Democratic Presidential nominee Hillary Clinton鈥檚 loss to Republican President elect Donald Trump wasn鈥檛 the only blistering defeat for Ohio鈥檚 Democratic Party. The state Legislature, which was already Republican dominated, became even redder and it's left the leader of the Ohio Democratic Party evaluating the losses and where the party goes from here.
Clinton鈥檚 loss was devastating, according to Ohio Democratic Party Chairman David Pepper who said, 鈥淲hat we saw was a tidal wave that was far bigger than Ohio.鈥�
While that tidal wave rolled across the nation, there were ripples in Ohio that suggested a problem for Democrats early on. Pepper says he noticed that the turnout was coming in lower than it was in 2012.
鈥淵ou win or lose elections in swing states by turnout and the turnout was low in places that hurt us. And it wasn鈥檛 even that high for Donald Trump. I think some of what we saw, and this happens when races are very negative, a lot of people stayed home. And I think maybe the entire negative nature of the campaign, the worst, most negative campaign we鈥檝e ever seen, might have just people from showing up because they were sick of it all.鈥�
But the turnout was just part of the story. Clinton got 63,000 fewer votes in Cuyahoga County than Obama did in 2012, 10,000 fewer in Franklin County and 12,000 fewer in Hamilton County. And Pepper said she didn鈥檛 win big enough in those big counties to compensate for losses elsewhere.
鈥淵ou can win Ohio without winning a quarter of the counties but you can鈥檛 win it without a quarter of the counties but you can鈥檛 win it on just six or seven. You know, the turnout was just down and she lost in swing counties and she didn鈥檛 win enough in the big, blue counties. So you add it all up and you just aren鈥檛 going to win if that鈥檚 the case.鈥�
Clinton lost in ten counties that President Obama won in 2012. And in rural Appalachian counties, Clinton鈥檚 losses were sometimes staggering. For instance, she only got 30% of the vote in Pike County, a county that Obama lost by only one vote in 2012. And Montgomery County, where Dayton is, voted Republican for the first time in 28 years. And the presidential race wasn鈥檛 the only bad news for Democrats. The GOP dominated legislature became even more Republican as the party鈥檚 candidates won one more seat in the House and Senate in areas where Democrats had been serving.
鈥淎 Statehouse candidate on a ticket is basically going to sink or swim, unless it鈥檚 a close race, with the top of the ticket. And if there鈥檚 a wave like this, they can work really, really hard and except for in certain places in the state, it鈥檚 just very hard for them to withstand them and I feel very bad for them.鈥�
Pepper says the party will do some soul searching to figure out whether its message or its campaign efforts or both were to blame. Still, he says he sees some good news for Democrats in the future because of this massive Republican win.
鈥淭his does shift, in many ways, the environment for 2018. The presumption is usually in the midterm, you do better if you are not in power and I think Sherrod Brown is someone who will stand up against some of Donald Trump鈥檚 unattractive ideas. And I think keeping that balance is something Ohioans traditionally want to do. So I actually think we鈥檝e got time to learn from this, fix the turnout operation, to get a better message so that when 2018 comes along, we will be better prepared.鈥�
In the meantime, lawmakers are preparing for the lame duck session of the Ohio legislature where bills involving unemployment compensation, abortion and energy standards are likely to spark controversy with Democrats.
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