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For the first show of this big election year, the leaders of the state's two major political parties share their thoughts.

That's this week in the state of Ohio.

Welcome to the state of Ohio.

I'm Karen Kasler.

After a primary in May this fall, Ohio is among the 36 states that will decide on a new governor and Ohio's special election to fill a U.S.

Senate seat with a term that expires in 2028 is among the 35 states with Senate races.

Along with that, this fall's election will include the four executive offices of Attorney General, auditor, Secretary of state and treasurer.

Two seats on the Ohio Supreme Court.

The entire Ohio House, 17 of the 33 seats in the Ohio Senate.

And all ten Republican congressmen and five Democratic members of Congress from Ohio.

Under a new map approved in October.

My state House news Bureau colleague Joe Ingles talked about the upcoming elections with both party chairs in December.

First, Kathleen Plied, who took the role of Ohio Democratic Party chair in June.

Since then, she's talked about reaching out to Democrats throughout the state who have not turned out in urban areas and lost in landslides and rural counties.

So we have staff on the ground now connecting with voters.

And a key part of that is the messaging, that we're doing, we are trying to meet voters where they are at events and community gatherings with our organizing staff, but also on digital spaces, social media, nontraditional media through the media.

And our message is, is pretty simple.

We're talking about the need to bring costs down for working families in Ohio, the importance of affordability.

Again, whether it be your energy bill, your groceries or, your health care costs, Democrats are focused on affordability.

And Republicans in Ohio and in Washington have done nothing to address that crisis.

We're laser focus on it.

And that's what our message is.

All about.

Clyde said there is a Democratic Party presence in all 88 counties, though not all counties have an ODP office.

And the party's relatively new rural caucus is working in those areas.

Here's more of their conversation.

What is the big message going into next year?

Is it Trump?

Is the economy?

Is it something else?

It's affordability.

It's keeping costs low.

It's it's being focused on what Ohioans need.

And what they need is a party and the candidates to be focused on bringing the cost of living down, or focus on rising energy bills, on rising costs of groceries, on the health care affordability crisis.

Again, it all revolves around affordability and keeping costs low.

And that's that's what our message will be.

Focus on.

It is now and it will be heading into next year.

Many in your own party have been critical lately, saying Democrats don't have enough fight in them that they're not having the vision for big, bold changes.

What about that criticism?

I mean, just look at the elections that we saw last month.

We saw huge victories from our mayors who are leading our cities, city councils, school boards, talking about the importance of, supporting public education.

They fought hard.

We saw wins all over the state.

We saw wins across the country.

And I'm not concerned about Democrats not having fight.

And, we are fighters and we're fighting for Ohioans and for bringing costs down for all Ohioans.

You're going to need a lot of foot soldiers next year.

Going into the elections, what are you doing to ensure that you have enough volunteers on the ground in the right places on the ground and, that that will be willing to work for the candidates and the causes?

One of the things we're doing, and, I know I'm coming back to it over and over, but our staffing levels are high, and we did not want to take our foot off the gas.

We were doing a lot to support thousands of local races that were on the ballot, a month ago.

And we are just going to keep pushing forward, and grow our team rather than contract after an election or not focus on an election, some call off year election to us.

Those are critically important races.

We also, have seen a lot of momentum and energy on the volunteer front.

We had over, 3000 people, sign up in different ways, to volunteer this year ahead of next year, which is, you know, usually a higher interest level type of election.

So we're going to keep that momentum going.

We're engaging, with those, volunteers.

And we're excited to sign up even more next year.

The Ohio Republican Party has endorsed Vivek Ramaswamy.

They did that may will you be endorsing Amy Acton before the primary?

We are, evaluating what we can do.

Our party, unlike the Republican Party that, you know, goes into a back room and has their musical chairs and does a very early, endorsement process, we, like to see, open primaries and engagement, because it looks like we will not have a contested primary.

We may be doing a pre primary endorsement.

We have, we won't be doing it in our, upcoming meeting.

But I think that we are going to consider doing that.

