Ohio’s Election 2026 – A Year of Change
The Executive Branch: Ohio’s five statewide executive offices (Governor, Attorney General, Secretary of State, Auditor of State, and Treasurer of State) were all “open” this year due to the five incumbent Republicans being term limited. The 5-0 Republican hold of these offices changed to a 4-1 Democratic position in Election 2026:
Governor – Democratic former state Health Director, Dr. Amy Acton, beat Republican entrepreneur Vivek Ramaswamy for the Governor’s office. This will be the first time since 2006 that a Democrat has won that office.
Attorney General – Democratic Upper Arlington City Councilman John Kulewicz bested Republican Auditor Keith Faber to become Attorney General.
Secretary of State – Democratic state Rep. Allison Russo defeated Republican Treasurer Robert Sprague to win the Secretary of State’s Office.
Auditor of State – Republican Secretary of State Frank LaRose beat Democratic candidate Annette Blackwell to win the Auditor’s Office.
Treasurer of State – Democratic Cincinnati City Councilman Seth Walsh defeated former state Rep. Jay Edwards to win the Treasurer’s Office.
The Statewide Ballot Issue: The photo’ identification needed to vote proposal (Issue 3) ballot measure passed 65%-35%. This had been placed on the ballot by the General Assembly and was supported by both gubernatorial candidates.
The Ohio General Assembly:
Democrats picked up two seats in the Ohio Senate creating a 22 R – 11 D split in the 137th General Assembly. The District 3 Republican Michelle Reynolds central Ohio seat went to Democrat Stacie Baker and the District 27 Akron area Republican open seat that had been held by Kristina Roegner went to Democrat Mike Roberto. {Sen. Bill Reineke is expected to become Senate President, taking over the reins for term-limited Senate President Rob McColley.}
Democrats picked up nine seats in the Ohio House creating a 56 R – 43 D split next year in the 137th GA. No Democratic seats were lost. There are a few seats that will likely go to mandatory recount, as noted below.
The Republican seats that flipped:
District 17 - Mike Dovilla was defeated by challenger Megan Coy.
District 31 – Mike Kahoe was unable to hold the seat term-limited Rep. Bill Roemer left. J. Noah Spinner was the winner.
District 35 – Vik Sandhu was unable to hold the seat Rep. Demetriou left in his bid for state Senate. Samantha Salamon was the winner.
District 36 – Andrea White lost to challenger Rose Lounsbury.
District 37 – Tom Young lost to challenger Tom Herner. (This may be in the margin of a mandatory recount.)
District 39 – Mark Campbell was unable to hold the seat vacated by Phil Plummer as he ran for state Senate. Daquan Neal was the winner.
District 49 – Jim Thomas lost to challenger Krista Allison.
District 52 – Cliff Winkel was unable to hold the seat vacated by Gayle Manning who ran successfully for state Senate. Mike Baker was the winner.
District 60 – Brian Lorenz lost to challenger Shelby Kimball.
Possible recounts in Republican “holds”: District 29 Cindy Abrams, District 44 an open seat where Ed Schimmel is vying to hold the seat vacated by Rep. Josh Williams who unsuccessfully ran for Congress, and District 75 Haraz Ghanbari. All are currently showing very narrow wins for the Republicans. Speaker Matt Huffman is currently expected to remain as leader.
State Supreme Court:
Democrats won the two State Supreme Court seats up in 2026, reducing the 6-1 Republican majority to 5-2. Jennifer Brunner, who had been the last Democratic statewide official, retained her seat against challenger Colleen O’Donnell. Challenger Marilyn Zayas defeated incumbent Daniel Hawkins.
Congress:
The Ohio delegation in the US House of Representatives started the year with a 10-5 Republican majority. A redrawn set of maps (due to a court order) had been approved in a bipartisan manner and was widely viewed as a likely 12-3 Republican set of districts. The election outcome however was far different: an 8-7 Democratic majority.
The two districts the Republicans had hoped to pick up: Former state Rep. Derrick Merrin ran to unseat the incumbent Democrat Marcy Kaptur in District 9 for the second cycle in a row but came up short. District 1’s Democratic Greg Landsman handily fended off Republican challenger Eric Conroy.
In District 7, incumbent Republican Max Miller was defeated by Democrat Brian Poindexter.
In District 10, incumbent Republican Mike Turner fell to Democrat Kristina Knickerbocker.
In District 15, incumbent Republican Mike Carey lost to Democrat Don Leonard.
Ohio’s US Senate race was one of the most expensive in US history, as Republican former Lt. Gov. Jon Husted attempted to retain the seat to which he had been appointed two years ago to complete the unexpired term of JD Vance, who had become vice-president. Challenger Sherrod Brown, who himself had been defeated in Ohio’s other Senate seat two years prior by Republican Bernie Moreno, defeated Husted.
If you would like to further discuss the results of the Ohio 2026 election, please contact Brian Perera or any of our ZHF Consulting professionals.
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