In 2001, McLin was named Minority Leader (completing the term of Ohio senator Ben Espy).

She served as Minority Leader until she left the Senate in 2002, barred by term limits from running for re-election again that year.

McLin was elected mayor of Dayton in 2001, defeating incumbent Republican Michael R. Turner and began serving her term in 2002.

[citation needed] Finally, in late 2005 she was the first African-American woman to serve as head of the Ohio Democratic Party.

[2] In August 2012, McLin was mentioned as a possible candidate to fill the Ohio state representative seat vacated by Clayton Luckie, but she ultimately declined to run.