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Republicans won big in the 2024 vote.

Donald Trump expanded on his wins in Ohio in the two previous elections, leading a red wave down the ticket and overwhelming Democrats.

This week, some sound off on what the Ohio Democratic Party does now on the state of Ohio.

Welcome to the state of Ohio.

I'm Karen Kasler.

This election has sparked celebration and anticipation among Republicans nationally and in Ohio, and depression and reflection among Democrats.

This week, the thoughts of five key Democrats in Ohio about what happened in the 2024 election and where the party goes from here.

I started with Allison Russo.

House minority leader and a possible candidate for statewide office in 2026, when the five state executive offices, including governor, will be on the ballot, as well as U.S. Senate and two Supreme Court seats.

I think and I have felt and we've talked about this within our caucus for a long time, is that we have to go back to the basics, and really center our messaging on again.

What are those?

Bread and butter issues that matter to the average Ohioan?

And, and, you will see that in both how we talk about both the policies that we prioritize as, moving forward in this past General Assembly, how we talk about those within our districts.

And it doesn't mean that we, again, don't fight vigorously for our values, around freedom and the dignity and the opportunity.

But, you know, really, again, keeping our focus on what improves everyday Ohioans lives.

And I think that our, our success, at least in our caucus and the way that we were best able to defend seats and pick up seats, speaks to that.

And the work that we're doing, the work that we're doing back in our districts to communicate that to our constituents.

Do you think the Democratic brand is broken?

Is it, is are there parts of the state that just simply won't elect Democrats?

Well, I it's really interesting to me that, when you talk about the issues that Democrats are fighting for or even when we say, you know, ballot issues, for example, and you talk about those no matter where you are in the state, by and large, there is agreement on that.

Do I think that, people, you know, have fallen into their political teams and often I'm not sure that there is a lot of thought that happens is you're voting straight ticket, down the ticket at the ballot box.

Do I think that, the brand of Ohio Democrats versus national Democrats is the same?

I don't, I think, you know, when you look at, for example, the issues that Senator Sherrod Brown focuses on and the issues that we focus on here at the Ohio State House, you know, those are our very bread and butter issues.

And so it is I think we have to really think about how do we better communicate to, to voters.

And by and large, you know, again, our members are really good at doing that back in their districts when they're talking and working for their constituents.

You have some Democrats who are saying that Democrats need to move away from identity politics and talk about more economic issues.

Is that what you're saying here?

Well, I think listen, you can fight for, fundamental freedom and fairness for all people.

And you can do that while also talking about, the economic issues.

But but I think that we all have to remember that at the end of the day, like, people are really, number one, it's hard to break through.

Most people are not paying attention, to this until the very last minute.

And, you know, most voters want to know, what are you going to do for me?

How are you going to make my life some help better?

And, you know, we've got to get that message across.

Messaging is a concern for Chris Gibbs, who was the Republican Party chair and bright red Shelby County in western Ohio and voted for Donald Trump in 2016.

He left the GOP over the tariff war with China in 2018, and now chairs the Shelby County Democratic Party.

know, if you look at the wider picture, it looks like we didn't communicate with the working class voter.

And that's fine.

I think that's an Emerald City view.

But to get there from get to here from there is there's a lot of flying monkeys between here and there.

So I think what's going to have to happen with, with this party, in my humble view, is that we're going to have to have an internal discussion, maybe even a family food fight of who's got the microphone.

Is it going to be the far left progressive left?

And that's fine.

Or is it going to be more centrist folks that we find out in, in counties that ruby red counties like Shelby County?

We've got that discussion to have, and it's going to be a tough one.

I know there are people who would say, hey, Sherrod Brown tried to appeal to more moderate voters, and obviously it didn't work.

And maybe the goal is or the idea should be to go to the more progressive issues.

Where do you fall in that?

I can see that argument, however.

Let's let's look at what we've tried that over the last 20 years, and we've continued to lose support in these ruby red counties, particularly rural counties like me.

So if you want to go after the folks and get them off of the couch in Cleveland and Columbus in Cincinnati, because if we need to be more progressive, that's fine.

