Ohio results: Trump scores again; one incumbent justice defeated; Stivers, Wilkin earn big wins

0

COLUMBUS (AP) — President Donald Trump has again carried Ohio, historically a must-win state for Republicans.

No Republican has reached the White House without carrying Ohio. The last Democrat to do so was John F. Kennedy in 1960, when Richard Nixon won the state. Trump reaps Ohio’s 18 electoral votes for a second time, beating Democrat former Vice President Joe Biden after his 2016 victory over Hillary Clinton, the former U.S. secretary of state.

Meanwhile, the state’s GOP-drawn congressional map remains unbeaten, with all 16 incumbents winning. The Republicans have held a 12-4 majority in the state’s U.S. House delegation since the map took effect in 2012.

GOP legislators will keep “supermajorities” in the Statehouse, even after a federal bribery scandal involving their former House speaker.

But a Democrat won one of two Supreme Court positions being contested, narrowing the GOP edge to 4-3.

Ohio has been trending Republican in recent statewide elections. Biden, from neighboring Pennsylvania, mounted a late but strong challenge. He stepped up media spending as early voting began in October.

Locally, U.S. Rep Steve Stivers (R-Upper Arlington) of the 15th District — which includes Clinton County — won re-election with an unofficial vote total of 236,473 against Democratic challenger Joel Newby’s 136,286.

State Rep. Shane Wilkin (R-Hillsboro) won re-election in Ohio’s District 91 — which includes Clinton County — with 40,139 votes to Democratic challenger Scott Dailey’s 12,182.

Secretary of State Frank LaRose touted Ohio’s response to a variety of glitches and other incidents on Election Day as the state set voter turnout records.

Several first-time female candidates challenged Republican incumbents in the U.S. House, but all fell short.

Republican Rep. Steve Chabot clinched his 13th term in Congress, defeating first-time Democratic candidate Kate Schroder, a public health professional. She had been seen by Democrats as their best shot for finally flipping a House seat in the last election before Census-triggered redistricting. However, Chabot’s strength in GOP-dominated Warren County that became part of his district in the remap helped carry him through.

Republican Rep. Troy Balderson, first elected in 2018, held his central Ohio seat against Democrat Alaina Shearer, like Schroder a first-time candidate. Republican Rep. Mike Turner of Dayton won his 10th term, defeating first-time Democratic candidate Desiree Tims. Four-term Republican Rep. Dave Joyce was reelected after facing a spirited challenge in northeast Ohio from Democrat Hillary O’Connor Mueri, a first-time candidate and former naval flight officer.

The nation’s longest-serving woman in Congress led the way as all four of Ohio’s Democratic House incumbents won reelection. Rep. Marcy Kaptur won her 19th term from northern Ohio, Rep. Marcia Fudge her sixth from the Cleveland area, Rep. Tim Ryan his fifth from the Youngstown area, and Rep. Joyce Beatty her fourth from the Columbus area.

On the Republican side, Rep. Jim Jordan, a fiery conservative supporter of Trump, won his eighth term from northwest-central Ohio, and Rep. Warren Davidson, who succeeded former House Speaker John Boehner in his western Ohio district by winning a 2016 special election, won his third full term. Rep. Brad Wenstrup, who served in the Iraq War as a combat surgeon, won a fifth term from southern Ohio. Former Ohio State University football player Anthony Gonzalez won his second term in northeast Ohio.

Democrat Jennifer Brunner defeated incumbent Ohio Supreme Court Justice Judi French in one of two contested races on the state high court. Republican Justice Sharon Kennedy turned back Democrat John O’Donnell to leave the GOP with a 4-3 majority on the court.

Brunner is a state appeals court judge and a former Ohio secretary of state. She made an unsuccessful run for U.S. Senate in 2010. French, a former assistant Ohio attorney general, was running for her second full six-year term on the court. French won election in 2014 after being appointed to the court a year earlier.

Republicans retained their supermajorities in both chambers of Ohio’s Legislature despite a federal bribery scandal involving the former speaker, Larry Householder.

The outcome gives the GOP enough votes to override a governor’s vetoes and to more easily place constitutional amendments before voters.

Householder’s reelection bid was unclear early Wednesday, because votes cast for four write-in candidates running against him had not yet been counted.

Hamilton County election department employees unload ballot boxes from delivery trucks at the Hamilton County Board of Elections, Tuesday, Nov. 3, 2020, in Norwood, Ohio. (AP Photo/Aaron Doster)
https://www.wnewsj.com/wp-content/uploads/sites/22/2020/11/web1_125730983-eedf037e36a64cd3993ea10bce63ccbf-1.jpgHamilton County election department employees unload ballot boxes from delivery trucks at the Hamilton County Board of Elections, Tuesday, Nov. 3, 2020, in Norwood, Ohio. (AP Photo/Aaron Doster)

By Dan Sewell and Julie Carr Smyth

Associated Press

No posts to display