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Ohio once again goes red for Donald Trump and other Republicans on the ballot benefit, too.

We look back on the 2024 election and look forward to what happens next.

This weekend, the state of Ohio.

Welcome to the state of Ohio.

I'm Karen Kasler.

usually we bring our kids out on Election Day and again, really experience why it matters.

And it's important.

the volunteers here are wonderful.

Very careful about all the rules and regulations, but so helpful.

And I appreciate that.

I think it's important that you kind of voice your opinion.

And, I mean, this is kind of, definitely a platform to do so.

Nearly 5.7 million Ohioans cast ballots in this election.

Those people were among the 3 million or so voters who cast their ballots on Tuesday.

More than 2.6 million Ohioans either mailed in early ballots, voted them in person or return them to the Dropbox at their county board of elections.

And there were long lines at some boards of elections on Sunday, the last day to vote early.

A choice these Franklin County voters made.

Yeah, I normally vote each year.

Of course, since the presidential election.

So, you know, I always come out for those and I try to come out for every, you know, local ones or city as well and state.

But yeah, just it's a big it's a big year.

I just.

Yeah.

I just love coming out here, and I love voting.

It just makes me really happy.

It makes me feel, like I have, say.

And what's going on?

So.

Yeah.

By Sunday, 30% of Ohio's 8.1 million registered voters had already voted.

But the final total fell short of the 5.97 million voters in 2020.

And at just under 70%, turnout was also below the percentage record of 77% set in 1992.

The vote further solidified Ohio as a red state.

The presidential race was called for the Republican ticket of Donald Trump and JD Vance, just over 90 minutes after the polls closed.

Not long after that, the call came for issue one.

Voters rejected the constitutional amendment that would replace the seven elected officials on the Ohio Redistricting Commission with a 15 member commission of Republicans, Democrats and independents, with politicians banned from that panel.

Senate President Matt Huffman, who ran unopposed and was elected to the House, credited Republican elected officeholders who spoke out against issue one, but also local officials.

And it was very much a grassroots campaign.

There is not a functioning Democrat Party in about 80 of the 88 counties, but in every county in the state, there is a local Republican Party who ran a no campaign.

That's why we won by ten points in this campaign.

The local parties.

Republican Senator Michelle Reynolds, who had joined a group of black former lawmakers opposed to issue one, said Ohioans did not want to replace elected politicians with unelected citizens when it comes to drawing maps.

we are very, very smart in this electorate and we are sending a message that we are not going to allow our elections to be bought and paid for by outside, outside people.

They have no business making decisions for us in Ohio.

Ohio has spoken and we say no.

One issue one, we believe in our elections.

And although this may not be the best process, it's a process that's accountable and it's a process.

It's transparent.

And Ohio has spoken Citizens not politicians, which had put the issue on the ballot, raised almost $40 million over the last year with $15 million in donations from out of state groups, according to that July report.

Its top donors were unions and left leaning groups, and most of its money did come from out of state, including the dark money groups.

Article four and the 1630 fund citizens, Not politicians.

Spokesman Chris Daley blamed the confusing ballot summary language that he says was designed to mislead voters.

The ballot board, led by Secretary of State Frank LaRosa, wrote intentionally deceptive and false ballot language.

And, we know from all the reports that we had that that had a huge impact on how people voted.

Davey said one thing was clear from the issue one results A majority of Ohioans hate gerrymandering and want to end it.

And what we need to do as a state is find a way forward, how we can do that together.

We thought we did it in 2015 and 2018.

It didn't work.

Governor DeWine himself said it didn't work.

The no.

One, one campaign has even said throughout this campaign, yeah, the present system, it's not that great, you know.

And so as a state, we need to come together at some point and try to figure out how we can, end gerrymandering once and for all, because it's not good for any of us.

It's not good for Republicans, Democrats and independents.

Anybody?

The big story of the night was the US Senate race.

Republican political newcomer Bernie Marino won it, ousting three term Democratic incumbent Sherrod Brown.

