After bitter defeats last year, Ohio Democrats are biding time as GOP moves full swing into 2026
All that urgency begs a question: Where are Ohio Democrats?
Fresh off a pair of difficult losses last year — the bitter defeat of three-term U.S. Sen. Sherrod Brown to Cleveland businessman Bernie Moreno, and the rejection by voters of the anti-gerrymandering amendment known as Issue 1 — the party's efforts at building anything close to a winning 2026 ticket have so far been muted, and for some, moving too slowly.
Dr. Amy Acton, the former state health director who helped guide Ohio through the early days of the pandemic, is running for governor as a Democrat — methodically building financial support and a statewide campaign. Though she gained recognition appearing on daily COVID-19 briefings that aired statewide in early 2020, Acton also is a newcomer to politics who lacks the political might of someone like Brown, who before last year had reliably won statewide victories going back decades.
tainted former state Rep. Elliot Forhan for attorney general — have launched campaigns.
The lack of activity accompanies Democrats' broader struggles nationally to coalesce around a strategy for countering actions by President Donald Trump and Elon Musk and their Republican allies in Congress. The debate over how to respond has divided party leaders, with some advocating for lying low — even as crowds of angry citizens throng congressional town halls, clog Capitol Hill phone lines and stage protests and marches in the streets. Others want to see the party combat November's bitter defeats at both the national and state levels more strenuously.
'People are being quiet right now and sort of circling the wagons and kind of trying to figure out how to respond,' said Dr. J. Cherie Strachan, director of the University of Akron's Bliss Institute of Applied Politics.
As he exited the Senate in December, Brown vowed he'd be getting back to politics in some way. That prospect is among reasons that other aspiring Ohio Democrats are biding their time, according to several party insiders granted anonymity to discuss internal deliberations. Others say it's Republicans who are starting too early, not Democrats who are late.
It's unclear if Brown will run, and, if he does, what office he might seek. It could be the governorship, setting up a contested primary with Acton. It could be the U.S. Senate seat formerly held by Vice President JD Vance, which successor Jon Husted must defend next year. Brown recently offered a treatise of sorts in The New Republic magazine for restoring the national Democratic Party with a pro-worker message, prompting speculation he might even be aspiring to the presidency.
Once Brown's plans are known, plenty of other Democrats will be ready to go, predicted Greg Beswick, a former Ohio Democratic Party executive director. Though it's been 20 years since Democrats won a statewide executive office in Ohio, he said the party is watching for falling approval ratings for Trump and Musk to create opportunities in 2026.
'I do think that they're going to be able to recruit folks and be able to run when they start seeing these items,' he said. 'I think it's been easier for the Republicans, quite frankly. It's the shuffling of the deck of folks that want to make sure they keep a job.'
That shuffle includes Ohio Attorney General Dave Yost running for governor, Auditor Keith Faber running for attorney general, Secretary of State Frank LaRose running for auditor and Treasurer Robert Sprague running for secretary of state.
Besides Brown, other high profile Democrats believed to be weighing runs in 2026 are: former U.S. Rep. Tim Ryan, who lost a tighter than expected Senate race to Vance in 2022; Ohio House Minority Leader Allison Russo, who won key Republican concessions for her party last session; and former U.S. Attorney Steven Dettelbach, a former Ohio attorney general candidate who led the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives under President Joe Biden.
Katie Seewer, a spokesperson for the Ohio Democratic Party, said they anticipate at least one Democratic candidate will emerge for each of the statewide races. She said the party has been seeing lots of enthusiasm at organizing events across the state.
'People are fired up and ready to go,' she said.

Try Our AI Features
Explore what Daily8 AI can do for you:
Comments
No comments yet...
Related Articles
Yahoo
22 minutes ago
- Yahoo
These are the 3 manufacturing sectors set to be the big winners of Trump's Made in America push
Trump wants to increase manufacturing in the United States. His economic agenda has centered on measures meant to compel companies to build on US soil. These three industries are the likely big winners of the Made In America push, Oxford Economics says. President Donald Trump wants more stuff to be made in America. Upon taking office in January, he implemented tariffs against prominent US trade partners in an effort to bring more manufacturing back to American shores, brushing off warnings of potential pain for companies and consumers. But some industries are likely to see a boost in US manufacturing over others, Oxford Economics said on Tuesday. The firm is predicting that high-tech goods, pharmaceuticals, and aerospace technology will have an advantage. Nico Palesch, a senior economist at the forecasting firm, said these industries are well-positioned to benefit from Trump's policies because they already have a foothold in the US market. "A sector that has significant domestic capacity in the US is much more likely to be able to expand capacity and accrue benefits from changes in tariffs or reductions in taxation because the business case for operating in the US is already strong, as opposed to a sector that would essentially need to be built from the ground up," he stated. Despite high economic uncertainty, Palesch added that Trump's policies are likely to help spur growth for US manufacturing. He also credited the CHIPS and Inflation Reduction Acts of 2022 with helping revitalize US manufacturing in areas such as semiconductors and green technology production. In his view, they will be responsible "for a majority of reindustrialization" in the coming years. Palesch highlighted the advantage that companies with a strong US presence will have, noting that he did not believe Trump's policies would bring back an abundance of manufacturing jobs to the US. "A car maker in the US is more likely to decide to expand an existing production line or set up a new factory to try and capture more market share at the expense of tariffed competition than a firm operating in a sector that has little or no presence in the US," he added. The economist said he sees Boeing as a top pick among aerospace stocks, adding that while the company has experienced some negative publicity of late, "it remains one of the two major international aerospace manufacturers capable of producing the types of aircraft typically used in air travel at scale." Read the original article on Business Insider Error in retrieving data Sign in to access your portfolio Error in retrieving data Error in retrieving data Error in retrieving data Error in retrieving data


