Republicans 'panicking' as support plummets in a GOP stronghold

While Democrats have made a lot of progress in Arizona, Virginia and Georgia — all of which evolved into swing states after many years of being solidly Republican — Ohio has been a major source of frustration for them. Former President Barack Obama carried Ohio in both 2008 and 2012, but more recently, the Buckeye State has trended Republican.

President Donald Trump won Ohio three times in a row, and Democrats suffered a major disappointment when former Sen. Sherrod Brown (D-Ohio) was voted out of office in 2024. Brown, however, is running for the Senate again in the 2026 midterms, raising more than $10 million during the year's first quarter.

In an article published on April 20, Time's Philip Elliot stresses that Ohio is showing signs of becoming a swing state again.

"Need proof the political map is turning against Republicans?" Elliott writes. "Just spy the $79 million that the Senate GOP's super PAC set aside this month for Ohio, a state President Donald Trump carried all three times and where Democrats last won a statewide election in 2018. Or the fact that that eye-popping sum wasn't enough to keep D.C.'s gospel of political handicapping from shifting the race's status from 'lean Republican' to 'toss up.' Or the fact that the Republican incumbent in that seat just keeps giving the digital Democratic trolls fodder to make his campaign more difficult."

Elliott notes that "none of this was on the radar when Trump returned to office" on January 20, 2025.

"The thinking around Washington was that Jon Husted, who was put in his seat after JD Vance left it to become Trump's right-hand hatchet man, would be a responsible custodian who could coast through this November's special election to finish out the balance of Vance's term," Elliott explains. "After all, Husted had done just about every job in state politics and had been around long enough to get the game. But then, Democrats persuaded Sherrod Brown back onto the field."

Republicans, according to Elliott, "are nowpanicking about Ohio."

"The clearest sign came earlier this month when the Senate Leadership Fund, the outside political operation with close ties to Senate Majority Leader John Thune, released its spending plan," Thune observes. "Of a massive $342 million the group plans to spend to keep Thune in that role in 2027, the biggest amount — $79 million —is going to Ohio…. Despite the Brink's truck of cash backed up to the Husted campaign's loading dock, the nonpartisan Cook Political Report shifted the race away from the 'lean Republican' status and into a true 'toss up' category last week. At the same time, Cook moved North Carolina and Georgia to 'lean Democrat' from 'toss up,' and Nebraska slid from 'solid Republican' to 'likely Republican.' All signal trouble for GOP candidates."