Marino, a former luxury car dealership owner and tech entrepreneur, played up his endorsement from Trump, who won Ohio by eight points in 2016 and in 2020, unofficial results show Marino winning by just under four points, while Trump won by about 11.5 points.

The crowd assembled to watch returns and Westlake included Lieutenant Governor John Houston and Attorney General Dave Yost, both eyeing a run for governor in 2026.

Marino took the stage around 11. today starts a new wave.

You know, we talked about wanting a red wave.

I think what we have tonight is a red white and blue wave in this country.

Because what we need in the United States of America is leaders in Washington, D.C., that actually put the interests of American citizens above all else.

We're tired of being treated like second class citizens in our own country.

We're tired of leaders that think we're garbage.

And we're tired of being treated like garbage.

Immigration was a centerpiece of Marino's campaign.

His family immigrated from Colombia, and he has said he wants to revoke short term protective status for some immigrants, such as Haitians living and working in Springfield.

where President Trump and J.D.

Vance in the white House, we are going to advance an agenda that is in American agenda, an agenda that says we are pro immigration, but not pro invasion.

We're going to make certain that the people who come to this country are invited here, are invited here.

Like I was like my family was on our terms.

Look, we're going to make this country an energy dominant nation so that my kids do not grow up in a country where we ever rely on a foreign nation for energy ever, ever again.

And we have that energy right here in Ohio.

That means coal.

That means natural gas.

It means oil and it means nuclear.

And in terms of EV mandates, they need to be gone.

First thing in January.

There are no national mandates on electric vehicles, though.

There is a state law that would ban emission standards mandates like California's.

Honda is among the automakers that has spent hundreds of millions of dollars to increase EV production.

Moreno is also called for elimination of the U.S. Department of Education and federal qualified immunity protections for police officers.

around midnight.

Sherrod Brown, the de facto standard bearer for the Democratic Party in Ohio, conceded the race with a short speech that never mentioned Marino.

He started it by saying it would be tempting to question whether enough work was put into the race, but that that wasn't the story right now.

We believe that all work has dignity.

We always will.

We believe in the power of people over corporate special interests.

We always will.

We believe that if you love this country, you fight for the people who make it work.

We always will.

This is a disappointment.

That is not the feeling.

You will never be wrong.

Never be wrong to fight for organized labor.

It will never be so much better.

It should not be in everything from the fight for civil rights to.

Front and center.

For but never give.

Giving up.

Neither is time like.

I know most of you remember giving up either.

Brown had distanced himself from Democrats as he sought to pull in moderate Republicans and some Trump voters.

He didn't go to the Democratic National Convention this summer.

And it adds even mentioned working with Trump on fentanyl legislation.

That seat was crucial in deciding which party would control the Senate and the candidates and outside groups spent half $1 billion in this race.

That makes it the most expensive race in the country this cycle, and the costliest one in Ohio history.

This loss means Democrats have just one person in office who's been elected statewide, Supreme Court Justice Jennifer Brunner, and it sets up a challenge for the party in 2026, with races for governor and the other for statewide executive offices.

On that ballot.

with this win and the vote to return Trump to the white House.

There will be two brand new U.S. senators from Ohio who were sworn in in January, just after voting for Trump and himself in Cincinnati on Tuesday, Senator JD Vance said he was confident that they would win, but he didn't want to talk about who might succeed him in the US Senate.

Know, look, I'm way too superstitious to think about those things.

Let's get this election over the finish line.

Governor Mike DeWine, who was a U.S. senator from 1995 to 2006 when he was defeated by Sherrod Brown, will appoint the person who takes Vance's place.

And he said he's already gotten some calls and met with a few possible contenders at their request.

It has to be someone who will serve well in the Senate.

I think I have a pretty good idea of what it takes to take someone who really, will focus on the state of Ohio.

We'll focus on national issues.

Someone who will really work hard.

Someone who wants to get things done.

These are, you know, qualifications, I think that are very important.

But it also has to be someone who would win a primary.

It has to be someone who can win a general election.

And then two years later, we'll do all that again.

So this is not for the faint hearted.

This is not for someone who just wants to get a seat.

