In the elections in which Republicans dominated in OhioDemocrats flipped two seats in the Ohio House of Representatives, reducing the GOP lead, which is still a solid 65 seats out of 99. Democrats also picked up two seats in the Ohio Senate, leaving Republicans with 24 of 33 seats instead of 26.
There were about ten close House races throughout Tuesday evening, with Democrats leading in nine of them. However, before the unofficial results were announced, only two seats were swapped.
There were open seats in House Districts 10 and 41 that had previously been held by Republicans, but Democrats won. Democrat Mark Sigrist replaces Republican State Rep. Dave Dobos (R-Columbus), and Erika White replaces Republican State Rep. Derek Merrin (R-Monclova). Dobos chose not to run again, and Merrin narrowly lost in his bid to unseat longtime U.S. MP Marcy Kaptur (OH-09).
Many regulations in the House require a two-thirds majority – 66 votes. In the 135th General Assembly, Republicans had 67. That meant the GOP could seemingly do whatever it wanted without haggling with Democrats for votes — for example, adding an emergency clause to bills to start immediately rather than after 90 days.
Republicans still have a veto-proof majority of 60 votes.
There were also several seat changes in the state Senate. State Rep. Willis Blackshear (D-Dayton) won the open seat previously held by state Sen. Niraj Antani (R-Miamisburg). State Rep. Beth Liston (Dublin) will replace state Sen. Stephanie Kunze (Dublin) after the incumbent failed to flip Liston’s soon-to-be seat in the House.
The Senate still has an overall GOP majority. Twenty-two members constitute a clear majority, with the GOP having 24 incumbents and the Democrats having nine.
Civil battle
Changing a seat has more influence than a majority in the House of Representatives.
Ohio’s most engaging political battle was between two Republicans competing for the same leadership position – and the victory of either side will determine the state’s conservative ideology. This election could be impacted if House Speaker Jason Stephens keeps his gavel or if Senate President Matt Huffman takes it away from him.
To retain the chairmanship, Stephens needed to maintain 50 votes on Tuesday.
In 2022, the Republican Caucus has elected State Representative Merrin as speaker. However, in a vote of the full House in January 2023, Stephens won the speaker position.
Twenty-two Republicans (called “affectionately” by the other faction the “Blue 22”) and 32 Democrats on the ballot alone voted for Stephens as speaker, while the majority of Republicans voted for Merrin. Stephens, still a conservative, is much more moderate than Merrin, but he is also more moderate than Huffman.
There was a fierce rivalry between the two GOP factions. Huffman hasn’t been shy about wanting to replace Stephens.
Huffman has been involved in the election talks for months, gaining support from a significant faction of House officials and national and state groups seeking to unseat Stephens and his allies during the March primary.
While Democrats would prefer to have a majority, Stephens is a more moderate option for the party than Huffman.
Stephens supports public school funding, union rights and follows what voters chose in November’s election on abortion and marijuana. Stephens somewhat supports a private school voucher system, but wants to fully fund public education. He doesn’t want to reform the higher education system and doesn’t think August’s special election, intended to make it more challenging for citizen voting initiatives, was a good idea. He tried to protect himself from other “anti-democratic” proposals sent from the Senate to the House, such as making it harder for citizens to put issues on local ballots. He is interested in reducing taxes, but does not say anything about the complete abolition of income tax – only that he is a supporter of a flat tax.
Huffman differs from Stephens on each of these issues. He helped fund public schools, but he’s more interested in voucher legislation. It would also likely eliminate the income tax, which could double the sales tax. Huffman actually wants to change universities to prevent the so-called liberal bias, and has supported August’s elections from the beginning – even suggesting that an amendment raising the threshold for ballot initiatives could be implemented on a future ballot. His leadership team said voters didn’t know what they were voting for when they legalized marijuana, so they should be able to change the policy.
Stephens is expected to keep all Democrats on his side.
Because Democrats flipped two seats, they need 34 Republicans to win the internal caucus vote. However, he would only need 16 Republicans to tie the Democrats for a majority vote.
Voting for speaker will take place on November 20.
Follow WEWS House reporter Morgan Trau on X AND Facebook.
This article was originally published on News5Cleveland.com and are published in the Ohio Capital Journal under a content sharing agreement. Unlike other OCJ articles, it is not available for free republication on other news outlets because it is owned by WEWS in Cleveland.
YOU MAKE OUR WORK POSSIBLE.