We are supporting our Democratic candidates, short of that official endorsement.

But I would expect we may do some endorsements before, the May primary.

Stay tuned.

So the first part of next year, then?

Yeah, it would be in the first quarter of next year.

We're looking at setting up a screening committee for endorsements.

So we'll have a process, that will engage our entire, statewide Central Committee.

And, I am betting that we will do a pre primary endorsement, certainly in the uncontested, races, to do everything that we can to support, our candidates in primaries where the primary isn't really an issue.

All right.

Let me ask you this.

Are you thinking that it's a good thing for the party now that there's not going to be a contested race for governor?

And, you know, especially since this is going to be an expensive race and Vivek Ramaswamy will have a lot of money.

I am excited about the candidates, that we have on our ticket, especially Amy Acton and Sherrod Brown leading our ticket.

They are strong candidates.

You know, Amy has is a doctor.

She is not your typical politician.

She comes from a background where she really understands what our working families in Ohio are facing.

And then Sherrod Brown, I've.

I've never known such a fighter for workers and for working families in Ohio.

They both are, great candidates to lead our ticket.

And I'm excited that we can gather behind them and, be unified as we head into next year.

And the all important elections that will be next November.

You still don't have candidates for auditor and governor, for auditor and treasurer.

Tell me about that.

Are you are you close to getting some or.

Yeah, we we're excited about the conversations that we're having there now that our ticket is, you know, sorted out at the top.

I'm expecting that we'll be hearing those announcements soon.

The people that we're talking to are excited about what we're seeing at the top of the ticket and the momentum that Democrats saw in the last election, both here in Ohio and nationally.

And I'm confident that we'll have a strong slate of candidates, ready to go for the filing deadline and very soon, up and down the ticket.

Okay.

Soon is, kind of a weird word.

So does soon mean to you by the end of the year, does it mean, January?

What is soon mean?

Well, the filing deadline is in February, so it will certainly be before that.

And I you know, I don't want to put an exact date on it, but again, I am very confident that we will have a strong ticket, going into next year.

We have excited Democratic voters.

We have, a lot of great people that are looking at it and, you'll hear directly from them.

That's the other part is the party doesn't again, control the exact, announcement and launches of candidates.

We work to support that.

We're working to recruit, and soon enough, you'll you'll have the full list of names, and it's going to be a great slate.

Okay.

Soon enough is probably the best I'm going to get.

Yes.

Okay, so you've said Ohio Democrats are headed for their best election year.

Since 2006.

Republicans have won 82% of statewide candidate elections since 1994.

There's only one statewide Democrat in office right now.

And while there are signs that Democrats nationally will do well in the midterms next year, what are you seeing that gives you hope that Ohio Democrats will do well, too?

Well, I sure do.

Well, well, first of all, we have a lot of great elected Democrats in Ohio.

We have great Democrats in our legislature.

We have Democrats leading our cities, as county officials.

So we're not concentrated in the statewide, offices or the state House itself.

But, again, we have a strong group of leaders, across our state.

This is a huge opportunity for us.

Again, we are facing, I think, a historically weak opponent on the Republican side in the back room, a swami who has called Ohio workers lazy and mediocre and flies around the state on his private jet, and is more interested in serving the billionaires and special interests than our candidates who are focused on working families and working Ohioans.

We saw the momentum across the country.

This is a year like, we saw in 2018 and 2006 where we're we have an unpopular Republican administration, in Washington, and we have open races in the statewide seats.

These opportunities don't line up this way all the time.

But, this is a huge opportunity for us, again, having Sherrod at the at the top of the ticket with Amy Acton, right, is, again, sort of just a great line up and I think a historic opportunity for Democrats to take back our statewide offices and be part of the effort to take back the U.S.

Senate in the U.S.

House.

That path goes right through Ohio in 2026, and we are going to be ready.

Ohio Republican Party chair Alex Trent, who is starting his third year in that office while he's leading a party that's dominated Ohio politics since the 1990s.