This has to be someone who, really wants to do the job and do the work and who we think has the ability to do it.

Among the names that have been suggested are former Ohio Republican Party chair Jane Timken and tech entrepreneur Vivek Ramaswamy, who briefly ran for president.

But Lieutenant Governor John Husted and Attorney General Dave Yost are unlikely to be in the pool, and Yost said on election night that he would not accept the appointment.

Whoever is selected is going to have to run in a special election in 2026, and we'll need to be able to bring in hundreds of millions of dollars.

And though Bernie Marino was just elected to the Senate, he will be considered Ohio's senior senator after the appointment of the new senator, likely close to the end of the year.

While Vance did not share his thoughts on his replacement, he did offer this after being asked about his message to those who did not vote for Trump.

But obviously, no matter who wins, half the country, as you said, is going to be, at least partially disappointed.

I think my attitude is the best way to heal the rift in the country is to try to govern the country as well as we can create as much prosperity as we can for the American people, and remind our fellow Americans that we are all fundamentally on the same team.

However, we voted.

I certainly hope you vote for Donald J. Trump today.

I think that his policies are going to promote peace and prosperity for our citizens.

But if you vote the wrong way, in my view, I'm still going to love you.

I'm still going to treat you as a fellow citizen.

And if I am lucky enough to be your vice president, I'm going to fight for hard, for your dreams and for your family over the next four years.

back to state level results.

Republicans have now gained near-total control over the Ohio Supreme Court.

The three Republican candidates Justice Joe Demers, Hamilton County Common Pleas Judge Megan Shanahan and Franklin County Common Pleas Judge Dan Hawkins won in a margin of victory that was very close to Trumps.

Dieter's, a former state treasurer who was also elected Hamilton County prosecutor two different times, unseated Democratic Justice Melody Stewart and said on election night that this was his last campaign.

He had run for Stewart's seat to get a full six year term after being appointed to the seat that Sharon Kennedy, who won in 2020, vacated when she was elected chief justice in 2022.

Hawkins won her seat over eighth District Court of Appeals Judge Lisa Forbes, and said he knew going in that he would have to run again in 2026.

Shanahan knocked off Democratic Justice Michael Donnelly.

the justices ran under Partizan labels under a law passed in 2021.

The lone Democrat now on the court, Justice Jennifer Brunner, had sued to have those labels removed.

The court is expected to decide key cases involving existing state laws and Ohio's new reproductive Rights and Abortion Access Amendment, approved by voters last year.

On a night that was dark for Ohio Democrats, there were a few bright spots in the races for Ohio House and Senate.

Mark Siegrist flipped the House seat that had been held by Republican Dave Dokes, who did not run for reelection.

New maps change some district lines.

Democrat Anita Samani ran easily, one in a different district.

And Democrat Crystal Lett took her seat over Republican Senator Stephanie Coons, a Democrat.

Erica White, won the seat that Republican Josh Williamson held, but Williams won the seat that had been held by Democrat Elgin Rogers, who ran unopposed in a different district.

And Republican Levi Dean won the seat held by his father, building, who was term limited.

72 House incumbents ran and won, nine of them unopposed.

Five Democrats and four Republicans.

Democrats flipped two seats in the Ohio Senate as Democratic representatives.

Willis Blackshear and Beth Liston moved to the Senate in districts that had been held by Republicans.

Republican former Representative Kyle Kaler won a Senate seat as did Democratic Representative Casey Weinstein and Republican Representative Tom Patten, who's been a senator before.

To look back on what happened in the 2024 election and why I was joined by my colleagues at the statehouse news bureau for the discussion, Joe Ingles and Sarah Donaldson.

just under 70% of Ohio's registered voters cast ballots in this election.

That was less than some expectations, Joe, including from Republican Secretary of State Frank LaRosa, who had a press conference on Monday saying that this could shatter records with turnout.

Well, and I think he was looking at those early voter turnouts.

And if you look at those early voter turnouts, they were shattering records.

Okay.

It where it came down to, it was Election Day itself.

A lot of the people who had voted early this time around didn't vote on Election Day, and they normally would.

