COLUMBUS, Ohio — For candidates hoping to represent Ohioans in Congress and the Statehouse, the final push to the primary elections is on.

What You Need To Know

  • Ohio's primary elections are March 19; early voting is now underway

  • Some political experts say more than 90 of Ohio’s 99 districts are “safe” thanks to gerrymandering, but the primary will decide which member of the prevailing party will represent the party in November's election

  • Sen. Sherrod Brown’s re-election campaign raised nearly $6 million just in the past two months, according to campaign finance reports
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Some political experts say more than 90 of Ohio’s 99 districts are “safe” thanks to gerrymandering, meaning there should not be any surprises about which party will come out on top in November’s general election.

In the case of some heavily Republican districts, voters in the March 19 primary are deciding what kind of conservative they want in office and whether they feel well-represented by the current elected official.

The Ohio House Republican Alliance is providing financial support to some candidates to help with this fight. New campaign finance numbers show that since the beginning of the year, the alliance has given more than $2.5 million to GOP races across the state.

The Ohio House Speaker typically oversees the fund, and according to the Secretary of State’s Office, the current House Speaker, Republican Jason Stephens, contributed $500,000 to the fund last summer. So it is no surprise many recipients of campaign contributions from the fund are incumbent supporters of Stephens and likely to back his bid for another term as House Speaker.

But Political Science Professor Tom Sutton with Baldwin Wallace University said the money itself doesn’t necessarily matter to voters. What matters most is what the candidates stand for.

“So, it’s not so much going to be the money side or who’s giving or how or why,” Sutton said. “It’s going to be how that money gets used to advertise and to get the word out to voters about themselves as candidates and what they started for and what their stances are on those issues.”

Right now, the Statehouse is split between Stephens supporters and those who are not happy with a deal he made with Democratic representatives to earn the speakership. Sutton said the length of time this divide is lasting is unusual in the Ohio Statehouse.

Meanwhile, candidates hoping to represent Ohio in Washington, D.C. are fundraising for their campaigns, with the incumbent, Democrat Sen. Sherrod Brown, banking nearly four times as much in contributions as the top-earning Republican primary candidate.

In fact, Brown’s campaign raised nearly $6 million just in the past two months, according to campaign finance reports.

That is more than half what State Sen. Matt Dolan and Bernie Moreno raised throughout the election cycle for each of their campaigns, with Dolan raising more than $11 million and Moreno close behind at about $10 million.

Both those figures are well above the $2.2 million Ohio Secretary of State Frank LaRose brought in.

But Sutton said what LaRose lacks in his campaign coffers, he makes up for in other ways.

“LaRose has much better name recognition,” Sutton said. “He is much more well-tested as a statewide officeholder compared to the other two. Bernie Moreno, this is his second run for office for Senate, but he’s never held office.”

The winner of the Republican primary, either Dolan, LaRose or Moreno, will run against Brown in the November election.

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