And you may win elections, but you're never going to pick up people in the ruby red counties.

You're going to continue to lose those folks because they don't feel like that faction of the party represents their values, and God love them.

In the in the Democratic Party, everybody gets a voice, but not everybody gets their way.

So at least everybody gets a voice here.

And that's what makes a strong is a tapestry.

So we've got that discussion to have in my view.

We need to become more centrist.

But we'll have that discussion.

It's going to be a tough one.

Donald Trump beat Kamala Harris in Shelby County by 65 points.

And you were a Republican until just a few years ago.

Is the Democratic brand in counties like Shelby County broken or is it the messaging or what is it?

Well, let's not look just at Shelby County.

Other counties are are the same.

The brand is the issue.

And thanks for bringing that up.

Because brand is everything, whether it's marketing, whatever you want to do, you have to protect the brand.

And the brand over the last two decades has been severely damaged.

It's been it's you know what politics.

Tip O'Neill used to say that all politics was local.

I don't believe that anymore.

All politics is now national and what's happened is the National Party has swept us all along, has swept the ruby red counties along with that agenda, and swept us away from the values of those folks in Shelby County and other counties.

So that's what we're working on, is values voters, because I understand we understand that the people in Shelby County and the surrounding counties are values voters.

They're not issues voters.

Democrats can come in, bring them a new fire station.

They can bring them a ribbon cutting.

They can bring in marginal tax rates, whatever you want to bring.

And they'll take it and they'll say, it's not.

Thank you.

Don't even don't even say thank you to child tax credits if you can get it passed.

But they still won't vote for you because they don't believe that Democrats on the national level, spilling all the way down, share their values.

This is a shared value discussion.

So in all practicality, what do Democrats do now?

Because there's a big race to 2026.

Obviously the next presidential race in 2028.

What can Democrats do now and where do the candidates come from?

Well, we're going to start with leadership.

Get it out of Washington, DC.

I'm a proponent of Ken Martin out of Minnesota to be the DNC chair.

We're going to have a new DNC chair that he's promised to put more resources not only in the state parties, but also in the county parties, so that we can run people everywhere.

We need to run people everywhere and hold the MAGA Republicans.

And by the way, there are no legacy Republicans left.

They're all MAGA now.

Where do you find the candidates?

Anywhere and everywhere.

Candidate quality.

You know, Mitch McConnell said it.

Let's agree.

Mitch McConnell said candidate quality, is is important.

It's a small pool in Shelby County.

In Shelby County.

We've got 33,000 registered voters, 10,000 ish, registered Republicans and 1100 registered Democrats.

So it's hard.

It's a tough slog.

But I tell you what, I go back to what's happened in Shelby County.

And is this the the folks the Democrats were in hiding?

Number one, we got them out and hiding, got them proud to stand up and put up.

Even put a yard sign in their yard was tough because they were literally scared.

Scared they were.

It was it was it was a hard slog to have haven't put up a sign or yard.

But now folks, we've got went from nine individuals on Central Committee.

We've rebuilt that to 22 people in the Central Committee now.

So we're over half of the of the 36, precincts.

And people are clawing at the door to be in leadership.

I thought after I, after the, the election that people would recoil.

They're not they're even more motivated now.

So out of that group, out of those folks, those volunteers, those folks that came in and got signs from my headquarters, that's where the pool of candidates is going to come from.

Jordan Hawkins knows about get out the vote efforts as president of the Ohio Young Black Democrats.

He pushes back on the idea that Democrats either need to try to lure in moderate voters and stay away from identity politics, or lean into more progressive positions.

I think we're presenting a false choice.

I think when you look at the connective tissue of what binds everyday Ohioans from people like myself who reside in Columbus to folks who reside in Lima, where, you know, unfortunately, our soon to be speaker, resides, you know, what you look at is folks who they want to get by, they want to be able to make ends meet.

They want to be able to pay their rent.

They want to be able to get into that house.

They want to be able to protect their crops.

They want to be able to be represented in a labor union.

