With incumbent Catherine Barrett term limited, Mallory entered the race to succeed her.
For the 128th General Assembly, Mallory was named Second Vice President of the Ohio Legislative Black Caucus, and Speaker of the House Armond Budish named Mallory Chairman of the House Environment & Brownfields Development Committee.
With Cincinnati being hit hard with a bedbug epidemic, in 2011 Mallory urged the United States Environmental Protection Agency to allow the use of the pesticide propoxur to combat the pests.
[5] In April 2014, The Cincinnati Enquirer reported that Mallory had the worst attendance record of any healthy member of the General Assembly since 2011.
[7] On October 29, 2014, Mallory pleaded guilty in Franklin County Municipal Court to two misdemeanor counts related to his having improperly accepted and failed to disclose gifts from lobbyists.