The theme of Tuesday’s election was Ohio voters’ strong support for Republicans’ message. That was evident in several ways. Go here for a full analysis by Lynn Hulsey, Avery Kreemer and myself. Highlights below.
1. Trump triumph: President-elect Donald Trump was expected to win Ohio. But he did more than that, carrying the state by the widest margin in 40 years.
2. Brown out: Ohio voters ousted Democrat Sen. Sherrod Brown in favor of challenger Republican Bernie Moreno, albeit by a smaller margin than they supported Trump.
3. Dem wins: Democrats are celebrating picking up four seats in the Ohio General Assembly, including the Ohio Senate seat representing Dayton and its southeastern suburbs.
4. But…: Those seats were drawn to lean Democratic in the last redistricting. And the Democrat who won the Dayton Senate seat did so by a smaller margin than expected based on historic voting patterns. Plus, the GOP still holds a supermajority at the Statehouse.
5. Zoom in: Vice President Kamala Harris won Montgomery County, but only by about 500 votes. Compare that to the 6,000-vote margin President Joe Biden won by the county by in 2020.
6. Bottom of ticket: Even at the county level, local voters appear to have elected a Republican to the three-person county commission (the race is close, so could hinge on provisional and late-arriving mail ballots still being counted). And the GOP unseated the county recorder post, long held by Democrats.
7. What’s next: The full story includes reaction from partisans, as well as thoughts from political scientists about what lies ahead for Democrats.
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