Ohio Republicans Chalk up a few Wins but take a few Heavy Losses

While Ohio Republicans have plenty to Celebrate - Some Heavy Losses may Affect Trump's Presidency and Have Opened some Eyes of Republicans of just how weak the Ohio Republican Party truly is.

The Rot at the Heart of Ohio's Republican Party

To observe the Ohio Republican State Central Committee is to observe the abdication of responsibility, a spectacular failure that has persisted long enough to turn competence into a foreign concept. While the superficial celebrations echo through the ranks of our state’s conservatives, we must pause to consider what exactly is being celebrated. Donald Trump’s overwhelming victory in Ohio was as certain as the sunrise. The man commands an adoration here that not only shatters his previous margin of victory but transcends the need for campaign brilliance from the Ohio GOP. His triumph was a foregone conclusion, delivered by his own brand of charisma and a movement that, for all intents and purposes, the Ohio Republican machinery had little to do with.

Issue 1, that political monstrosity with its labyrinthine language, failed. Many conservatives are exhaling in relief, as if they should pin laurels on the Ohio Republican State Central Committee for this outcome. But the truth is not a tale of strategic finesse or high-stakes mastery. The defeat of Issue 1 owes nothing to the State Central Committee’s efforts or the bumbling boob Chairman Alex Triantafilou that is as clueless as Schultz on Hogan’s Heroes and everything to an undercurrent of tireless grassroots volunteers who will never be acknowledged. Its defeat is also a result of Secretary of State LaRose’s interpretation of the language that was on the ballot that confused liberals, And it owes its defeat to external benefactors, groups outside our state who saw clearly what the Ohio State Central Coummittee could not: a disorganized, unpopular, disconnected, lazy, underfunded apparatus incapable of defending its own interests because of its corrupt motivations. The bulk of the resources that fueled this conservative victory came from grassroots conservative volunteers and out-of-state donations, a desperate lifeline thrown to a drowning party whose lack of fundraising prowess from rank and file Republicans would be laughable if it weren’t so tragic. The Ohio Republican Party is nearly 100% funded by special interests, Lobbyists, and influence peddling lawyers.

And let’s not gloss over Bernie Moreno’s win, a Pyrrhic victory if there ever was one. He managed to win, but by half the margin of Trump. Why? Because his campaign was given less than second-rate attention by a State party and an under-performing county party network so embroiled in its own petty bureaucratic games that it couldn’t be bothered to prioritize him. There is no universe in which this race should have been that close. Moreno’s victory was dragged over the finish line by Bernie Moreno’s personal charisma and by Donald Trump in a way that exposes, rather than conceals, the hollow center of a party that failed him.

A LOST SUPERMAJORITY

Now, let us pivot to the ugliness. Republicans in the Ohio House have lost their super-majority—a dagger plunged into the heart of the Republican establishment. Worse, Derek Merrin appears to have lost to Marcy Kaptur in Ohio’s 9th District, a debacle that symbolizes the GOP’s ineptitude. Kevin Coughlin is also projected to lose in District 13. These were contests that could have been fortified, secured, turned into victories had there been the faintest whiff of strategic foresight or competent support.

Consider the rising Democratic tide: numerous general assembly races saw Democrats coming shockingly close to victory. They have discovered a formula for success, an ability to attract massive out-of-state funding that Ohio Republicans cannot hope to match with its lazy leadership team that Republicans pay a premium for and they cannot balance their books. It’s a formula that will haunt us, for as sure as the sun rises, the Democrats have smelled blood in the water. They have found Ohio to be vulnerable, an unguarded flank that invites further exploitation.

The national scene provides little comfort. Pro-abortion initiatives swept through seven states, bolstered by outside forces, while our Ohio Republican Party spent a pittance defending the sanctity of life. These losses are not abstractions. They are markers of how weak our state and county parties have become. Democrats, bolstered by out-of-state and even out-of-country billionaires, are beginning to feast on our ineptitude. They see Ohio as fertile ground for their initiatives, a battlefield where the opposition is an uncoordinated mess.

And now we find ourselves bracing for further fallout. What will come of Merrin and Coughlin’s losses? The specter looms large that this could jeopardize Republican control of the United States House of Representatives.

As we watch the political chessboard, Governor DeWine’s ambitions present another conundrum. Will he appoint himself to J.D. Vance’s Senate seat, leaving his ally Matt Dolan to fill the void? Or will he opt to install Dolan, a man whose lukewarm support for Trump and conservative causes is a thorn in the side of those who actually stand for principle? Either way, should DeWine ascend to the Senate, Lieutenant Governor Jon Husted would become Governor, setting himself up for an easier reelection in 2026—a political maneuver designed not for the state’s betterment, but for the entrenchment of personal power.

This is the Ohio Republican Party laid bare: a carnival of inefficacy, a temple built to the gods of mediocrity. If we continue to tolerate this, to praise victories that are handed to us by forces outside our control, then we are complicit. The path forward demands more than passive applause; it demands nothing short of a revolution in the way we fight for what is right. The time for timid governance and fractured leadership is over. If the Ohio GOP wishes to be anything more than a byword for failure, it must shed the shackles of complacency and rediscover its purpose—or watch as history records its descent into irrelevance.