They want to see their wages go up and for it to be again congruent with where prices are going up.

That is something that connects all of us.

I can keep going.

We can talk about health care.

We can talk about education, the bread and butter issues and kitchen table issues that connects all of us are not things that are just about, you know, Republican voters or Democratic voters and independent voters.

This is all of us.

And so you're asking me where we need to go with Ohio and just kind of what are the issues we need to focus on going forward?

Let's continue to present a message for the working class.

Let's be better at that.

As Democrats and as folks who, again, are just caring about everyday working people.

Let's talk about education.

Let's talk about health care.

Because those are the things that Ohioans, no matter where you live, aren't care about.

And what matters.

And so I think that, you know, we can't make a choice between we got to go more moderate, we got to go more progressive.

Let's talk about things that everybody cares about.

And we know we can do better at, which is helping everyday people make ends meet no matter where they live.

Democrats need the big counties in Ohio to win.

And in, Franklin County, turnout was 65.5%.

That's lower than the 69%, almost 70% turnout.

But it got worse when you looked at other counties.

Cuyahoga County, 64% turnout.

Hamilton 67%.

Lucas 61%.

How do you energize those voters and get them to turn out in the bigger numbers?

You need to win Ohio.

I think it takes off year programing.

And again, we have to change a little bit of the culture.

As I put it, in terms of ways that we're engaging with our constituents.

I mean, again, you look at all those counties you named, we have a lot of Democrats, and people who are in control of a lot of the local politics in these areas.

And these are great public servants.

These are great dedicated people.

I've worked with many of them, you know, definitely helping them out with their campaigns and also just organizing on the issues are they care about.

Let's make sure in the off years that we are continuing this fight, continuing this engagement, what are we doing on the official side of our things that we're translating, when it comes time for the election, along those issues that I talked about before, which are kitchen table issues that cut through what everybody and that clearly the message that was sent was that that trumps all right, no pun intended.

You know, that is, of course, no pun intended with that man.

But, that is something that, again, I believe that we need to try to focus on in order to get more of our folks engaged, we can talk about, again, rightfully so.

Frank Larose is voter suppression policies and the General Assembly, Republicans who like to manipulate ballot language and fix elections with districts that are illegal.

But at the end of the day, what we have to do is focus on the good people we have in our communities, counties, cities, make sure we're talking to our constituents and make sure they're engaged in the civic process, on and on, years and off years, as we call them.

2026 is just around the corner.

You got a lot of offices that are up for grabs this time.

Where did the candidates come from and how can you start working on 2026 now?

Yeah, so I mean, listen, I think we have a we have a bench.

We have a bench here in Ohio.

I think it's just about folks taking that step, and making sure that they know that they're next up.

I think we saw that nationally with our Democratic Party.

I mean, we have to continue to pass the torch for also continue to go back to the folks who have laid the foundation for us and know how to win, you know, so I thanks for 2026 like it is about the folks who are about our party, who are about this messaging that I'm talking about around working class people, unions, educators.

Again, folks from all different sorts of backgrounds.

It's about getting those folks that will centralize that message to the forefront and making sure they're starting now and starting as early as possible.

We're getting our coalition together because it's out there.

We've seen it in 2023.

We had a very good stroke, a couple of elections where that coalition showed up, I don't.

And of course, we still have folks out there deep in our bench that maybe they just ran.

Maybe these are folks who are newer in our cities and counties, but they are there.

And I know once we start putting our heads together and putting that work together and starting on day one, of course, as soon as January starts, we're going to be able to put together a good coalition again and make a run for this.

David Pepper was the Ohio Democratic Party chair from 2015 until he stepped down after big losses for Democrats in 2020.

He has run for statewide office twice, and has become a fixture among political junkies on X for his whiteboard videos and threads on gerrymandering, vouchers and state House corruption, among other topics.

we're talking here about a mindset that from now on, we run everywhere.

We talk about public schools, everywhere we sound like Sherrod Brown in these areas, everywhere we go.

And and if you're not there, don't be surprised if their message dominates at all levels of the ballot.