He said he knows there are splits and disparate views among the state's GOP voters, which could make a difference this year.

on my, my greatest challenge, frankly, as a party leader, is to kind of keep these disparate, views within our party moving in the same direction.

Look, we're blessed by great success in the state, but but none of us and I can tell you from myself to to our elected leadership, in this state, take anything for granted.

2026 promises to be a challenging year.

It's a a classic midterm cycle for the party in power.

We've we've been, you know, I've done this a long time at this point in my life, and I've seen this before.

So, all those things are wonderful that you talked about, but none of them are, are the future for us.

For us.

It's, it's it's getting out, getting our voters turned out.

Joe, that's our major focus, is making sure that the, the turnout of Republicans matches or comes close to matching the turnout of 2024.

If we turnout our voters, we should be successful and continue to do the things that we've done, which are largely dominate the state politically.

drown out the feelings that the Ohio Republican Party has a goal of winning 80% of the vote in 80 counties, and that the party will talk about reforming property taxes, even as the effort to abolish property taxes has been moving because of conservative groups.

Here's more of my Statehouse News Bureau colleague Joe Ingles conversation with him.

Farmers say they've been hurt by tariffs that much of the federal government, it's farmers say they've been hurt by tariffs and that they've been hurt so much that the federal government is providing $12 billion in subsidies to help them.

Many farmers say they're grateful for those subsidies.

And it will help them stay afloat, but they really don't want to depend on subsidies.

Farmers, tend to strongly support Republicans.

What are you hearing from them and what can Republican leaders do to make sure farming, which serves a vital purpose in our country and in Ohio, is able to survive and thrive?

I think, first of all, I think the subsidies are a critical component to letting, a new reality set in and that is in America is going to have, a fair playing field for our products to sell internationally.

And that's been a problem for a long time.

Maybe President Trump, really since long before he was president, talked about this ripping off of America.

And if one stops and sees the kind of reception that our products have gotten internationally, he's been right on this issue.

So tariffs have been a change.

Certainly that's going to require some short term growth here for our farming community.

But ultimately, when our markets are more open to Ohio farmers and their products, I think you're going to see the farming community continue to do well in the state.

And I think these the short term subsidy that you're seeing from the president, recognizes that these tariffs have to take effect.

So that we have a more level playing field internationally for all of our products.

Health care has been a big ticket item.

The big beautiful bill which Republicans pushed through and was signed by President Trump earlier this year.

It reduced funding for people who buy health insurance on Obamacare, as Republicans have nicknamed it, or the Affordable Care Act.

What do you whatever you want to call it?

But now, at but now is there's a call to fix it.

Some Republicans are coming around to either supporting a short term fix on that, or they're proposing ideas of their own.

Traditionally, Republicans have been against public health care options outside of Medicaid and Medicare, and Republicans have fought for decades against universal health care, have fought to weaken the Affordable Care Act.

Many people say they need government to pitch in to help afford health care because it's so expensive.

Community hospitals say they need it.

As the head of the Republican Party, what are your thoughts?

Yeah, my thoughts are overwhelming, candidly, because I've done this for a long time.

And, I was a chairman in a different place and a warrior for the Republican cause when Obamacare became law in this state, and we warned about the very things that we're seeing now, I'll bam, Obamacare did extend care to some a small segment of Americans.

It drove up the cost of health care for everyone else.

I mean, the one thing that I think needs to be said very clearly is that Obamacare has been a failure.

It's been a failure passed by Democrats.

So we now, as Republicans, are in a situation of having to remedy this failure that was passed again on a party line vote by Democrats.

That being the case, recognizing that we also, especially under President Trump and his leadership in terms of talking more to our grassroots, the folks in a state like Ohio need to speak clearly about what we need to do, what we need to do.

And Alex's view, and again, I'm not a legislator, is make, health care way more affordable, not focus on large profits for big insurance companies.

That's a change of tone for Republicans, Joe.

Right.

I mean, for a long time, Republicans were tied so much into the business community that large profits were just part of it for us.

We should be talking about affordability for everyday care.

