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2016 Ohio Senate Elections
Primary	March 15, 2016
General	November 8, 2016

A total of16 seats out of the 33 seats in theOhio State Senate were up for election in 2016. Republicans gained one seat in theNovember 2016 general election.

Ohio state senators serve staggered,four-year terms and half of the senate is up for election every two years.

Introduction

Elections for theOhio State Senate took place in 2016. The primary election was held on March 15, 2016, and the general election was held on November 8, 2016. The candidate filing deadline was December 16, 2015.

Majority control

See also:Partisan composition of state senates

Heading into the election, the Republican Party held the majority in the Ohio State Senate:

Retired incumbents

Six incumbent senators did not run for re-election in 2016. Those incumbents are:

Name	Party	Current Office
Bill Seitz	Republican	Senate District 8
Keith Faber	Republican	Senate District 12
Jim Hughes	Republican	Senate District 16
Thomas Patton	Republican	Senate District 24
Thomas Sawyer	Democratic	Senate District 28
Capri Cafaro	Democratic	Senate District 32

2016 election competitiveness

Ohio sees a dip in electoral competitiveness.

Ballotpedia conducts a yearly study of electoral competitiveness in state legislative elections. Details on how well Ohio performed in the study are provided in the image below.Click here for the full 2016 Competitiveness Analysis »

• In theOhio State Senate, there were 10 Democratic incumbents and 23 Republican incumbents. No incumbents faced primary challengers in the Democratic Party. There were four incumbents that faced primary challenges in the Republican primary.

• In theHouse, there were 34 Democratic incumbents and 65 Republican incumbents. Four state representatives faced primary opposition in the Democratic Party. There were six incumbents that faced primary challenges in the Republican primary.

• Overall, 18.6 percent of Democratic incumbents and 21.4 percent of GOP incumbents faced primary opposition in all of the state legislatures with elections in 2016.

• The cumulative figure for how many state legislative candidates faced no major party opposition in November in these states was 41.8 percent. This compares to 32.7 percent in 2010, 38.3 percent in 2012, and 43.0 percent in 2014.

• More details on electoral competitiveness in Ohio can be foundbelow.

List of candidates

General election

2016 Ohio Senate general election candidates
District	Democrat	Republican	Other
2	Kirk Halliday: 59,882	Randy Gardner: 118,232(I)a
4	John Kinne: 50,580	Bill Coley: 105,810(I)a
6	Albert Griggs: 53,584	Peggy Lehner: 114,168(I)a
8	Mary Rose Lierman: 62,693	Louis Terhar: 106,215a
10	Matthew Kirk: 53,239	Robert Hackett: 99,477(I)a
12		Matt Huffmana
14	Charlie Carlier: 44,014	Joe Uecker: 112,706(I)a
16	Cathy Johnson: 76,077	Stephanie Kunze: 109,454a
18	Wiley Runnestrand: 57,446	John Eklund: 107,972(I)a
20		Troy Balderson(I)a
22	Christopher King: 49,218	Larry Obhof: 113,666(I)a
24	Emily Hagan: 77,383	Matt Dolan: 107,500a
26		Dave Burke(I)a
28	Vernon Sykes: 83,805a	Jonathan Schulz: 53,117
30	Lou Gentile: 75,450(I)	Frank Hoagland: 84,747a
32	Sean O'Brien: 78,451a	Robert Allen: 60,671
Notes: An(I) denotes an incumbent. Candidate lists can change frequently throughout an election season. Ballotpedia staff update this list monthly. To suggest changes, click here to email ourState Legislature Project.

