2024 Election Toolkit: Ohio
What's at stake in Ohio
Ohio has become largely uncompetitive for Democratic presidential candidates in recent cycles and has taken a sharp right turn at the state level as well. However, incumbent Sen. Sherrod Brown (D) has successfully weathered the rightward shift in his state with an unabashedly progressive, working families-oriented message. A loss for Brown would likely herald a Republican-controlled Senate next year, either denying Biden fair-minded judges or rubber stamping Trump’s far- right nominees for the federal courts–including a potential Supreme Court seat.
Races to Watch
Ohio's Senate Seat
This battleground seat is key to defending a progressive majority in the Senate
Our endorsements
Sherrod Brown
People For's endorsement for Ohio's Senate Seat
“Sherrod Brown’s record in the Senate shows he’s a tireless advocate for Ohio’s working families. This seat is incredibly important as we work to strengthen the Senate as a bulwark against threats to our democracy. I’m confident Sherrod will be reelected by the Ohioans he has served so well,” says People For President Svante Myrick.
Key election dates
October 7 2024
October 8, 2024
November 5, 2024
The Far Right Landscape
The Ohio Republican Party has a long anti-democracy track record, going back at least as far as notorious voter suppression efforts promoted by then-Secretary of State Ken Blackwell, who has become a fixture in national right-wing politics.
Recently, voting rights groups waged a long legal battle against Ohio Republicans’ flagrantly partisan gerrymandering and are now gathering signatures to put an initiative on the ballot this year to ensure fairer redistricting in the future.
Gerrymandering was among the issues cited by veteran Ohio political journalist Marilou Johanek when she wrote in December, “Lifelong Ohioans are stunned at the state’s rapid descent into political extremism from crazy, scary legislation to full-on embrace of lawless rule. At the Statehouse, gerrymandered politicians answer to no one. Vehement voter opposition to outrageous bills wending their way to passage is ignored.”
Johanek also mentioned the so-called Higher Education Enhancement Act, an Orwellian bill attacking Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion efforts that would empower the government “to police free speech, silence debate, and limit the autonomy of public education institutions in Ohio.”
Last year, the Ohio GOP and anti-choice groups promoted an August vote on a measure to make it harder for voters to amend the state Constitution, which was really an effort to stop the state’s pro-choice majority from protecting the right to abortion in a November vote. Right-wing forces lost both votes. Ohio is home to anti-choice activist Janet Porter; after the U.S. Supreme Court majority struck down Roe v. Wade, some states have passed abortion-banning legislation modeled on her “heartbeat” bill.
The Nation reported in February that right-wing extremist groups once considered fringe in Ohio “have gained an outsize role in the conservative movement.” A group called We the People Freedom Ohio is shifting the state GOP further to the right by deploying a “precinct strategy” to take over local and state party committees. Stephanie Stock, an anti-vaccine figure and candidate for the state party’s central committee, is allied with Oath Keepers, Three Percenters, and Proud Boys, who she describes as an “army” that will save Ohio from “the tyranny we face.”
In January, Republican legislators overrode Republican Gov. Mike DeWine’s veto of legislation banning gender-affirming medical care for transgender youth. DeWine had also proposed far-reaching restrictions on care for trans adults, but his administration backed down in February after facing strong resistance.
Ohio is home to Rep. Jim Jordan and Sen. J.D. Vance, who are, in Johanek’s words, “among the most Machiavellian of MAGA bootlickers in their respective chambers.”
The ADL reported 321 incidents in Ohio on its 2023 H.E.A.T. map, which tracks incidents of hate, extremism, antisemitism, and terrorism. In 2022, the SPLC reported that there were 20 active hate groups in the state.
