Ohio set for marquee races in the fall. US Senate contest seen as crucial for control of the chamber

COLUMBUS, Ohio (AP) — Tuesday’s primary in Ohio set up two marquee matchups in November — a U.S. Senate race that will help determine control of the chamber and a governor’s race in which Democrats see their best chance of victory in two decades.

Another stunningly expensive Senate race — the state’s third in four years — is expected as Republicans try to hold their majority during a difficult midterm cycle. Former Sen. Sherrod Brown easily defeated a challenger in the Democratic primary and will now attempt to unseat Republican Sen. Jon Husted.

Democrats are counting on Brown’s previous popularity with voters to flip the seat, even as the Senate Leadership Fund — a top GOP super PAC — has pledged $79 million to defend Husted.

Brown, who served three Senate terms before losing a bitter reelection bid in 2024, pledged at his victory party to fight for working-class Ohioans.

“No one in the Senate is standing up to these corporations who raise your prices and who game the system,” Brown said as attendees booed. He continued, “Ohioans don’t have anyone fighting for you, until November.”

Husted, who did not hold an election night party, was unopposed in his primary, a special election to fill the remainder of the six-year Senate term that Vice President JD Vance won in 2022.

In a statement earlier in the day, Husted said Brown has no room to talk about failures in Washington.

“Over the next six months, Ohioans will hear a lot from Sherrod Brown about his so-called solutions,” Husted said. “The truth is, after 32 years in Washington, he created the very problems he now blames others for. His record is indefensible.”

In the governor’s race, biotech billionaire Vivek Ramaswamy clinched the Republican nomination over internet personality Casey Putsch to face Dr. Amy Acton, the COVID-era health director, this fall. Acton was unopposed in the Democratic primary.

Both candidates for governor are widely known across the state

A newcomer to state politics, Ramaswamy aggressively positioned himself for the job early with the help of an endorsement from President Donald Trump — who praised him on social media Tuesday as “Young, Strong, and Smart!”

“We have an historic opportunity to lead Ohio to be the top state in the country — to raise a young family, to give our kids a world-class education and to be the state where we will revive this quaint idea that we call the American Dream,” Ramaswamy told supporters in Columbus.

Acton, speaking at her victory party, said she is running because people are struggling, working harder than ever and still not getting ahead.

“I refuse to look the other way,” she said.

Trump’s endorsement continues to carry weight in Ohio, which favored him three times for president, but Ramaswamy could face headwinds amid the president’s lagging popularity over the war in Iran and the rising cost of living.

The high public profile and robust early fundraising of Acton have Democrats hopeful of winning back the governor’s office for the first time since 2006.

Ramaswamy, a 2024 GOP primary presidential candidate, swept onto the state’s political scene early last year as a mad shuffle left an opening at the top of Republicans’ statewide ticket. Then-Sen. Vance was ascending to the vice presidency and Husted — then the front-running candidate for governor — was being appointed to replace him in Washington.

With his national profile, tech industry connections and proximity to Trump, he quickly cleared a prospective field that included the sitting state attorney general, state treasurer and lieutenant governor.

National economy, COVID-19 pandemic set early tone for governor’s race

But Democrats saw opportunity with the open governors seat, even as the state, a former bellwether, has tipped convincingly toward Republicans during the Trump era.

Acton became a household name across Ohio in the early days of the COVID-19 pandemic as she stood alongside Republican Gov. Mike DeWine during daily coronavirus broadcasts. Her comforting presence during the crisis made her a beloved figure with many Ohioans.

Her campaign also has highlighted her rough childhood, overcoming poverty, homelessness and sexual abuse while growing up in Youngstown.

“I just think she’s real,” said Aaron Weiner, a Cincinnati real estate agent who voted for Acton. “She has had struggles, so I think she can empathize with people who are struggling to get ahead.”

But the administration’s aggressive pandemic actions — including shuttering businesses, closing schools and canceling an election — also earned Acton plenty of enemies and made her the occasional target of people upset about the policies, with some armed protesters showing up outside her home.

Ramaswamy’s campaign sought to capitalize on lingering anger over the restrictions with attacks on Acton’s role early in the crisis, but he also has connections to the government’s response. Ramaswamy was advising the lieutenant governor at the time — Husted — on virus-related economic issues and founded a company that profited off its role developing vaccines.

Cincinnati voter Paul Mussman, who backed Ramaswamy, said he considers it an asset that he is a relative newcomer to politics.

Ramaswamy would look at issues “in a fresh way and not based on what their party affiliation is,” Mussman said.

Republicans see some Democratic-held House seats as vulnerable

In the wake of a new round of redistricting that slightly favored Republicans, the state also had numerous partisan congressional primaries.

The most heated GOP primary was in the Toledo area’s 9th District for the chance to take on Democratic U.S. Rep. Marcy Kaptur, the longest-serving woman in Congress.

Former state Rep. Derek Merrin, whom Kaptur defeated by less than a percentage point in 2024, bested an Air National Guard veteran, a healthcare industry worker, a sitting state representative and the former deputy director of U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement, Madison Sheahan.

In Democratic U.S. Rep. Greg Landsman’s Cincinnati-area 1st Congressional District, which his party considers a “must-hold,” the three-way Republican primary went to Eric Conroy, a CIA and Air Force veteran who was endorsed by Trump, Vance and Moreno.

Landsman beat back a primary challenge of his own Tuesday from Damon Lynch IV, the grandson of a prominent civil rights leader. Lynch had criticized Landsman for his initial vote against a war powers resolution on the war in Iran, which Landsman later followed up with a favorable vote.

In the Akron area’s 13th District, Republican Carey Coleman defeated four others for the opportunity to face Democratic U.S. Rep. Emilia Sykes.

Democrats think new House maps give them a shot to regain seats

As a Trump-backed national effort to remake congressional maps in Republicans’ favor was underway, Ohio Democrats took a could-have-been-worse approach and passed the map they were given unanimously.

Now party candidates crowded congressional primaries across the state for the chance to take on sitting Republican representatives, who hold 10 of Ohio’s 15 seats.

The newly redrawn 7th District in the Cleveland area attracted eight Democrats hoping to challenge Republican U.S. Rep. Max Miller, a former senior Trump adviser, in November. Among them was former Cuyahoga County Executive Ed FitzGerald, the Democratic nominee for governor in 2014.

In northeast Ohio’s 14th District, PR professional and former Euclid City Council member Maria Jukic won the Democratic primary over former Ohio Supreme Court Justice William O’Neill and others and will face Republican U.S. Rep. Dave Joyce.

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Associated Press writer Dylan Lovan in Cincinnati contributed.

Julie Carr Smyth, The Associated Press