Ohio Senate: Republican Sen. Rob Portman Easily Wins Buckeye Beatdown Against Ted Strickland

Well, there’s no shocker here: incumbent Republican Ohio Sen. Rob Portman has handily won re-election over Democratic challenger Ted Strickland. Strickland, the former governor of the Buckeye State, was projected to give Portman a run for his money in his re-election bid that slowly devolved into a slow-moving trainwreck. Since August Portman held a commanding lead over Strickland, which broadened into a double-digit lead by October. The last poll conducted by Emerson had Portman up 21 points over Strickland. The Real Clear Politics average had the incumbent Republican up 18.3 points.

Portman’s campaign was excellent, with a get out the vote operation that was reportedly the envy of many Senate Republicans running for re-election this year. We’ll see what happens concerning the national ticket. Sasha Issenberg of Bloomberg noted that while Portman was able to find thousands of Reluctant Republicans who would vote for him, they weren’t willing to pull the lever for Trump. We’ll keep you updated on that front, but Portman was projected to be an easy GOP hold and one of the first races to be called tonight. 

With 76 percent of precincts reporting, Portman had 59 percent of the vote to Strickland's 39 percent.