Primary election

2016 Ohio Senate primary candidates
District	Democrat	Republican	Other
2	Kirk Halliday: 25,228a	Randy Gardner(I): 50,116a
4	John Kinne: 15,070a	Bill Coley(I): 24,261a Joseph Ebbing: 8,149 Eric Gurr: 6,379 Jeremiah York: 5,158
6	Lu Dale: 19,175a	Peggy Lehner(I): 40,321a Barbara Temple: 15,873
8	Mary Rose Lierman: 18,157a	Louis Terhar: 41,205a
10	Michael Gilbert: 6,771 Matthew Kirk: 13,614a	Robert Hackett(I): 30,253a Brian Walton: 21,839
12		John Adams: 24,789 Matt Huffman: 43,367a
14	Charlie Carlier: 15,702a	Joe Uecker(I): 49,835a
16	Larry Malone: 24,386a	Stephanie Kunze: 40,547a Aaron Neumann: 11,019
18	Wiley Runnestrand: 22,509a	John Eklund(I): 45,822a
20		Troy Balderson(I): 48,059a
22	Christopher King: 18,385a	Larry Obhof(I): 42,361a Janet Folger Porter: 22,713
24	Emily Hagan: 26,885a	Nan Baker: 16,241 Matt Dolan: 24,844a Mike Dovilla: 14,860
26		Dave Burke(I): 47,248a
28	Vernon Sykes: 23,918a	Jonathan Schulz: 20,203a
30	Lou Gentile(I): 31,841a	Frank Hoagland: 38,771a
32	Sean O'Brien: 25,610a Kristen Rock: 16,002	Robert Allen: 16,748a
Notes: An(I) denotes an incumbent. Candidate lists can change frequently throughout an election season. Ballotpedia staff update this list monthly. To suggest changes, click here to email ourState Legislature Project.

Margins of victory

The average margin of victory for contested races in the Ohio State Senate in 2016 was lower than the national average. Out of 16 races in the Ohio State Senate in 2016, 13 were contested, meaning at least two candidates competed for that seat in the general election. The average margin of victory across these races was 26.9 percent. Across contested single-winner state legislative elections in 2016, the average margin of victory was 29.01 percent.^[2]

Ohio State Senate: 2016 Margins of Victory Less than 10 Percent
District	Winning Party	Margin of Victory
District 30	R	5.8 percent

Ohio State Senate: 2016 Margin of Victory Analysis
Party	Elections won	Average margin of victory[3]	Races with incumbent victories	Average margin of victory for incumbents[3]	Unopposed incumbents	Unopposed races	Percent unopposed
Democratic	2	17.6 percent	0	N/A	0	0	0.0 percent
Republican	14	28.6 percent	9	35.5 percent	2	3	21.4 percent
Total	16	26.9 percent	9	35.5 percent	2	3	18.8 percent

Click[show] on the tables below to see the margin of victory in Ohio State Senate districts in 2016.

Important dates and deadlines

See also:Ohio elections, 2016

The calendar below lists important dates for political candidates in Ohio in 2016.

Competitiveness

Candidates unopposed by a major party

In 3 of the 16 districts that were up for election in 2016, there was only one major party candidate running for election. A total of three Republicans were guaranteed election barring unforeseen circumstances.

Two major party candidates faced off in the general election in 13 (81.2%) of the 16 districts up for election.

Primary challenges

Four incumbents, all Republicans, faced primary competition on March 15. Six incumbents did not seek re-election and another 6 incumbents advanced past the primary without opposition.

Retired incumbents

Six incumbent senators did not run for re-election, while 10 ran for re-election. A list of those incumbents, four Republicans and two Democrats, can be foundabove.

Impact of term limits

See also:State legislatures with term limits

TheOhio State Senate has been a term-limited state senate since Ohio voters approvedBallot Issue 4, aninitiated constitutional amendment, in1992. This amendment became part ofSection 2 of Article II of theOhio Constitution and limits the amount of time that anOhio State Senator can stay in office to two four-year terms, saying, "No person shall hold the office of State Senator for a period longer than two successive terms of four years." Senators can run for office again after being out-of-office for at least a four-year period.

There are 33Ohio State Senators. In 2016, three of them who werecurrent members, two Democrats and one Republican, were ineligible to run for the senate again in November.

The state senators who were term-limited in 2016 were:

Democrats (2):

• Capri Cafaro
• Thomas Sawyer

Republicans (1):

• Keith Faber

Results from 2014

See also:2014 state legislative elections analyzed using a Competitiveness Index

There were 6,057 seats in 87 chambers with elections in 2014. All three aspects of Ballotpedia'sCompetitiveness Index—the number ofopen seats,incumbents facing primary opposition, andgeneral elections between partisan candidates—showed poor results compared to the prior election cycle. States with elections in 2014 held fewer general elections between partisan candidates. Additionally, fewer incumbents faced primary opposition and more incumbents ran for re-election than inrecent years.