So I think that's a big part of it.

And it's money, but it's also just a sort of a mindset that we're not only you're not going to win running in only some places, you've got to get out there more broadly.

And again, just to be clear, more people ran this year in Ohio than in the past.

It was a tough cycle, so it didn't pay off.

But in 26 it went.

When I think there will be a lot for Republicans to answer for the, you know, John Houston's running for governor, he's got a lot to answer for when it comes to his involvement in First Energy and eCard and vouchers that are so unpopular.

I think that's a really good time to make sure you have candidates running everywhere, because you got a guy at the top of the ticket.

Let's say if it's Houston who will have a lot to answer for, just like I think when Donald Trump policies of of of wild tariffs and other things start to lead to inflation, you're going to want to be on the ballot everywhere, holding people accountable.

So I think that 26 is a year where where we should learn from our mistakes, message better, but also be present more broadly so you can take advantage of the fact that Republicans are going to own a lot of problems going into that election.

Where do you get the candidates for the the many seats that will be open in 2026?

I mean, they come from the left.

They come from more moderate.

And shouldn't they be starting now to get their campaigns together and fundraise together?

I wouldn't say now, but I'd say darn body.

A lot of them can come from people who just ran.

There was there were a lot of great people who ran.

I met a lot of them.

I supported a lot of them through blue Ohio.

Really good people.

Who were they?

Veterans, school teachers, you know, community activists, local officials, board of education are they're the key is they're in the community and they're known in the community.

And we had a lot of good people run.

And, you know, when you run, there's a lot you could do to control the outcome yourself.

But you also have a lot of other forces that are bigger than you.

So you're on the team and sometimes you win or lose with a team.

But my my advice to people who did run and so good about it, which they should and enjoyed it, which you need to keep going.

That's why Casey Weinstein's a state senator.

He lost his first election.

He kept running.

Phil Robinson kept running.

Jessica Miranda kept running.

So won.

There are a lot of people who just ran who should keep going, and they already have an infrastructure.

But others, like the ones I'm talking about, they can come from all sorts of backgrounds, but the key is that the best kind of candidate that we're talking about here is someone in good standing in the community.

They were a teacher for 20 years.

So in a smaller community, everyone who went to that school took their history class.

They're a natural.

They were a firefighter.

They were another type of public servant.

There's someone who help people in other ways.

They're out there.

They just need to be communicated with that.

We value them running.

And one of the things that in the past, at least has, has happened is the Democratic Party has sent many of them a message that, oh, if you're not in a swing district, we don't value running.

If that's the message, why would they ever run for anything?

Because not even their own party values it.

That's changing again.

North Carolina had a lot of uncontested races two years ago.

They only had two uncontested this time in the whole state.

North Carolina had a pretty good year.

They just want a Supreme Court race by 600 votes.

If it weren't for all those people running all over North Carolina, they wouldn't have won that race.

So.

So I think that, in Ohio, we had we had, zero uncontested races in 2018 to Fred Strayhorn credit, that's the same year we picked up six seats.

So there's a value to it.

And I think if you're so the people are out there, they the potential candidates are in these communities.

But the party needs to send a clear message that even if you're in a quite red area, even if it feels like a tough, gerrymandered district, there's a value to people stepping up and running, especially now, far more than even usual times, because it's the void of running.

It's the void of messaging that's really sort of it doesn't hurt Democrats.

It frankly hurts democracy.

It's deja vu for Dave Beatrice, the former chair of the Mahoning County Democratic Party.

He warned Hillary Clinton's campaign in May 2016 that she would lose the Mahoning Valley, as well as Michigan and Pennsylvania, because the party was no longer speaking to the concerns of the working class.

Beatrice says that's still the case, and the party cannot continue to insult or talk down to people with words like fascist and racist and expect to get votes from them.

Is the Democratic Party in Ohio a lost cause?

Where do they go from here?

Right as a party.

Go.

My opinion was Walter should resign.

She lost.

Sherrod Brown race lost.

I mean, I know her.

I mean, I like her, but this isn't about liking someone.