So, I think if you were looking at when we talked with, Secretary of State, Laura's going into that day, I think he was basing that on what he saw.

What what could happen.

But we just did not see that huge groundswell of voters coming out.

At the very end.

And the early voting data showed that more Republicans than Democrats and more Republican affiliated voters than Democrat affiliated voters actually voted early, which goes against what we quite often have said that Democrats use early voting more than Republicans.

That turned out not to be true.

And I think there was an expectation the weather was nice that people would go vote, but, well, that's not what happened.

Yeah.

And there were unaffiliated voters.

And if you look at the numbers of the unaffiliated voters that eclipsed both the Republicans and Democrats put together and, you know, so unaffiliated voters, you never know which way they're going to go.

So I you know, when people always say, oh, what do you think is happening from these early vote totals?

I'm like, just like a poll, I don't know, I can't tell you exactly.

And it's not surprising that you saw this increase in Republican early votes, Republican affiliated early votes, to me, because, I mean, the Trump campaign was pushing that there was this whole hashtag swamp the vote movement.

And you saw high level Republican politicians in Ohio early voting and telling other people to early vote.

So it's not really super surprising to me that it wasn't just Democrats and unaffiliated voters that were driving up those early vote totals.

We were all talking to voters throughout this, which is always great to hear from actual voters who planned to vote or who have voted.

Sarah, you were out talking to voters on the last day of early voting.

And Joe, you were out on Election Day talking to voters.

What were your impressions about the big issues that these folks you talked to and others have said that they come out, came out for?

From my perspective, and I only talked to Franklin County early voters.

So obviously, you know, Franklin County generally skews left, whereas the rest of the state does not.

So it's important to take that into consideration.

Everyone I talked to, of the dozen or so voters I talked to on the first day of early voting, on the last day of early voting, the presidential election was a big draw, as it is for I think most voters, and issue one was a big draw.

I didn't have one person mention the Senate race to me, which I thought was really interesting because, you know, we covered the Senate race so closely, and it was such an important race in Ohio.

And it was a close I mean, it did end up being somewhat close even in the final results.

But no one mentioned, you know, Sherrod Brown or Bernie Marino.

To me, they mentioned the presidential race and they mentioned issue one.

And it's interesting because of all the ads.

I mean, half $1 billion was spent in that race from the candidates and outside groups.

Tons of ads all the time.

What were your impressions of, voters?

The issues that were driving voters?

Well, I was I had a little bit different impression because I was up in Delaware County as well as down here, and you get a really different cross-section of people up there.

The Senate race was on their mind.

But so was that the big thing was Trump, and the big thing was change.

There's a consensus among a lot of voters out there that they don't like what they see now.

They don't like political correctness.

They don't.

They think that maybe the identity politics have gone too far.

We saw some of the, late Moreno ads for Marino coming, and they were talking about trans issues.

They were talking about things that, a lot of voters still don't understand.

And don't, you know, if you don't know someone who's trans, that plays differently in your mind.

There were a lot of people who talked about immigration.

And again, you know, these are things that once you get out of Columbus and you start talking to people in the areas where I live and where I frequent, these are issues that people care about, and they see a lot of fear here.

And what they what they don't want is to have, a society that has turned into some godless kind of thing where they don't have control over what's happening, and that's largely what they see sometimes.

And you'll hear it if you talk to them, they will talk about these issues and, and fear that everything's going awry.

And that is one of the reasons why Delaware County had 80% turnout, whereas Franklin County had 64% turnout.

Lucas County this, played a big role in the race between Marcy Kaptur and Derek Baron, 61% turnout.

Garfield County, 64% turnout.

That is part of the story here, I think.

So let's talk about election night.

So, Joe, you were with Sherrod Brown in Columbus.

Sarah, you were with Bernie Marino and was like, let's start with you.

What what was the what was the night like?

It was really high energy from the start.

There were these massive shrimp towers that all of the reporters and I were laughing about, but it was obviously, I think, going to be a celebration.

I think people felt really confident coming into election night that Bernie Marino was going to, quote unquote, retire.

