Ted Strickland won Ohio’s gubernatorial race in a landslide Tuesday, as Democrats were in position to sweep all five statewide executive offices that Republicans held comfortably for more than a decade.
Strickland easily defeated his Republican opponent Ken Blackwell, who conceded before 9 p.m. when less than one percent of precincts had reported results. By midnight, with 63 percent of precincts reporting, Strickland was leading Blackwell 59 to 38 percent.
Democrats Marc Dann, Jennifer Brunner, Barbara Sykes and Richard Cordray are expected to win the attorney general, secretary of state, auditor and treasurer races, respectively. The Democratic lead in the attorney general and auditor races, however, was so narrow that victories were not declared Tuesday night.
“We are standing at the threshold for a new day for our great state,” Strickland said to a crowd in Columbus during his victory speech. His win comes at a time when Ohio is recovering from scandal and facing a lagging economy.
“Ohio’s challenges are considerable, but I know that our good hearts and our hard work are more than up to the task,” Strickland said. “We can’t tackle our challenges if we are divided.”
He said Ohioans need to work together to build jobs and improve education.
“These are not Democratic or Republican issues only and there are no strictly Republican or Democratic solutions,” Strickland said. “But there are common sense solutions.”
He said he plans to work to keep jobs by “investing in our strengths and bringing jobs of the future by making sure we have the most educated work force possible.”
Despite problems at some polling locations in Cuyahoga County that held election results until after 9 p.m., Blackwell conceded early in the evening after exit polls showed he was trailing far behind.
“We had an opportunity to lead and to stay true to our principles and put our state on a path of economic growth and job creation; and we came up short,” Blackwell said during his formal concession speech in Columbus.
He told Republicans to stay faithful to the principles that have allowed their party to stay in power for 16 years before congratulating Strickland.
“Ted Strickland and his team have run a good race and have won a tremendous opportunity to lead our state to a better quality of life, a stronger economy and much better days,” Blackwell said.
Strickland volunteer Kathy Backmann said her daughter worked every day, 40 hours a week for the past two months making phone calls, sending mailings and doing other tasks for the Strickland campaign.
Backmann said this is the first time she’s been involved with a political campaign. She said she felt very strongly about the elections in Ohio this year, but more specifically for Strickland.
“Our whole country has been going in the a direction we shouldn’t. Now I hope we do it right,” she said.
Lantern staff writers Laura Corry and Molly Wallace contributed to this report.