It's not about your feelings.

It's about winning.

And if we keep her as the chairman.

Well, what?

Something's going to be different in two years.

You got to burn the place down and rebuild it, okay?

You got to clean house and wipe out everyone that's there and bring in a new team.

Our team is losing.

We have played our players and they aren't doing well.

Well, let's just keep playing them because that sounds like a winning plan, doesn't it?

No it doesn't, not to me it doesn't.

And so, you know, I'm no longer the chairman of a party.

And, you know, I don't have any say so, but if you're asking me, I, I'd blowtorch the whole Democratic Party to the ground and bring in new people.

What are you going to do, lose?

We've been doing that for cycle after cycle after cycle.

I mean, I haven't heard Marcy Kaptur is in trouble.

Really?

Marcy Kaptur is in trouble.

I can't believe that.

That's shocking to me.

A Democrat couldn't win Tim Ryan's district now, with a shotgun.

But we have issues that we can go after Republicans on.

We don't know how to message on the corrupt.

The level of corruption has gotten so bad, but no one knows about it.

No one knows they're paying extra dollars every month on their on their heating bill.

Okay.

Because of a bribe.

You ever heard Democrats talk about that?

We have this crazy thing with the with econ, where?

So we took our tax dollars, we gave it to a corporation.

They bought a computer.

They get to keep it.

But if a public school buys that computer, it's public property.

But e court, that's their property.

These are all these are all gifts for us and we don't know how to use it.

You gotta have people that have bravery and are willing to run on their gut and have passion and talk to voters and don't talk down to voters, you know, and, and and we've lost the ability to do that.

We've just I don't know, we've we need a populist.

We need a populist who doesn't sound like a socialist.

I don't mean a bad because, you know, I mean, Alexandria, Cortez, she did some on Instagram and there were Trump Cortez voters.

Sounds bizarre right?

There were a lot of Trump Sherrod Brown voters.

The problem is Donald Trump won the state by 11 points.

If if we could have kept that down to seven point, Sherrod would retain his seat.

I mean, but, you know, people like authenticity.

We don't look authentic anymore.

No one sounds authentic anymore.

No.

Everyone sounds stilted and jilted and and and, you can't see this.

Can't pass off that group.

Can't do this to this group.

And we've lost the ability to know how to win.

I think we couldn't even beat Donald Trump.

If if Democrats out there think that our brand is good, we couldn't beat Donald Trump.

And he took the Senate.

I think they're going to take the House.

So you're going to tell me our brand's not bad.

Well, okay, tell me that because that's total B.S.. What do you want me to say to you?

I mean, we lost.

We're in a zero sum game.

Here's what happens.

You either win or you sit on the bench.

And now we're over there on the bench, watching and eating popcorn as they're going to just run over people.

So good job.

So what I say good job Democrats.

You really you really know how to message.

Yeah.

Yeah our brand is really right on.

I don't know how anyone can come to that conclusion with such a flawed candidate that he was.

And we couldn't beat him.

That tells me.

Wasn't Kamala Harris's fault.

Our brand is bad.

We lost Senate races.

We lost congressional races.

Every county moved to the right in the state, New York, California, all of them.

All right.

Don't tell me our brand isn't Our brand stinks.

It stinks.

And we got to re fix it.

And that is it for this week for my colleagues at the statehouse.

News viewers of Ohio Public Media.

Thanks for watching.

Please check out our website at State News.

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Happy Thanksgiving and please join us again next time for the State of Ohio.

Just.

Support for the Statehouse News Bureau comes from Medical Mutual, dedicated to the health and well-being of Ohioans, offering health insurance plans, as well as dental, vision and wellness programs to help people achieve their goals and remain healthy.

More at Med mutual.com.

The law offices of Porter, right, Morris and Arthur LLP.

Porter Wright is dedicated to bringing inspired legal outcomes to the Ohio business community.

More at porterwright.com.

Porter Wright inspired Every day in Ohio Education Association, representing 120,000 educators who are united in their mission to create the excellent public schools.

Every child deserves more at OHEA.org.