Ohio Democrats have a perpetual candidate recruitment problem. But they are amassing a list of credible potential contenders who are looking at running statewide in 2026.
Among them is U.S. Rep. Emilia Sykes, who won reelection in a tight race last month over Republican challenger Kevin Coughlin. The Akron Democrat won Ohio’s 13th Congressional District, the most competitive in the state, by 2 percentage points in a district Vice President Kamala Harris appears to have carried by only a couple hundred votes.
Sykes met last week with Jessica Mackler, president of EMILYs List, an influential Washington, D.C., organization that works to elect women Democrats who support abortion rights. A spokesperson for the group declined to say what the two discussed. But a source familiar with the meeting said they ended up talking at length about whether Sykes might run for U.S. Senate in 2026. The seat will be up for grabs since state law requires whomever Gov. Mike DeWine picks as Sen. JD Vance’s replacement to run for election next year.
Even though Ohio has become a solidly Republican state over the past decade, the race is likely to get national attention as Democrats regroup and hope to benefit from the typical political backlash against whichever party controls the White House.
Spokespeople for Sykes didn’t return messages.
Sykes has considered running statewide before – including for Senate in 2022 – and passed. She could pass again this time, since she’d have to leave Congress to run for what likely would be an uphill battle, even if 2026 does turn out to be a good year for Democrats.
Here’s the case she could make: She has a winning track record and comes from a part of the state – Summit County – where Democrats are doing well. And unlike up-and-coming Democrats from bluer areas, she has experience campaigning in a middle-of-the-road district that’s closer to the median Ohio voter.
Among the other potential candidates for the seat are the two Democrats who have lost the last two U.S. Senate races in Ohio: outgoing Sen. Sherrod Brown – who’d likely clear the field if he decides to run – and former congressman Tim Ryan.
Either one of them could conceivably end up running for governor too. Other potential governor candidates include former health department director Dr. Amy Acton and Ohio House Minority Leader Allison Russo.
DeWine’s year-end breakfast briefing
Governor DeWine sat down last week with the Ohio Statehouse press corps for a traditional annual meeting where he tends to be a little more relaxed.
Here are a few quick takeaways:
- DeWine conveyed relatively moderate positions on a few issues that illustrate how he differs from the core of his party – even though he doesn’t always end up breaking ranks with them. On immigration, DeWine said the country needs to do more to attract talented workers. Ohio would benefit by attracting immigrants, he said, including by retaining foreign students who come here to study but then return to their home countries when they’ve finished their degrees. But, DeWine said the illegal border crossings under President Joe Biden have made reforming the immigration system “politically impossible.” DeWine said he hopes that Republicans will work on pro-immigration reform after first securing the southern border – whatever that looks like. “We do not have a policy today that fully recognizes the need for people who come into the United States,” DeWine said.
- DeWine recently signed a bill while conspicuously skipping the fanfare that usually accompanies high-profile legislation – that requires K-12 schools and universities to set a strict single-gender bathroom policy based on students’ sex assigned at birth. But he said he hopes that transgender people and their families still feel welcome in the state. He described a possible “market solution” that sidesteps the social controversy: gender-neutral family bathrooms. “There’s a worry about stigma,” DeWine said, referencing how the bill might force transgender students to use a separate bathroom. “I think that stigma goes away the more of these we have. And government’s not mandating them, but you’re clearly seeing a movement to have more.”
- Asked about a proposal backed by gun-rights groups to forbid state and local police from enforcing federal gun regulations, DeWine said: “I don’t know about that. It seems to me that we’ve passed a lot of gun bills.” The proposal, which its supporters call the Second Amendment Preservation Act, stalled after a late push during the Lame Duck state legislative session.
- Lt. Gov. Jon Husted, who also joined the governor for the year-end chat, has spent years preparing to run for governor in 2026. But he went out of his way to not rule out seeking the appointment for Vance’s U.S. Senate seat instead. “I”m not making any announcements,” Husted said more than once, saying he’d share his plans in January – which, as it turns out, is the same month Vance will take office as vice president. Asked whom he’d endorse as his replacement, DeWine praised the job Husted has done as lieutenant governor. “He’d be a great governor,” DeWine said.
