2020→ ←2016
2018 Ohio Senate elections
General	November 6, 2018
Primary	May 8, 2018

Republicans maintained asupermajority in theOhio State Senate in the 2018 elections, controlling24 seats toDemocrats'nine. A total of17 seats out of the chamber's 33 seats were up for election on November 6, 2018. At the time of the election, Republicans held23 seats to Democrats'nine, and one seat was vacant.

TheRepublican Party maintainedtrifecta status is Ohio after the 2018 elections, as Republicans held control of thestate Senate,state House, andgovernorship.

Because state senators in Ohio serve four-year terms, winning candidates in this election served through 2022 and played a role inOhio's redistricting process. Congressional district lines in Ohio are drawn by the state legislature. If the legislature is unable to approve a congressional redistricting plan, a backup commission must draw new lines.

The Ohio State Senate was one of 87 state legislative chambers with elections in2018. There are 99 chambers throughout the country.

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

For more information about the Democratic primary,click here.
For more information about the Republican primary,click here.

Post-election analysis

See also:State legislative elections, 2018

The Republican Party maintainedsupermajority status in both chambers of the Ohio General Assembly in the 2018 election. In the state Senate, 17 out of 33 seats were up for election. Republicans increased their majority in the Ohio State Senate from 23-9 to 24-9. One seat was vacant before the election. No incumbents were defeated in the general election.

The Ohio House of Representatives held elections for all 99 seats. The Republican majority in the House of Representatives was reduced from 66-32 to 61-38. One seat was vacant before the election. One Republican incumbent was defeated in the primary and one Republican incumbent was defeated in the general election.

National background

On November 6, 2018, 87 of the nation's 99 state legislative chambers held regularly scheduled elections for 6,073 of 7,383 total seats, meaning that nearly 82 percent of all state legislative seats were up for election.

• Entering the 2018 election, Democrats held 42.6 percent, Republicans held 56.8 percent, and independents and other parties held 0.6 percent of the seats up for regular election.
• Following the 2018 election, Democrats held 47.3 percent, Republicans held 52.3 percent, and independents and other parties held 0.4 percent of the seats up for regular election.
• A total of 469 incumbents were defeated over the course of the election cycle, with roughly one-third of them defeated in the primary.

Want more information?

• Incumbents defeated in 2018's state legislative elections
• 2018 election analysis: Partisan balance of state legislative chambers
• 2018 election analysis: Number of state legislators by party
• 2018 election analysis: State legislative supermajorities

Candidates

General election candidates

Ohio State Senate elections, 2018
Incumbents are marked with an (i) after their name. = candidate completed the Ballotpedia Candidate Connection survey.
Office	Democratic	Republican	Other
District 1	Adam Papin	Robert McColley (i)
District 3	Tina Maharath	Anne Gonzales
District 5	Paul Bradley	Stephen Huffman
District 7	Sara Bitter	Steve Wilson (i)
District 9	Cecil Thomas (i)	Tom Chandler
District 11	Teresa Fedor	Ernest McCarthy
District 13	Sharon Sweda	Nathan Manning	Homer Taft (Libertarian Party)
District 15	Hearcel Craig	Jordan Garcea
District 17	Scott Dailey	Bob Peterson (i)
District 19	Louise Valentine	Andrew Brenner	David Cox (Green Party)
District 21	Sandra Williams (i)	Thomas Pekarek
District 23	Nickie Antonio	Steve Flores
District 25	Kenny Yuko (i)	William Faehnrich Did not make the ballot: Bob Murphy
District 27	Adam VanHo	Kristina Daley Roegner
District 29	Lauren Friedman	Kirk Schuring
District 31	Melinda Miller	Jay Hottinger (i)
District 33	John Boccieri	Michael Rulli

Primary candidates

See also:Statistics on state legislative candidates, 2018

Ohio State Senate
District	Democrat	Republican	Other
1	Adam Papina	Robert McColley(I)a Bob Barker Jr. Craig Kupferberg
3	Tina Maharatha Katherine Chipps	Anne Gonzalesa
5	Paul Bradleya	Stephen Huffmana
7	Sara Bittera	Steve Wilson(I)a Brad Lamoreaux
9	Dale Mallory Cecil Thomas(I)a
11	Michael Ashford Teresa Fedora	Ernest McCarthya
13	Sharon Swedaa	Nathan Manninga Ryan Sawyer
15	Hearcel Craiga Jodi Howell	Jordan Garceaa
17	Scott Daileya	Bob Peterson(I)a
19	Louise Valentinea	Andrew Brennera Joel Spitzer	Gary Coxa (G)
21	Sandra Williams(I)a Willie Lewis Britt Jeff Johnson Bill Patmon
23	Nickie Antonioa Martin Sweeney
25	John E. Barnes Jr. Kenny Yuko(I)a	Bob Murphya
27	Adam VanHoa	Kristina Roegnera
29	Lauren Friedmana	Kirk Schuringa
31	Melinda Millera	Jay Hottinger(I)a
33	John Boccieria	Michael Rullia
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 ourElections Team.

