In this week's episode of Snollygoster, Ohio's politics podcast from WOSU, hosts Mike Thompson and Steve Brown discuss the results of the special election that decided candidates for Ohio's two vacant congressional seats.
Two Steps Forward, One Step Back To Masks
Ohio State and some other companies are again requiring everyone to wear a mask inside as they try to prevent Ohio from becoming Louisiana.
If you look at COVID hotspots, Louisiana and other southern states are burning red. Not surprisingly, those are the states with the lowest vaccination rates.
Ohio is seeing on average between 1,500 and 2,000 new cases a day, nearly 10 times the number of new cases we were seeing a month ago.
There are signs that vaccination rates are up about 30%.
MAGA And Moderates Win Ohio
Two congressional districts held special primaries to take a step toward filling vacant seats this week.
In Central Ohio, voters picked party nominees for the 15th district seat which was once held by Steve Stivers. In Northeast Ohio, voters are looking to replace 11th district congresswoman Marcia Fudge who left office to be President Biden’s housing secretary.
In the 15th district, coal lobbyist Mike Carey topped a field of 11 GOP candidates. He beat out two sitting state senators and a sitting state rep and a former state rep, all candidates who are better known than him. But he had the one thing they did not, the Trump endorsement, and more importantly, Trump PAC money which bought TV and digital ads in the last days of the campaign.
On the Democratic side, State Rep Allison Russo of Upper Arlingtonwon the Democratic primary, easily beating retired army officer Gregg Betts.
In the 11th district, which is twice as blue as the 15th district is red, Shontel Brown beat former State Senator Nina Turner. Brown is the chair of the Cuyahoga County Democratic Party and was the “establishment” Democrat. Turner was the candidate of the Progressive left and had the support of Bernie Sanders and Alexandria Ocasio Cortez.
Send questions and comments to snollygoster@wosu.org.
