COLUMBUS – Mike DeWine was elected to a second term as Ohio governor and political newcomer JD Vance won a seat in the U.S. Senate as Republicans held their ground in Tuesday’s midterm elections.
DeWine led a clean GOP sweep of all statewide offices by defeating challenger Nan Whaley, a Democrat, who had hoped to regain a seat last won by her party 16 years ago.
DeWine won a surprisingly tight three-way primary in May as conservatives angered by his efforts to slow COVID-19 sought to unseat him.
Whaley handily defeated former Cincinnati Mayor John Cranley in her primary.
DeWine and Whaley bonded over the 2019 mass shooting that killed nine in Dayton. But Whaley had increasingly criticized the governor for his failure to pass stronger gun laws and for his anti-abortion stance.
Trump-backed Vance retains GOP’s US Senate seat
Hillbilly Elegy author JD Vance has defeated Democratic U.S. Rep. Tim Ryan for an open U.S. Senate seat.
The 38-year-old Vance, a newcomer to politics, benefited from a last-minute push by former Republican President Donald Trump, who had endorsed him.
Tuesday’s victory was a blow to Democrats, who viewed Ryan’s well-executed, well-funded campaign as one of their best chances nationally for a Senate pick-up.
The seat is currently held by moderate Republican Rob Portman, who said he’s retiring due to Washington dysfunction.
Vance successfully linked Ryan to the national economic climate he blamed on President Joe Biden.
Democrats net wins in US House races
Longtime Ohio Republican Steve Chabot has lost his bid for a 14th term in Congress while Democrat Marcy Kaptur won another term in the U.S. House.
Kaptur is the longest-serving woman in House history but she faced a tough election this year in a redrawn congressional district.
The two victories for Democrats on Tuesday were rare bright spots in Ohio’s mid-term elections that saw them suffer defeats in all statewide races.
Republicans will retain a majority of Ohio’s congressional seats.
In central Ohio, Jim Jordan, one of former President Donald Trump’s closest allies in Congress, won a ninth term. Fellow Republican Troy Balderson won his third term in Congress while voters sent Democrat Joyce Beatty back to Washington for her sixth term.
Other incumbents reelected were Republicans Mike Carey, Warren Davidson, Mike Turner, Brad Wenstrup, Bob Latta, Bill Johnson and David Joyce. Democrat Shontel Brown also won.
Republicans retain veto-proof majority in Ohio House, Senate
Republicans have maintained their veto-proof majority in both chambers of the Ohio Legislature for the next session, while Democrats will add Ohio’s first two Somali American state lawmakers.
All 99 House seats and 17 of the 33 Senate seats were up for election Tuesday.
The GOP needs 60 seats in the House and 20 in the Senate to override a governor’s veto of a bill, assuming a vote along party lines.
Republicans cleared those thresholds as vote tallying continued in some races and eventually added a Senate seat to give them their largest super-majority in the upper chamber since 1951,
majority leader Matt Huffman (R-Lima) said.
“Today like then, Ohioans know the difference between fact and fiction, and tonight they rejected the fiction driven by far-left special interests and voted for the simple and sound principles that produce results,” Huffman said.
The next session is expected to include debate about a state budget and possible additional restrictions on abortion in the state.
Munira Abdullahi and Ismail Mohamed will become the state’s first Somali lawmakers in the Legislature, both representing Columbus-area House districts. The city has the second-largest Somali population in the United States.
“I represent communities who have been overlooked for too long and those who have been yelling at deaf ears. This is simply the first big step of many,” Abdullahi said.
Other issues
Voters approved statewide ballot issues involving whether to prohibit noncitizen voting and whether judges should be required to consider a criminal suspect’s threat to public safety when setting bail.
All five bond issues in the city of Columbus, supporting safety and utilities improvements as well as other capital investments, passed, as did school issues in the Delaware, New Albany, Pickerington, Upper Arlington and Worthington districts.