Primary election vote totals

Ohio State Senate, District 1 Republican Primary, 2018
Candidate	Vote %	Votes
Robert McColleyIncumbent	61.51%	19,279
Craig Kupferberg	19.48%	6,104
Bob Barker Jr.	19.01%	5,959
Total Votes		31,342
Source:Ohio Secretary of State, "2018 Official Elections Results: Results by County," accessed August 10, 2018

Ohio State Senate, District 3 Democratic Primary, 2018
Candidate	Vote %	Votes
Tina Maharath	71.81%	11,462
Katherine Chipps	28.19%	4,500
Total Votes		15,962
Source:Ohio Secretary of State, "2018 Official Elections Results: Results by County," accessed August 10, 2018

Ohio State Senate, District 7 Republican Primary, 2018
Candidate	Vote %	Votes
Steve WilsonIncumbent	57.06%	17,179
Brad Lamoreaux	42.94%	12,926
Total Votes		30,105
Source:Ohio Secretary of State, "2018 Official Elections Results: Results by County," accessed August 10, 2018

Ohio State Senate, District 9 Democratic Primary, 2018
Candidate	Vote %	Votes
Cecil ThomasIncumbent	73.93%	18,493
Dale Mallory	26.07%	6,522
Total Votes		25,015
Source:Ohio Secretary of State, "2018 Official Elections Results: Results by County," accessed August 10, 2018

Ohio State Senate, District 11 Democratic Primary, 2018
Candidate	Vote %	Votes
Teresa Fedor	55.92%	9,858
Michael Ashford	44.08%	7,771
Total Votes		17,629
Source:Ohio Secretary of State, "2018 Official Elections Results: Results by County," accessed August 10, 2018

Ohio State Senate, District 13 Republican Primary, 2018
Candidate	Vote %	Votes
Nathan Manning	74.66%	13,755
Ryan Sawyer	25.34%	4,668
Total Votes		18,423
Source:Ohio Secretary of State, "2018 Official Elections Results: Results by County," accessed August 10, 2018

Ohio State Senate, District 15 Democratic Primary, 2018
Candidate	Vote %	Votes
Hearcel Craig	69.77%	20,440
Jodi Howell	30.23%	8,857
Total Votes		29,297
Source:Ohio Secretary of State, "2018 Official Elections Results: Results by County," accessed August 10, 2018

Ohio State Senate, District 19 Republican Primary, 2018
Candidate	Vote %	Votes
Andrew Brenner	67.39%	17,924
Joel Spitzer	32.61%	8,673
Total Votes		26,597
Source:Ohio Secretary of State, "2018 Official Elections Results: Results by County," accessed August 10, 2018

Ohio State Senate, District 21 Democratic Primary, 2018
Candidate	Vote %	Votes
Sandra WilliamsIncumbent	59.55%	19,210
Jeff Johnson	23.55%	7,595
Bill Patmon	14.87%	4,798
Willie Lewis Britt	2.02%	653
Total Votes		32,256
Source:Ohio Secretary of State, "2018 Official Elections Results: Results by County," accessed August 10, 2018

Ohio State Senate, District 23 Democratic Primary, 2018
Candidate	Vote %	Votes
Nickie Antonio	54.62%	15,282
Martin Sweeney	45.38%	12,699
Total Votes		27,981
Source:Ohio Secretary of State, "2018 Official Elections Results: Results by County," accessed August 10, 2018

Ohio State Senate, District 25 Democratic Primary, 2018
Candidate	Vote %	Votes
Kenny YukoIncumbent	58.90%	18,094
John E. Barnes Jr.	41.10%	12,625
Total Votes		30,719
Source:Ohio Secretary of State, "2018 Official Elections Results: Results by County," accessed August 10, 2018

Margins of victory

See also:Margin of victory analysis for the 2018 state legislative elections

Amargin of victory (MOV) analysis for the2018 Ohio State Senate races is presented in this section. MOV represents the percentage of total votes that separated the winner and the second-place finisher. For example, if the winner of a race received 47 percent of the vote and the second-place finisher received 45 percent of the vote, the MOV is 2 percent.

The table below presents the following figures for each party:

• Elections won
• Elections won by less than 10 percentage points
• Elections won without opposition
• Average margin of victory^[1]

Ohio State Senate: 2018 Margin of Victory Analysis
Party	Elections won	Elections won by less than 10%	Unopposed elections	Average margin of victory[1]
Democratic	7	1	0	44.7%
Republican	10	4	0	20.3%
Other	0	0	0	N/A
Total	17	5	0	32.5%

The margin of victory in each race is presented below. The list is sorted from the closest MOV to the largest (including unopposed races).