Sherrod Brown, lot of folks in MAGA hats and Bernie Marino buttons.

And, you know, I saw this one woman who's walking around in this big elephant hat that she got a lot of photos taken, and she accidentally hit me with the elephant had at one point she said, I'm sorry.

And I said, that's okay.

It's really big.

But, you know, the energy continued to rise.

Fox news was playing on the TVs, and every time Bernie Marino and Sherrod races kind of flashed across because, you know, you're getting in the national information, there were big cheers as those margins started to get closer, because, of course, the way Ohio counted the votes initially, Sherrod Brown was on top and Sherrod Brown was winning.

And then it just kept getting closer and closer.

And then Bernie Marino, of course, eclipsed Sherrod Brown and ended up, the unofficial totals have him winning by about four percentage points, which, of course, it should be mentioned.

And people were very celebratory about, president President elect Donald Trump's win on both in Ohio and across the country on election night at this party.

But, you know, Bernie did under Marino did underperform, President Donald Trump by like eight points in the state, which I, you know, both sides of the campaign.

And I think you may agree with this, that it was going to be a tough race.

I mean, Sherrod Brown had said that was going to be his toughest reelection bid yet.

Obviously, it was not successful, but I don't think anyone on Marino's side was saying that it was going to be easy either.

They knew they were up against a populist Democrat who had a lot of popularity in Ohio, who had won tough races before and who fundraised like crazy.

I mean, he tripled Brown, tripled fundraising numbers on Marino.

So, I mean, you know, it obviously ended up a big celebration.

People were really happy.

They were hooting and hollering.

Marino did a lap of the crowd, was talking to people, was talking to the press.

And you know, it was it was a party and a different mood for Sherrod Brown and the Ohio Democratic Party here in Columbus.

Yeah.

You know, they're the party wasn't that big, really.

It was a supporter, some supporters.

But, it really came ebbed and flowed the whole night.

It wasn't I wouldn't say it was a celebration.

I would say that they were watching the results.

But I did notice at the end, they started putting up their own slide instead of MSNBC when the race started getting close.

And, when the actual race was called, we did not see it in the ballroom.

We saw a slide.

Now the reporters, we saw it because we're watching you know, our computers and we're seeing what's going on.

But, you know, it was a different element.

But I think the thing that we, you know, one thing that we really need to talk about in this race is the effect of the outside money.

Yeah, you're right that Sherrod Brown outraised Bernie Marino by a lot.

But when you look at this outside money that came in and the messages that they were hitting with that it was very hard.

I know Sherrod Brown had taken out an ad that tried to hit back on the trans issue, but, you know, you've got a lot of messaging out there, on that issue.

And when you've got a lot of money coming in, flooding it, and you can't control the message necessarily, it's a difficult thing.

And that leads to the question that we only have a couple more minutes left.

That leads to the question of what happens with the Ohio Democratic Party.

Now they have one statewide officeholder and Supreme Court Justice Jennifer Brunner.

Yeah.

What where do they go from here?

They got to do some soul searching.

They have to do some soul searching.

They have to figure out why they're losing places that they used to win.

And I think, you know, that maybe involves them getting out into those communities and actually establishing some communities have no Democratic headquarters.

Some places, if you're a Democrat and you wanted to go to their office to talk to someone, there's no Democratic Party office.

And you wanted to add something.

Well, and I was going to say just quickly, briefly on that back issue, you obviously on the flip side of Brown kind of hitting back on transgender issues, LGBTQ folks break for Democrats.

So any Democrat who tries to combat that is risking alienating LGBTQ voters as well.

I totally agree with Joe on the soul searching.

And I think the Democratic Party at large has to do some soul searching after election night because, you know, it was never going to be easy for Harris.

But I think that it showed that Trump has just grown his popularity tenfold in eight years.

And that is it for this week for my colleagues at the Statehouse News Bureau of Ohio Public Media.

Thanks for watching.

Please check out our website at State news.org or find us online by searching State of Ohio Show.

You can also hear more from the Bureau on our podcast, The Ohio State House scoop.

Look for it every Monday morning wherever you get your podcasts, 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.