Republican Senator Rob Portman Easily Wins Buckeye Beatdown Over Ted Strickland

Well, there’s no shocker here: Incumbent Republican Senator Rob Portman from Ohio easily won re-election, defeating Democratic challenger Ted Strickland. Strickland, a former governor of the Buckeye state, was supposed to give Portman a difficult time in his re-election bid, which slowly turned into a slow-motion disaster. Since August, Portman has had a clear lead over Strickland, which has turned into double-digit lead until October. The latest Emerson poll gave Portman a 21-point lead over Strickland. The Real Clear Politics average gave the Republican incumbent an 18.3-point lead.

Portman’s campaign was excellent, with a get-out-the-vote campaign that was reportedly the envy of many Republican senators up for reelection this year. We’ll see what happens with the national slate. Sasha Issenberg of Bloomberg noted that while Portman was able to find thousands of reluctant Republicans to vote for him, they weren’t willing to pull the trigger for Trump. We’ll keep you updated on that front, but Portman was projected as an effortless GOP catch and one of the first races to be called tonight.

With 76 percent of precincts reporting, Portman received 59 percent of the vote and Strickland 39 percent.