DeWine joins Democratic-leaning Christmas Party – at the White House
The event with Statehouse media wasn’t the only holiday shindig on DeWine’s calendar.
Last Saturday, DeWine attended a Christmas party at the White House, according to Dan Tierney, the governor’s spokesperson. Several Ohio Democrats also attended, including Ohio House Minority Leader Allison Russo and Ohio Senate Minority Leader Nickie Antonio and Cuyahoga County Executive Chris Ronayne, according to a photo Antonio posted on social media.
Tierney confirmed the governor attended the event but offered no explanation of why. (Is the presidential eggnog that good?) But the governor has a collegial relationship with Biden that dates back to when the two served in the U.S. Senate together. One attendee said the outgoing president acknowledged DeWIne as a friend during the event and that DeWine – no surprise – appeared to be the only Ohio Republican there.
Branching out
The Ohio General Assembly has finished its 2023-2024 legislative session, punctuating it with a 441-page amendment approved in a vintage act of late-night Lame Duck legislating.
House Bill 315, which began its life as a series of modest changes to township government laws, exploded overnight. Lawmakers packed numerous unrelated bills into HB315, dealing with topics as varied as declaring the World Health Organization to have no jurisdiction in Ohio to creating a Dolly Parton Imagination Library license plate. Lobbyists call these kinds of bills “Christmas Tree” bills, a reference to the eclectic legislative ornaments that decorate them.
One proposal notably failed to make the cut. Lawmakers had discussed using HB315 the hike the pay for state officials, judges and other county officials. But it didn’t make the final bill. Maybe next year.
Lawmakers approved several other notable proposals before breaking until January. They passed House Bill 173, which will require hospitals to publish pricing information for standard medical services. They also approved House Bill 8, which combines separate controversial proposals requiring schools to inform parents of changes in their children’s medical conditions – including self-reported gender identity – and requiring schools to have policies allowing for studnets to be released for off-site religious instruction. And they approved House Joint Resolution 8, which will schedule a May election for statewide voters to decide whether to approve borrowing up to $2.5 billion to extend a longstanding state infrastructure program for another decade.
The bills all now head to DeWine for his signature, although the governor has no role in the resolution setting the May vote on the infrastructure issue.
The cost of doing business
The latest state campaign finance reports detail the money that fueled the final days of the Nov. 5 election. Capturing the money raised and spent Oct. 17 through Dec. 6, the reports help define just how expensive the campaigns were, including Issue 1, the redistricting-reform amendment that voters defeated in November.
Citizens Not Politicians, the lead campaign group pushing to pass Issue 1, spent nearly $41 million in total in 2023 and 2024, including $3.6 million in the final weeks of the campaign. It also received a total of $2.5 million in free goods and services, which are called in-kind contributions.
Its biggest donor in the final weeks of the campaign was Our American Future Action of Washington, D.C., which gave $2 million on Oct. 21, a few weeks before the Nov. 5 election. Other major donors throughout the campaign include the ACLU, several national liberal dark money groups, and state and national teachers’ unions and other organized labor groups.
The main anti-Issue 1 group, Ohio Works, spent a total of $7.5 million, including $2.9 million in the campaign’s final weeks. Its biggest late-stage donor was Jeff Yass, a Republican megadonor from Pennsylvania who recently began spending on Ohio political campaigns. Yass gave Ohio Works $500,000 on Oct. 18. Major backers throughout the campaign included conservative dark-money groups, state business groups, U.S. Rep. Jim Jordan’s campaign account, and the campaign fund for Ohio Senate Republicans, which is controlled by Senate President Matt Huffman.
Despite the huge financial advantage on the “yes” side, Issue 1 lost 54% to 46%.
Finally, we’ll be taking next week off for the Christmas holiday. We’ll be back the following week.
