Ohio State has a long history of politics, and is home to a diverse mix of political ideologies. The state has over 11 million citizens who are represented by members of the Ohio General Assembly, as well as two Senators and one U.S. Representative in Congress. This representation includes both Republicans and Democrats, as well as many independent organizations and representatives from other parties. In recent years, Ohio has seen its political landscape shift, with the Republican Party taking control of both legislative chambers in the 2018 election cycle. As such, current political issues discussed by lawmakers range from economic development, unemployment benefits and taxes to education reform, healthcare reform and gun rights. Additionally, local elections for city councilors, mayors and school board members happen every two years in most cities throughout the state. Ohioans take their civic duty seriously when it comes to voting and engaging in public discourse on the issues that matter most to them.
The political climate in Ohio is leaning conservative.
In Ohio 45.2% of the people voted for the Democratic Party in the last presidential election, 53.2% voted for the Republican Party, and the remaining 1.7% voted for an Independent Party.
In the last Presidential election, Ohio remained moderately Republican, 53.2% to 45.2%.
Ohio voted Republican in four of the six previous Presidential elections (2008 and 2012 went Democratic).
The BestPlaces liberal/conservative index
Ohio is leaning conservative.
The BestPlaces liberal/conservative index is based on recent voting in national elections, federal campaign contributions by local residents, and consumer personality profiles.
VoteWord™
Displaying 20 years of Presidential voting, visualized in one word.
Ohio, Ohio: r r d d r r
How It Works:
Here at BestPlaces, we were looking at the voting patterns since the 2000 election and realized that we could express the results of each election as one letter. R if the Republican Party candidate won, D for the Democrat and I for the Independent. The six elections (2000, 2004, 2008, 2012, 2016, 2020) would be expressed as six-letter word (R R D R R R).
Then we went a little further and added the dimension of magnitude. If the difference of victory was greater than 10 percent, the letter is upper case, and lower case if the difference was less than 10 percent. This allows us to see interesting voting patterns at just a glance.
Here's the VoteWord for Iowa d r d d r r. In the last six elections the state has been closely contested, voting narrowly for the Republican Party candidate in 2016 and 2020 after voting for the Democratic Party in 2008 and 2012. Virginia (r r d d d D) has voted for the Democratic Party in the last four elections.
Individual Campaign Contributions in Ohio
In the last 4 years (2018-2021), there were 420,143 contributions totaling $63,672,648 to the Democratic Party and liberal campaigns, averaging $152 per contribution.
In the last 4 years, there were 128,437 contributions totaling $137,447,038 to the Republican Party and conservative campaigns, averaging $1,070 per contribution.
(source: Federal Election Commission)