MICHEL MARTIN, HOST:
Ohio has been a reliably Republican state. OK. Let me put it this way - it was. President Trump won Ohio by double digits in 2024. Last night, it followed the nationwide trend. NPR politics reporter Saige Miller is in Ohio, where she spent election night, and she's with us now. Good morning.
SAIGE MILLER, BYLINE: Good morning.
MARTIN: OK. Just tell us the key races.
MILLER: You know, it was a huge night for Democrats. Democrats flipped a Senate seat, secured the governor's office and flipped at least two House seats. And Democrats also held on to one House seat in Ohio. Democratic Congresswoman Marcy Kaptur fended off a challenge for her seat. And this was a huge victory for Democrats because it was redistricted, making it harder for Democrats to win. And then there is another competitive House race, which right now is too close to call. But if Democrats win, they will have flipped a total of three seats and held on to one. And this is something that not a lot of people were projecting, especially because two of those House races leaned Republican. But this is just such an upset for Republicans across the board here in Ohio.
MARTIN: And of course, our eyes are on the Senate nationally because those were the races that people were looking to to see whether the Democrats could take control of the Senate. Tell us what happened there.
MILLER: Yeah. And they did. The matchup was between Republican Senator Jon Husted and Democratic nominee Sherrod Brown. And Brown may be the incoming freshman senator for Ohio, but he is no stranger to the halls of Congress. He served there for 30 years before losing his reelection bid in 2024. And this was a very tight, very expensive race. Husted was endorsed by President Trump, and it seemed like that was more of a hindrance than a help.
Trump's approval rating in Ohio has slipped. It's a huge agricultural state. It grows a lot of the nation's food, and it has been hit hard by tariffs and high diesel prices. I heard from voters in Ohio that they're mad about the war in Iran, the price of gas and groceries. And Brown, who has positioned himself as a moderate in this race, campaigned on fixing those things. I was at Brown's campaign watch party in Columbus, Ohio, last night, and this is what he had to say during his victory speech.
(SOUNDBITE OF ARCHIVED RECORDING)
SHERROD BROWN: We will fight to end these tariffs. We will end this war.
(CHEERING)
BROWN: We will fight to lower your costs and increase your paychecks and open up paths to the middle class.
MILLER: Husted had to walk a line here, considering the Republican-led White House is - in part caused these problems that voters were up against. And in the end, Ohio flipped blue, and that helped secure the Senate majority in favor of Democrats.
MARTIN: And of course, there were those attention-getting remarks that President Trump insisted on making about Jon Husted's body, which became national news, and not in a good way. And of course, Ohio was also in the news because of this very nasty governor's race. Tell us what happened there.
MILLER: Yeah, it was a contentious race, but Ohio made history today as it elected its very first female governor. Democrat Amy Acton won the race and she beat Republican nominee Vivek Ramaswamy. It is also the first time a Democrat has won the governor's office since 2006. The race was expensive, and it was pretty nasty. Ramaswamy caught heat from Ohioans and members of his own party over an ad he ran that featured Acton's estranged mother. The visceral reaction to the ad could have played a role in the blue win here, but Acton really honed in on her background. She's a doctor and the former Ohio director of health, and she ran on lowering the cost of health care, which has hit Ohio particularly hard. And her message seemed to resonate with voters here and resulted in a historic win.
MARTIN: All right. That is NPR politics reporter Saige Miller in Ohio. Saige, thanks.
MILLER: Thank you. Transcript provided by NPR, Copyright NPR.
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