CINCINNATI — City Council hopeful Cam Hardy says he spends a lot of time reflecting on his past and thinking about how he's grown into the man now standing before voters, asking for their trust to lead the city.
It's a past he says he's not proud of.
"I talked about it just a few days ago, about how I woke up thinking about the man that I used to be, and it makes me feel horrible," Hardy, 31, said in an interview with WCPO.
He was specifically referring to a number of tweets he posted in 2013 that included derogatory comments about women and people who identify as queer. Fast-forward to today, and he has apologized for those comments, but he has not taken the tweets down even though, he said, he's ashamed of them.
"I think about those tweets every single day," Hardy said.
Matt Woods is president of the Charter Committee of Greater Cincinnati, an organization that gave Hardy its endorsement on Thursday. Woods said he was aware of the tweets when the committee gave its endorsement and said he knows Hardy is a changed man.
"Cam has been incredibly transparent," Woods said. "He chose to keep those tweets up, knowing as he rose in prominence that this was his past. He's incredibly sorry. He realized how much he hurt people with the things that he tweeted, and so, you know, from us, he addressed it. He's clearly been apologetic."
Hardy has become an increasingly well-known name in the realm of Cincinnati politics. He's spent the last several years as a vocal public transit advocate and president of the Better Bus Coalition, one of the organizations instrumental last year in passing Issue 7, the new sales tax levy meant to improve Cincinnati Metro bus service and infrastructure throughout Hamilton County.
Hardy was one of nine candidates the Charter Committee endorsed this week.
