In 2018, Ohio voters split their tickets in a rare political realignment for the state.

Countries & Cities · Published 15 October 2026 · Updated 25 October 2026 Swipe more like this →

In short: The 2018 Ohio gubernatorial election saw Mike DeWine defeat Richard Cordray, marking a significant shift in the state's political landscape. While DeWine secured the governorship, voters simultaneously re-elected Democratic Senator Sherrod Brown, creating a split-ticket outcome that had not occurred in Ohio since 1974.

The 2018 gubernatorial race was a high-stakes contest between Republican Mike DeWine, then the Ohio attorney general, and Democrat Richard Cordray, the former director of the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau. This matchup was a rematch of their 2010 attorney general election, which DeWine had won by a narrow margin of 47.5% to 46.3%. In the 2018 general election, held on November 6, DeWine secured victory with 50.4% of the vote against Cordray's 46.7%, a result viewed by many as a minor upset.

The election results revealed deep shifts in Ohio's political geography. Notably, Cordray became the first Democratic gubernatorial candidate to win Hamilton County, home to Cincinnati, since Dick Celeste in 1982. Conversely, Monroe County, historically a Democratic stronghold, saw a sharp turn to the right, electing a Republican gubernatorial candidate for the first time since 2002. Across the state, DeWine demonstrated broad appeal, winning 12 of Ohio's 16 congressional districts.

The broader context of the 2018 cycle was defined by the simultaneous election of federal and state officials. Because incumbent Republican Governor John Kasich was term-limited, the race for his successor was wide open. The outcome was particularly notable for the split-ticket voting behavior of the electorate. By electing a Republican governor while returning a Democrat to the U.S. Senate, Ohio voters broke a 44-year streak of aligning their gubernatorial and Senate choices with the same party. DeWine and his running mate, Jon Husted, officially assumed office on January 14, 2019.

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