By Julie Carr Smyth and Samantha Hendrickson, Associated Press/Report for America
COLUMBUS, Ohio (AP) — For more than half a century, Ohio was one of the most important states to watch during presidential election years, a place where both parties competed vigorously for support from voters who were often genuinely undecided.
Then came Donald Trump.
Beginning in 2016, Ohio became reliably Republican as more and more voters embraced the New York businessman’s brash brand of politics. When Trump won the state in 2020 without clinching the White House, he became the first losing presidential candidate Ohio had supported since it sided with Richard Nixon over John F. Kennedy in 1960. With that, the Buckeye State’s bellwether status was officially unrung.
Now there are hints that the dynamic may be shifting again after the U.S. Supreme Court overturned federal constitutional protections for abortion. Ohio voters responded last year to the 2022 ruling by overwhelmingly approving an amendment enshrining abortion rights in the state constitution. They did so after swarming polls to defeat a Republican effort that would have made doing so more difficult. The state also legalized recreational marijuana.
There’s a risk of overinterpreting the results from 2023, but the victories have encouraged Democrats defending a pivotal U.S. Senate seat this year.
Last August’s GOP-backed effort to make amending Ohio’s constitution harder showed Ohioans that “Republican politicians were not on their side,” said Ohio Democratic Party Chair Elizabeth Walters.
“The Democratic Party isn’t getting ahead of themselves after just one election, but it does provide some hope that steadily, and with a lot of work, Ohioans could drift more to the left than to the right in upcoming elections,” she said.
Democrats’ most immediate concern is re-electing three-term U.S. Sen. Sherrod Brown. He’s unopposed in the March 19 primary as Republicans hash out…
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