Cranley was born in Green Township to John Joseph "Jay" Cranley (born 1946) and his wife, Susan (born 1947). His father is a life estate planner and Vietnam veteran who served in the United States Army, and his mother a former teacher and librarian.
He attended Saint William"s Primary School and graduated from Saint Xavier High School in 1992. He graduated from John Carroll University magna cum laude in Philosophy and Political Science and served twice as student body president
Before his election as mayor, he was an attorney with the law firm of Keating Muething & Klekamp. Cranley was raised in the Price Hill neighborhood of Cincinnati. He earned his Juris Doctor (juris doctorate) from Harvard Law School and a Master of Theological Studies from the Harvard Divinity School.
He taught two undergraduate legal and philosophy courses at Harvard College while attending graduate school.
During his second and third years at Harvard Law School, he worked as a student attorney for people who could not afford legal counsel In his third year of law school, he was elected First Class Marshal and delivered the Harvard Law School graduation speech on behalf of his class.
Cranley served on city council from 2000-2009. In 2003, he led the push to create Tax Increment Finance districts in Cincinnati.
Cranley served on the following committees: Arts, Culture, Tourism & Marketing.
Economic Development. Law and Public Safety. And the Transportation & Infrastructure sub-committee.
Cranley resigned from City Council in 2009 after seeking advice from the Ohio Ethics Commission.
Incline District Development
Cranley worked to restore the historic Incline District of East Price Hill. He developed a $5 million project which consists of condominiums and a restaurant.
Ohio Innocence Project
Cranley co-founded the Ohio Innocence Project at the University of Cincinnati College of Law and served as administrative director from 2002-2006. The Project has thus far exonerated seventeen wrongly convicted individuals.
Cranley"s argument before Ohio"s 5th Appellate District Court led to the reversal of Christopher Lee Bennett"s conviction of aggravated vehicular homicide.
Bennett had served four years of a nine-year sentence before the Project was able to use deoxyribonucleic acid to help overturn his conviction. In 2000 and 2006, Cranley lost in Ohio"s 1st congressional district race to incumbent Steve Chabot, with 45% of the vote in 2000, and 48% of the vote in 2006. He was sworn in on December 1, 2013.
Cranley was named a 2014 Aspen Institute Rodel Fellow.
Cranley is a graduate of Harvard Law School and Harvard Divinity School and co-founder of the Ohio Innocence Project at the University of Cincinnati College of Law. Cranley won the September 2013 primary election for mayor of Cincinnati, defeating Roxanne Qualls in the November 2013 mayoral election.
A member of the Democratic Party, he was a member of the Cincinnati city council and a partner of City Lights Development.
