said. “I was all-in.”
Once the decision was made, she contacted Kelley on Saturday to arrange a meeting without telling him what it was about.
Kelley thought Love wanted to discuss keeping their campaigns clean and focused on policies, he said.
“We know that politics can get ugly and very ugly,” Kelley said.
The two interacted at the opening of the new headquarters for the Democratic Party earlier in the week, he said. Love had pointed towards him while speaking to someone else, so he went over to join the conversation.
“We all were talking,” he said. “And the thing I told her was that no matter what we do, as far as this race is concerned, you’ll always be my sister. I’m not allowing this to go personal … the main thing is you’re not my enemy because after this race, I still have to talk to you. Whether you win or not, we still have to have a relationship.”
This was the mindset Kelley had when he walked into a private, neutral location in Harris County for the meeting with Love alongside a mediator.
When they sat down and Love told him why she wanted to meet, Kelley was in awe, Love said.
“He was shocked,” she said. “He could not believe it.”
The two engaged in a conversation about the pros and cons of Love stepping down and putting her support behind Kelley.
“At the end of the day, it’s not about us,” Kelley said. “It’s more about the people.”
Plans going forward
Now that Love has joined his team as a liaison, Kelley said, she brings a vast network through her work with Boyz 2 Men Development.
She’ll bring a lot of insight and resources to his campaign that he thinks will be a “win-win” for District 7, Kelley said.
However, Love does not consider herself out of potentially running for a different seat in the future. She also plans to hold Kelley accountable.
“If he does not do right by the people in District 7 and hold up to what he said he’s going to do, then guess what, I’ll see you in four years,” Love said. “My loyalty is not to a title, it was going to be to the people of District 7.”
In his campaign, Kelley plans to focus on four main pillars for his platform: public safety, economic development, transparent servant leadership and unifying governance.
Kelley is particularly looking forward to economic development in District 7, with the newly renovated Synovus Park. He hopes to see more development in south Columbus, Kelley said.
He wants to make sure that when soldiers leave Fort Benning, they do not have to drive to the other side of town to find a good restaurant, Kelley said.
Kelley also hopes to have quarterly town halls, or “State of the District” events, with constituents to increase transparency.
Ultimately, Kelley hopes that leaders in the community can get back to a place where they can have conversations and communicate, he said.
“I know that people are hopeless, people are losing faith and confidence,” Kelley said. “I truly hope that what happened today will restore that hope and give people just a little bit of faith that we are willing to come together and great things can be achieved.”
This story was originally published October 21, 2025 at 5:06 PM.