Ohio State Senate: 2018 Margin of Victory by District
District	Winning Party	Losing Party	Margin of Victory
Ohio State Senate District 3	Democratic	Republican	0.5%
Ohio State Senate District 19	Republican	Democratic	2.7%
Ohio State Senate District 33	Republican	Democratic	4.8%
Ohio State Senate District 5	Republican	Democratic	5.8%
Ohio State Senate District 13	Republican	Democratic	8.5%
Ohio State Senate District 27	Republican	Democratic	16.9%
Ohio State Senate District 29	Republican	Democratic	19.4%
Ohio State Senate District 7	Republican	Democratic	24.0%
Ohio State Senate District 23	Democratic	Republican	30.8%
Ohio State Senate District 31	Republican	Democratic	33.8%
Ohio State Senate District 11	Democratic	Republican	38.8%
Ohio State Senate District 17	Republican	Democratic	40.8%
Ohio State Senate District 1	Republican	Democratic	46.5%
Ohio State Senate District 25	Democratic	Republican	50.0%
Ohio State Senate District 9	Democratic	Republican	52.6%
Ohio State Senate District 15	Democratic	Republican	65.0%
Ohio State Senate District 21	Democratic	Republican	75.4%

Seats flipped

See also:State legislative seats that changed party control, 2018

The below map displays each seat in theOhio State Senate which changed partisan hands as a result of the 2018 elections, shaded according to the partisan affiliation of the winner in 2018. Hover over a shaded district for more information.

State legislative seats flipped in 2018, Ohio State Senate
District	Incumbent	2018 winner	Direction of flip
Ohio State Senate District 3	Kevin Bacon	Tina Maharath	R to D
Ohio State Senate District 33	Joseph Schiavoni	Michael Rulli	D to R

Incumbents retiring

Ten incumbents did not run for re-election in 2018.^[2] Those incumbents were:

Name	Party	Office
Kevin Bacon	Republican	Senate District 3
Bill Beagle	Republican	Senate District 5
Edna Brown	Democratic	Senate District 11
Gayle L. Manning	Republican	Senate District 13
Charleta B. Tavares	Democratic	Senate District 15
Kris Jordan	Republican	Senate District 19
Michael Skindell	Democratic	Senate District 23
Frank LaRose	Republican	Senate District 27
Scott Oelslager	Republican	Senate District 29
Joseph Schiavoni	Democratic	Senate District 33

Process to become a candidate

See also:Ballot access requirements for political candidates in Ohio

See statutes:Title 35, Chapter 3513, Section 10 of the Ohio Revised Statutes

For all candidates

Filing fees apply to all candidates and are as follows:^[3]

For partisan candidates

See statutes:Title 35, Chapter 3513, Section 05 of the Ohio Revised Code

A partisan candidate must file a declaration of candidacy and petition and pay the required filing fees. Petition signature requirements are detailed in the table below (for more information regarding petition requirements, seebelow).^[4]

For independent candidates

See statutes:Title 35, Chapter 3513, Section 257 of the Ohio Revised Code

An unaffiliated candidate must submit a declaration of candidacy and nominating petition and pay the required filing fees. Petition signature requirements are detailed in the table below (for more information regarding petition requirements, seebelow).^[5]

For write-in candidates

A write-in candidate must file a declaration of intent in order to have his or her votes counted. Write-in candidates may participate in either primary or general elections and are subject to the same filing fees as all other candidates.^[6]

Qualifications

See also:State legislature candidate requirements by state

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.

Salaries and per diem

See also:Comparison of state legislative salaries

When sworn in

See also:When state legislators assume office after a general election

Ohio legislators assume office the first day of January after a general election.^[8][9]

Ohio political history

See also:Partisan composition of state senates andState government trifectas

Party control

2018

In the 2018 elections, Republicans increased their majority in the Ohio State Senate from 23-9 to 24-9.

2016

In the2016 elections, Republicans increased their majority in the Ohio State Senate from 23-10 to 24-9.

Trifectas

Astate government trifecta is a term that describes single-party government, when one political party holds the governor's office and has majorities in both chambers of the legislature in a state government. Republicans in Ohio gained astate government trifecta as a result of the 2010 elections by taking control of the state House and governorship.

Impact of term limits

See also:Impact of term limits on state senate elections in 2018 andImpact of term limits on state legislative elections in 2018

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.