Fox News
24 minutes ago
- Fox News
Trump border czar Tom Homan slams 'former first drug addict' Hunter Biden over inflammatory immigration rant
Trump border czar Tom Homan fired back Tuesday night at Hunter Biden for a recent profanity-laced rant against President Donald Trump's policies on illegal immigration. "I don't really care what the former first drug addict thinks," Homan told Laura Ingraham on "The Ingraham Angle." "I just thank God every morning I wake up we got President Trump in the Oval Office. And because of President Trump, in seven weeks we got the most secure border in this nation's history. "And now we're arresting public safety threats and national security threats every day across this country," he continued. "We've already arrested three times the number of criminals that Biden did in the same timeframe." Biden recently sat down with "Channel 5" podcaster Andrew Callaghan for a wide-ranging discussion of his father's presidency, his drug use and other topics. During the interview, he slammed Trump as a "f------ thug" and compared his deportation agenda to Nazi Germany. "There is a minority group that those in power, that came into power through democratically elected means, are going to target this minority group because they're stealing all the jobs," Biden said. "And what we're going to do is we're going to send masked men to this marginalized group, and we are going to take them, put them on planes, put them on buses, put them on trains, and send them to a prison camp in a foreign country," he continued. "What am I describing right then? Am I describing Germany? Or am I just describing the United States right now? Because I will tell you what. You think that the prison in El Salvador is not a f---ing concentration camp, you're out of your f---ing mind." Biden infamously revealed to "CBS Sunday Morning" in 2021, that he would smoke "anything that even remotely resembled crack cocaine," including "more Parmesan cheese than anyone you know." Salvadoran President Nayib Bukele also responded to Biden via a post on X, also referring to Biden's history of drug use. "Is Hunter Biden sniffing powdered milk?" Bukele asked, adding a clip from the interview.
Yahoo
an hour ago
- Yahoo
Tokyo's Nikkei leads Asian rally after Japan-US trade deal
Tokyo stocks rallied with the yen Wednesday after Japan and the United States finally hammered out a trade deal to slash Donald Trump's tariffs, including those on the crucial car sector. Investors were also cheered by news that Washington had reached agreements with Indonesia and the Philippines, stoking optimism that other countries will achieve deals to avoid the worst of the US president's levies. Despite a lack of deals being made leading up to Trump's self-imposed August 1 cut-off date, equity markets have been on the march in recent weeks on optimism that governments will eventually get over the line. Japan had been one of those yet to sign, despite a string of trips to Washington by trade envoy Ryosei Akazawa, dampening investor sentiment in Tokyo. But Trump said Tuesday that officials had agreed to a "massive" deal that would include a 15 percent tariff on imports from Japan, down from the previously threatened 25 percent. The pact also saw the 25 percent levy on autos -- a major export to the United States -- slashed to 15 percent. "We just completed a massive Deal with Japan, perhaps the largest Deal ever made," Trump announced on his Truth Social platform. "Japan will invest, at my direction, $550 Billion Dollars into the United States, which will receive 90% of the Profits." He did not provide further details on the investment plan, but claimed the deal "will create Hundreds of Thousands of Jobs." Japanese Prime Minister Shigeru Ishiba said that he needed to examine the deal before commenting. Akazawa wrote on X: "Mission accomplished." Traders poured back into the market, pushing the Nikkei up more than two percent thanks to soaring automakers. Tokyo and Mitsubishi rocketed around 12 percent and Nissan jumped more than nine percent. The yen strengthened to 146.20 per dollar -- compared with close to 148 Tuesday. The unit had already enjoyed a recent tick-up after Ishiba vowed to remain in office despite a devastating weekend election loss. Trump also hailed an agreement with Manila that will see the toll on Philippine goods lowered by one percentage point to 19 percent, while tariffs on Indonesia were slashed from 32 percent to 19 percent. Shares in Manila and Jakarta rose. The announcements boosted hopes that other deals could be in the pipeline before next Friday's deadline, though talks with the European Union and South Korea remain elusive for now. Still, US Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent said he would meet his Chinese counterparts in Stockholm next week for talks, as a separate mid-August deadline approaches for US levies on Beijing to snap back to steeper levels. Elsewhere in Asia, Hong Kong built on its 2025 surge to hit its highest level since late 2021, while Shanghai, Sydney, Singapore and Taipei were also well up. Seoul was flat and Wellington dipped. The advances came after a broadly positive day on Wall Street where the S&P 500 hit another peak but the Nasdaq snapped a six-day streak of records. Eyes are also on the release of earnings from Google parent Alphabet and other tech giants including Tesla and Intel. - Key figures at around 0200 GMT - Tokyo - Nikkei 225: UP 2.7 percent at 40,868.01 Hong Kong - Hang Seng Index: UP 0.6 percent at 25,287.68 Shanghai - Composite: UP 0.5 percent at 3,599.20 Dollar/yen: DOWN at 146.50 yen from 146.66 yen Tuesday Euro/dollar: DOWN at $1.1740 from $1.1755 Pound/dollar: DOWN at $1.3525 from $1.3532 Euro/pound: DOWN at 86.80 pence from 86.84 pence West Texas Intermediate: UP 0.3 percent at $65.52 per barrel Brent North Sea Crude: UP 0.3 percent at $68.79 per barrel New York - Dow: UP 0.4 percent at 44,502.44 (close) London - FTSE 100: UP 0.1 percent at 9,023.81 (close) dan/mtp