The key primary elections Tuesday in Ohio involve races which could determine the makeup of the U.S. Senate and the House after the Midterms in November. Democratic former Sen. Sherrod Brown is running to reclaim his old job as U.S. senator, while pro-labor Rep. Marcy Kaptur is trying to hold onto her gerrymandered congressional seat in the November elections.
Turnout in the primaries may be low because the really important decisions will be made in November when the Democrats face off against Republicans. Voters may be waiting for November because there are few competitive races on the ballot now.
But the fireworks will be set off in the run-up to the fall election, especially at the top of the ticket. Brown, who lost his seat two years ago, seeks a return to the Senate. His opponent, appointed Sen. Jon Husted, the former lieutenant governor, became a senator when former JD Vance became Trump’s vice president.
Brown’s return to the Senate is vital to workers, progressives, and the Democratic Party. If he doesn’t beat Husted, who has toed the Trump line, the chances of an anti-MAGA Senate takeover shrink considerably.
Multibillionaire Trump backer Vivek Ramaswamy, a so-called “entrepreneur” who briefly co-chaired Trump’s Department of Government Efficiency with chainsaw-wielding fellow billionaire Elon Musk, wants to be the Buckeye State’s next GOP governor.
His Democratic foe is Dr. Amy Acton, the state Public Health Director under departing Republican Gov. Mike DeWine. Unlike Ramaswamy, she’s worked with both parties, especially during the coronavirus pandemic. But will low-key competence sell in a state whose residents are suffering economically and hurt by Trump’s tariffs and climate policies?
Emilia Sykes, one of the two African-American women Democrats from Cleveland, is in a toss-up race thanks to redistricting, after a 51%-48% win two years ago under the old district lines. She has no primary foe, but she doesn’t have a safe seat anymore.
The members of the re-mapping body, a supposedly non-partisan commission which wasn’t, did their best to try to unseat Kaptur, a staunch pro-worker lawmaker and the longest-serving woman in Congress. They threw her into a seat whose voters went 54%-44% for Trump in 2024.
Kaptur has raised more than $3 million so far, more than all the other candidates on the ballot, from both parties plus independents, combined. But analysts say the seat leans Republican, and it—and labor’s support—may not be enough to save her.
All this will be on the November ballot, which didn’t prevent the American Federation of Government Employees (AFGE), who have 56,000 members in Ohio, from jumping into eight races now, including backing Brown and Dr. Acton in the gubernatorial contest.
Five of the others are incumbent Democrats: Sykes, Kaptur, and Reps. Greg Landsman, Joyce Beatty, and Shontel Brown. The sixth is incumbent Republican Mike Turner, whose district is dominated by Wright-Patterson Air Force Base and its AFGE civilian workforce. In its endorsement, AFGE noted Turner was an original sponsor of the Protect America’s Workforce Act (HR 2550), which would restore full collective bargaining rights for federal workers.
AFGE is backing military veteran Adam Miller in the largely Republican 15th District in East Central Ohio. He faces a progressive Ohio State professor, Don Leonard, in the primary. Both are given no chance in November against GOPer Mike Carey.
But in an indication that organized labor is not totally unified, virtually all the Ohio building trades unions, and their coalition, ACT Ohio, back Ramaswamy in the gubernatorial tilt. The latest to join in were the Laborers, just days before the primary.
AFGE is sticking with those candidates who have strong records of support for labor, though. “The candidates we are endorsing deserve your support because they will fight for working families in Ohio and nationwide,” AFGE District 6 President Arnold Scott said in a press release. “These elected leaders have fought to protect workers’ jobs and union rights, safeguard and improve health care and retirement benefits, and eliminate barriers that make it harder for everyone to achieve the American Dream.”
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