A total of 17 out of 33 seats in theOhio State Senate were up for election in 2018. In the 2018 elections, ten senators were ineligible to run because of term limits. The following state senators were term-limited in 2018:

Democratic: (4)

• Joseph Schiavoni
• Edna Brown
• Charleta B. Tavares
• Michael Skindell

Republicans (6):

• Kevin Bacon
• Bill Beagle
• Gayle L. Manning
• Kris Jordan
• Frank LaRose
• Scott Oelslager

Of the 87 state legislative chambers that held elections in 2018, 24 of them—12 senate chambers and 12 house chambers—included incumbents who were unable to run for re-election due toterm limits.^[10] In the 24 chambers affected by term limits in 2018, 1,463 seats were up for election.^[11] The Nevada Senate, Arkansas House, and Arkansas Senate are impacted by term limits, but no incumbents were term-limited in 2018. There are 99 chambers throughout the country.

A total of 271 state legislators—96 state senators and 175 state representatives—were ineligible to run in the 2018 elections because of term limits. This represented 4 percent of the 6,066 total seats up for election in November 2018.^[12][13] Republicans had twice as many state legislators term-limited in 2018 than Democrats. A total of 86 Democrats were term-limited, while 177 Republicans were term-limited.

Wave election analysis

See also:Wave elections (1918-2016)

The termwave election is frequently used to describe an election cycle in which one party makessignificant electoral gains. How many seats would Republicans have had to lose for the 2018 midterm election to be considered a wave election?

Ballotpedia examined the results of the 50 election cycles that occurred between 1918 and 2016—spanning from PresidentWoodrow Wilson's (D) second midterm in 1918 toDonald Trump's (R) first presidential election in 2016.We define wave elections as the 20 percent of elections in that period resulting in the greatest seat swings against the president's party.

Applying this definition tostate legislative elections, we found that Republicans needed to lose494 seats for 2018 to qualify as awave election.

The chart below shows the number of seats the president's party lost in the 10 state legislative waves from 1918 to 2016.Click here to read the full report.

Competitiveness

Every year, Ballotpedia uses official candidate lists from each state to examine the competitiveness of every state legislative race in the country. Nationally, there has been a steady decline in electoral competitiveness since 2010. Most notable is that the number of districts with general election competition has dropped by more than 10 percent.

Results from 2016

Click here to read the full study »

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.

Pivot Counties

See also:Pivot Counties by state

Nine of 88 Ohio counties—10.2 percent—arePivot Counties. Pivot Counties are counties that voted forBarack Obama (D) in 2008 and 2012 and forDonald Trump (R) in 2016. Altogether, the nation had 206 Pivot Counties, with most being concentrated in upper midwestern and northeastern states.

In the 2016 presidential election,Donald Trump (R) won Ohio with 51.7 percent of the vote.Hillary Clinton (D) received 43.6 percent. In presidential elections between 1900 and 2016, Ohio cast votes for the winning presidential candidate 93.3 percent of the time (28 out of 30 elections), more than any other state in the country. In that same time frame, Ohio supported Republican candidates for president more often than Democratic candidates, 60 to 40 percent. Between 2000 and 2016, Ohio voted for the winning presidential candidate in every election.

Presidential results by legislative district

The following table details results of the 2012 and 2016 presidential elections by state Senate districts in Ohio. Click[show] to expand the table. The "Obama," "Romney," "Clinton," and "Trump" columns describe the percent of the vote each presidential candidate received in the district. The "2012 Margin" and "2016 Margin" columns describe the margin of victory between the two presidential candidates in those years. The "Party Control" column notes which party held that seat heading into the 2018 general election. Data on the results of the 2012 and 2016 presidential elections broken down by state legislative districts was compiled byDaily Kos.^[17][18]

See also

• Ohio State Senate
• Ohio State Legislature
• State legislative elections, 2018
• Ohio state legislative Democratic primaries, 2018
• Ohio state legislative Republican primaries, 2018

External links

Suggest a link

• Ohio State Legislature

Footnotes

v • e 2018 Elections toState legislatures State Senate elections Alabama •Alaska •Arizona •Arkansas •California •Colorado •Connecticut •Delaware •Florida •Georgia •Hawaii •Idaho •Illinois •Indiana •Iowa •Kentucky •Maine •Maryland •Massachusetts •Michigan •Missouri •Montana •Nebraska •Nevada •New Hampshire •New York •North Carolina •North Dakota •Ohio •Oklahoma •Oregon •Pennsylvania •Rhode Island •South Dakota •Tennessee •Texas •Utah •Vermont •Washington •West Virginia •Wisconsin •Wyoming State House elections Alabama •Alaska •Arizona •Arkansas •California •Colorado •Connecticut •Delaware •Florida •Georgia •Hawaii •Idaho •Illinois •Indiana •Iowa •Kansas •Kentucky •Maine •Maryland •Massachusetts •Michigan •Minnesota •Missouri •Montana •Nevada •New Hampshire •New Mexico •New York •North Carolina •North Dakota •Ohio •Oklahoma •Oregon •Pennsylvania •Rhode Island •South Carolina •South Dakota •Tennessee •Texas •Utah •Vermont •Washington •West Virginia •Wisconsin •Wyoming