Democrats seek to prove Ohio remains a swing state

Desperate to prove Ohio isn't a lost cause, Democratic candidates for governor and an open Senate seat are attempting to steer clear of culture wars and tap into a vein of economic populism that has eluded them in the increasingly red state in recent decades.

It hasn't been long since Democrats last won in Ohio. Former President Barack Obama won the state in both 2008 and 2012. And in 2018, Sen. Sherrod Brown won his third term. However, those high-profile victories obscured a much bleaker reality in the state for the Democratic Party.

No other Democrat has won statewide office here since 2006. In 2020, Joe Biden became the first person to win the presidency without winning Ohio since 1960 -- effectively ending Ohio's bellwether status, though it had been clear for several election cycles that Ohio was no longer the tipping-point state that would push a presidential candidate over 270 electoral votes. Former President Donald Trump's 8-point victories in Ohio in 2016 and 2020 underscored just how far Democrats had slid, particularly in the state's White, rural areas.