There are a lot of interesting notes in the results of yesterday’s election. Ohio got its first woman elected governor with Amy Acton, who defeating Republican Vivek Ramaswamy by nearly 8 points, in a state that President Trump won by 11 points just two years earlier.
Acton won 15 counties: Athens, Cuyahoga, Delaware, Erie, Franklin, Hamilton, Lake, Lorain, Lucas, Mahoning, Montgomery, Portage, Summit, Trumbull and Wood. It was quite a change from 2022, when Democratic candidate for governor Nan Whaley won three counties. Acton flipped eight counties that had voted for President Trump in 2024, and unofficial results show she received 364,388 more votes than Ramaswamy.
Acton, who’s from Youngstown, won Mahoning County by 54.15%, while Ramaswamy, who grew up in Cincinnati, lost Hamilton County with 34.52% of the vote. Ramaswamy also lost his home precinct in Upper Arlington to Acton, who got more than 57% of the vote there.
Secretary of State Frank LaRose was the only Republican to win one of the five executive offices, getting 270,375 more votes for auditor than Ramaswamy got in his race. LaRose won by 1.58%, getting 72,150 more votes than Democrat Annette Blackwell, the mayor of Maple Heights.
Those downticket races were close, with Republican Treasurer Robert Sprague conceding the secretary of state's race to former House Minority Leader Allison Russo early. Russo defeated Sprague by 3.45% with 157,179 more votes. In the race for treasurer, Cincinnati City Councilman Seth Walsh beat Republican former state representative Jay Edwards by 1.1%, or 49,788 votes. And for attorney general, Democratic Columbus attorney John Kulewicz beat Republican Auditor Keith Faber by .62% with 28,407 more votes.
Justice Jennifer Brunner and First District Court of Appeals Judge Marilyn Zayas won their Ohio Supreme Court races in the first win for Democrats since the state law requiring party affiliation to be listed on those judicial candidates starting in 2022. Brunner defeated former immigration judge Colleen O’Donnell, and Zayas ousted Justice Dan Hawkins, elected just two years ago to fill out the rest of Joe Deters’ term after Deters unseated his fellow justice Melody Stewart.
Ohio also has its first congressional delegation led by Democrats since 2011. Eight Democrats and seven Republicans won, with incumbents Max Miller, Mike Turner and Mike Carey losing to Democrats Brian Poindexter, Kristina Knickerbocker and Don Leonard. The map they all ran on was approved by the Republican-dominated Ohio Redistricting Commission last year. Going into the election there were 10 Republicans and five Democrats in Congress from Ohio.
