Butler County Executive Chairman Todd Hall said competitive primaries “just shows how committed Republicans are to lead.”
“Primaries are part of the democratic process and allow candidates to talk about pertinent issues, and meet the voters,” he said. “We are seeing more primaries because Republicans are getting more involved and energized to get our country back on a sensible. conservative track.”
While elections have been dominated by Republican candidates in Butler County for more than 40 years, Democratic Party Chairman Brian Hester said the new realigned districts “aren’t terrible for us and the first people to admit it are the Republican incumbents as they have to work a brand new territory.”
“It’s hard to get somebody to run for these races when you can’t really tell them what the districts are going to be yet,” he said. “I’m proud that we’ve got candidates, and I like that we have people, again, who have more in common with the people they’re running to represent than any of the incumbents right now.”
Ohio Rep. Sara Carruthers, R-Hamilton, is seeking her third term in the Statehouse. She’s running for the 44th District, which is formerly the 51st House District and pending certification will be challenged in the May primary election by Cody Harper, a real estate agent out of Hanover Twp.
The winner of the primary will face Samuel Lawrence, a Miami University student in Oxford, who is also pending certification.
Carruthers has a campaign finance advantage over Harper and Lawrence. She’s raised $89,000 in the last six months of 2021 and has more than $106,300 cash on hand for the May primary. Harper and Lawrence have not yet started a campaign finance committee, according to the Ohio Secretary of State’s office.
Ohio Rep. Jennifer Gross, R-West Chester Twp., is seeking her second term in the Statehouse. She’s running for the 45th District, which is formerly the 52nd House District and pending certification will be challenged in the May primary election by five-time elected West Chester Twp. Trustee Lee Wong, who’s been the top vote-getter in West Chester Twp. trustee races in four of the past five elections.
The winner of the primary is expected to face Democrat Chuck Horn, of West Chester Twp., who ran against Gross two years ago. Gross bested Horn by 26.7 percentage points. Horn has not yet started fundraising for this campaign cycle.
Gross reported she raised $1,400 in her annual campaign finance report filed last month. She has more than $39,500 in campaign cash heading into the May primary. Wong pulled and filed his petitions for office on Wednesday, and has not yet started fundraising for this cycle but had more than $33,000 cash on hand following the 2020 post-primary, according to the Ohio Secretary of State.
Ohio Rep. Thomas Hall, R-Madison Twp., is seeking his second term in the Statehouse. He is running for the 46th District, which is formerly the 53rd House District and pending certification will be challenged in the May primary by two candidates. Matt King, of Middletown, and Troy Baker, of Middletown.
In his annual report, Hall raised $9,100 and spent more than $7,300 in the last six months of 2021 on his campaign. King raised $16,120 since announcing his campaign at the end of 2021, and donated $55,000 to his own campaign.
Baker did not file an annual campaign finance report.
The winner of the primary is expected to face Lawrence Mulligan, the son of the former Middletown Mayor, Larry Mulligan. The younger Mulligan, who’s just starting his campaign, received a $100 donation and contributed $250 to his campaign, according to the Ohio Secretary of State.
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