Meet Justin
Justin Strekal is an experienced advocate, organizer, and Clevelander now running to represent Cuyahoga County Council District Three.
Having worked outside and inside of government for over 20 years, Justin is ready to fight for a better Cuyahoga County on day one.
He is a millennial "boomerang" — a Cleveland native, educated in public schools, and a proud graduate of Cleveland State University who’s work took him around the country and to our nation’s capital before returning to Cleveland in 2020.
Justin left Cleveland in 2008 to work on then-Senator Barack Obama's presidential campaign. For more than a year, Justin worked as a field organizer throughout the country. This journey instilled in him the value of community-driven political organizing—a lesson he took with him as he ultimately went on to work for Democratic candidates at every level of government in 13 states and as intern for Senator Sherrod Brown and at The White House for President Obama.
Justin carried those lessons into government in 2015 as a legislative aide in the Virginia State Senate. During his tenure, Justin worked with dozens of community groups and saw firsthand how corporate special interests tried to overcome the public interest, and what can happen when the people push back.
That experience led Justin to serve as a public-interest federal policy lobbyist in Washington, DC. During that time, Justin became well versed and accomplished on issues ranging from progressive taxation and campaign finance to criminal justice and cannabis legalization.
Whether it was managing Democratic campaigns or running the vote whip for the first ever bill to pass in the US House of Representatives to end marijuana criminalization nationwide, the people-part of politics always came first.
But his heart was always here in Cleveland. With the dysfunction of Washington, DC only getting worse by the year, the pandemic offered Justin's family the opportunity to return home as he served as caretaker for his beloved grandfather.
After returning to Cleveland in 2020, Justin joined the Guardians for Fair Work campaign which spearheaded Cleveland and Cuyahoga's efforts to hold employers that steal from their workers accountable. He has also been appointed by local leaders to serve on the Steering Committee of the Cuyahoga County Progressive Caucus (CCPC) and on the Executive Committee of the Cuyahoga County Democratic Party (CCDP).
All of this is in hopes of building a happier, equitable, and justice-centered hometown.
Most recently, Justin worked as a federal contractor with the NASA backed effort known as COSMIC (The Consortium for Space Mobility and ISAM Capabilities), to accelerate adoption of In-space Servicing, Assembly, and Manufacturing (ISAM) capabilities and build a sustainable, scalable, and safe space ecosystem. He was laid off due to the Trump Administration’s budget cuts in December of 2025.
In his free time, Justin enjoys going to the batting cages, hanging out at the neighborhood dive bar with wife Dana and their friends, and walking their dog Wags.