Since 2010, when the Competitiveness Index was established, there had not been an even-year election cycle to do statistically worse in any of the three categories. See the following chart for a breakdown of those scores between each year.

The following table details Ohio's rates foropen seats, incumbents that facedprimary challenges, andmajor party competition in the 2014 general election.

Historical context

See also:Competitiveness in State Legislative Elections: 1972-2014

Uncontested elections: In 2014, 32.8 percent of Americans lived in states with an uncontested state senate election. Similarly, 40.4 percent of Americans lived in states with uncontested house elections. Primary elections were uncontested even more frequently, with 61 percent of people living in states with no contested primaries. Uncontested elections often occur in locations that are so politically one-sided that the result of an election would be a foregone conclusion regardless of whether it was contested or not.

Open seats: In most cases, an incumbent will run for re-election, which decreases the number of open seats available. In 2014, 83 percent of the 6,057 seats up for election saw the incumbent running for re-election. The states that impose term limits on their legislatures typically see a higher percentage of open seats in a given year because a portion of incumbents in each election are forced to leave office. Overall, the number of open seats decreased from 2012 to 2014, dropping from 21.2 percent in 2012 to 17.0 percent in 2014.

Incumbent win rates: Ballotpedia'scompetitiveness analysis of elections between 1972 and 2014 documented the high propensity for incumbents to win re-election in state legislative elections. In fact, since 1972, the win rate for incumbents had not dropped below 90 percent—with the exception of 1974, when 88 percent of incumbents were re-elected to their seats. Perhaps most importantly, the win rate for incumbents generally increased over time. In 2014, 96.5 percent of incumbents were able to retain their seats. Common convention holds that incumbents are able to leverage their office to maintain their seat. However, the high incumbent win rate may actually be a result of incumbents being more likely to hold seats in districts that are considered safe for their party.

Marginal primaries: Often, competitiveness is measured by examining the rate of elections that have been won by amounts that are considered marginal (5 percent or less). During the 2014 election, 90.1 percent of primary and general election races were won by margins higher than 5 percent. Interestingly, it is usually the case that only one of the two races—primary or general—will be competitive at a time. This means that if a district's general election is competitive, typically one or more of the district's primaries were won by more than 5 percent. The reverse is also true: If a district sees a competitive primary, it is unlikely that the general election for that district will be won by less than 5 percent. Primaries often see very low voter turnout in comparison to general elections. In 2014, there were only 27 million voters for state legislative primaries, but approximately 107 million voters for the state legislative general elections.

Campaign contributions

The following chart shows how many candidates ran for State Senate in Ohio in past years and the cumulative amount of campaign contributions in State Senate races, including contributions in both primary and general election contests.^[4]

State comparison

The map below shows the average contributions to 2014 candidates for state senates. The average contributions raised by state senate candidates in 2014 was $148,144. Ohio, at $228,083 per candidate, is ranked nine of 42 for state senate chambers with the highest average contributions. Hover your mouse over a state to see the average campaign contributions for that state’s senate candidates in 2014.^[4][5]

Qualifications

Article 2, Section 3 of theOhio Constitution states: "Senators and representatives shall have resided in their respective districts one year next preceding their election, unless they shall have been absent on the public business of the United States, or of this state."

Article 2, Section 5 of theOhio Constitution states: "No person hereafter convicted of an embezzlement of the public funds, shall hold any office in this state; nor shall any person, holding public money for disbursement, or otherwise, have a seat in the General Assembly, until he shall have accounted for, and paid such money into the treasury."

See also

• Ohio State Senate
• Ohio State Legislature
• State legislative elections, 2016

External links

Suggest a link

• Ohio Secretary of State - Primary candidate list
• Ohio Secretary of State - Primary election results
• Ohio Secretary of State - General election candidate list

Footnotes

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