Danny O'Connor has won the Democratic nominations for Congress in Ohio's 12th District, and will participate in both a special election in August and general election in November. Troy Balderson has claimed the Republican nomination for both, as well.
Ohio's 12th District is one of two open Congressional races this year, and drew a large slate of contenders. Ten Republicans, seven Democrats and a Green Party candidate were listed on the May 8 ballot. Ohio's 12th District stretches from Delaware County north to Mansfield, and east to Newark and Zanesville.
Tuesday saw two primaries going on simultaneously: One for the special election to fill the rest of former Rep. Pat Tiberi's term, and one for the general election to fill next year's term.
With 100 percent of precincts reporting, Balderson kept a slight lead over Melanie Leneghan in the general election primary: 19,274 to her 18,497. That's a margin of just over 1.1 percent.
But the special election primary remains even closer. There, Balderson has fewer than 700 more votes than Leneghan, a margin of just 0.04 percent.
"I was prepared for this," Balderson said late on Tuesday. "I knew it was gonna be a hard fight, and we've known that all along."
Now both candidates have not one but two elections to prepare for.
"It’s gonna be a sprint," O'Connor said. "August is only, I think, 13 weeks away, just about three months. So we’re gonna be out there working hard every single day."
Balderson is also focusing on the special election.
"Let me talk about August 7. Let’s talk about November later," Balderson said. "I kind of wanna take one step at a time and I wanna focus on August 7, that’s our next target."
Below, find the results for the unexpired term primary and the general election primary by party.
Unexpired Term Primary
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General Election Primary
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