11/09/22

The results are in! With record breaking early voting numbers and high voter turnout in many counties, Ohioans made their decisions as to who will lead Ohio into the future.

Ohio Statewide Races

Shortly after 7:30 p.m. on Tuesday, the election results began rolling in. It quickly became clear that Ohioans had a distinct vision for their leadership choices. With a 25% margin, Ohio chose Republicans Mike DeWine and Jon Husted to lead our great state once again as Governor and Lieutenant Governor respectively. Polls heading into election day were favorable for the DeWine/Husted campaign so although this may not be a surprise, the 25% lead over the Democratic challengers Nan Whaley and Cheryl Stephens is certainly notable.

Remaining statewide races went to the Republicans as well. Dave Yost will serve again as Attorney General, Keith Faber will serve again as Auditor of State, Frank LaRose will serve again as Secretary of State, and Robert Sprague will serve again as Treasurer of State.

U.S. Congressional Races

The race on many Ohioans minds as they headed to their polling place was the race for the open U.S. Senate seat between Tim Ryan (D) and J.D. Vance (R). This race received national attention for the last several months with each candidate appearing on national news programs to state their case for the people of Ohio. Each day leading up to the election the margin between candidates narrowed. However, on Election Day a winner was chosen, the republican J.D. Vance will represent Ohio in the U.S. Senate, joining long time Senator Sherrod Brown (D).

In another highly anticipated race, Ohio’s 13^th Congressional District chose Democrat Emilia Sykes over Republican Madison Gesiotto Gilbert to represent them in Congress. This seat was vacated by Tim Ryan for his run for the open U.S. Senate seat. Emilia Sykes left her seat on the Ohio House of Representatives to make this successful run for the open 13^th Congressional District seat.

While most of Ohio’s Congressional incumbents won their respective races, Representative Steve Chabot (R) of the 1^st Congressional District lost his race against the Democratic challenger Greg Landsman by less than 5%.

As of the posting of this article, the overall makeup of the U.S. House of Representatives and U.S. Senate remain unknown with many races still too close to call.

Ohio Statehouse Races

Although the overall makeup of the Ohio Senate and Ohio House of Representatives will generally remain unchanged, three incumbents lost their seats: Senator Tina Maharath (D-Canal Winchester), Representative Richard Brown (D-Canal Winchester) and Representative Thomas West (D-Canton). Each of these incumbents held positions within leadership during the 134^th General Assembly. With these losses for Democrats, Republicans in the House increase their majority by 3 and in the Senate by 1.

Ohio Supreme Court Races

The final races to watch were the races for Ohio Supreme Court Chief Justice and 2 Justice seats. Republican Sharon Kennedy won the Chief Justice seat over Democrat Jennifer Brunner by a margin of 12%. Additionally, Republicans Pat DeWine and Pat Fisher both won over Democrats Marilyn Zayas and Terri Jamison respectively. With these wins, the balance of the Ohio Supreme Court remains in the Republicans favor, 4-3. It was clear from the beginning that in order to keep the balance of the court in favor of the Republicans, they would need to defend all three of these races whereas to take over control of the court Democrats would have only had to win one seat. However, this was not the case for Democrats as all three Republicans won their respective seats on the court.