Ohio shows signs of becoming swing state again for Democrats
by Alex Gangitano - 09/09/22 6:00 AM ET
Democrats are looking to make Ohio a swing state again this midterm cycle as poll numbers show the party has a chance of winning a key Senate race between Democrat Rep. Tim Ryan and Republican J.D. Vance.
Ohio has been a perennial swing state, and former President Obama won it twice in 2008 and 2012. But Ohio has mostly delivered bad news for Democrats ever since, as Democrats have lost various statewide races, and former President Trump took the state in 2016 and 2020 relatively easily.
Since President Biden’s loss in 2020, political observers have increasingly seen the Buckeye State as Trump territory, with Sen. Sherrod Brown (D-Ohio) being a notable holdout.
Ryan’s strong candidacy is changing that. Polls show him in a tight race with Vance, the “Hillbilly Elegy” author who Trump backed in the GOP primary.
Various Democratic House candidates are also showing strength — most notably Rep. Marcy Kaptur, who looked like she’d be in trouble after redistricting made her district more Republican. Kaptur is now in a toss-up race with Republican J.R. Majewski, who has come under scrutiny because he was at the Capitol on Jan. 6, 2021.
“When you look at all of the major cities across the state of Ohio, they’re all Democrat. Ohio was a swing state for a long time. I’m not convinced that it’s not a swing state at this point,” said Derrick Clay, a former Midwest political director for the Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee. “I know that Tim Ryan has really went out of his way to talk to rural voters and talk to working class people across this state, and that’s something that I believe is the reason why he has advanced so well in his current campaign for Senate.”
Biden will visit Ohio on Friday to deliver remarks at a new Intel semiconductor facility. The visit is a signal of Democrats’ hopes for Ohio not only in 2022 but also in 2024, when they are optimistic that Biden could be competitive again in a presidential race.
Mark Weaver, a Republican political consultant in Ohio, dismissed Democrats’ hopefulness.
“Ohio becomes less crucial every cycle,” he said. “Ohio’s a big state and there are a lot of people who still think it’s a bellwether and so schedulers put it on the calendar and send their candidates here … but Ohio is a red state is now.”
Weaver noted that Republicans control every statewide office, with the exception of Brown.
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https://thehill.com/homenews/campaign/3635032-democrats-aim-to-make-ohio-a-swing-state-again/