We should be talking about, implementing and bringing those capitalist free market principles of competitiveness to the question of health care.

So you have more flexibility and lower prices.

And look, I'm not an expert on health care by any stretch.

But I think if you look at the basic core principles of the Republican Party, which are to have a capitalistic approach that, brings free market principles into the conversation that will drive down the cost of everything.

Again, you look at every service that you get from Amazon to Fedex to, to Costco.

The more competition you have in the market, the better the prices are for you and the more choices that you have.

So if we as Republicans stick to our core principles on this question and bring that competitive, very pro-American competitive spirit to the question of health care, it will make it better and easier for all Americans to be to to receive quality care.

Let's talk about, the big issue of affordability.

Ohioans all over the state say they're having problems making ends meet.

President Trump and Republicans are blaming Democrats for that.

But, Trump has even called the affordability, quote, a Democratic hoax.

But Republicans were elected last year in large part because, people felt like they wanted a fix for the economy.

And, they've been in charge.

The Republicans have been in charge for a year, and we still hear Ohioans saying they can't afford basic needs.

So how do you, as the leader of the party, go about trying to message one that I hear differently candidly?

I mean, I filled up my my tank with gas on my way up from Cincinnati earlier this week at $2.34.

That's a dramatic decrease from where it was even a year ago.

The price of eggs in my neighborhood, in the western part of Hamilton County and Cincinnati have come down so much of this week when President Trump talks about a hoax, I think he's talking about some of the messaging that's coming from the Democrats.

Look, affordability has been a problem because, Joe Biden passed a gigantic spending, inflation, producing bill that flooded our country with a lot of money.

And, it drove up the cost of everything.

The other thing that President Biden did is they restricted energy costs.

So I drove up the cost of everything.

These problems are not going to be solved overnight.

Affordability is a problem.

We recognize that as Republicans.

And if people expect an overnight fix, it's not going to happen.

But the trend lines are exactly where they need to be.

You know, these tariffs that we've already talked about, some are already bringing in record amounts of money.

I think Americans are going to see a huge tax cut in the first quarter of 2026.

You're going to have bigger refunds than you've ever seen.

So when you again, the federal government sending you a lot more of your hard earned money back, that's going to make it easier and more affordable for you to buy the things that you need.

Our solutions are real.

They'll work.

The affordability problem is a Biden creation and that Republicans are, I think, working overtime to fix.

And we hear a lot about this question, but I will tell you that what I'm not hearing as much of is what I heard even a year ago.

Again, whether it's the price of eggs or groceries or fuel, the average day to day cost of things for Americans is coming down.

Okay.

How do you how how much do you think the affordability issue wades into?

What's going to be very important?

Yeah.

Look, I mean, I it's very real.

Like, you know, I grew up a very working class.

My father was a union auto worker.

And, you know, I remember the inflation of the the Jimmy Carter era as a young kid.

And these are things I know well about.

And, we should be talking about affordability.

We should talk about, talking about making things affordable for middle class people in Ohio.

And so, yeah, it's a major political issue, and we should keep talking about our solutions to it and point out what caused it and what caused it was, Joe Biden and the Democrats blowing the cover off their budgets and spending too much money and driving up the cost of everything in this country.

Ohio Republican Party has endorsed its top candidates, including Vivek Ramaswamy for governor.

He's the former Doge leader, a Trump endorsed business entrepreneur.

He's going up against Doctor Amy Acton, former Ohio health director who many in the business community have opposed for shutting down businesses during the height of the Covid pandemic.

In fact, Ohio Republicans, including yourself, have referred to her as locked down Amy or doctor locked down.

Amy.

There is some polling, though, that shows Ohioans don't hold her decisions during the pandemic against her and Republicans.

What makes Republicans believe that the pandemic from five years ago is going to be a point that's going to be, against her.

We're going to remind Ohioans about Amy Acton's failures, and, we're going to make sure they understand that she has no leadership of any significant, companies, government agencies.

She's just not ready to be governor in the state.

But Vache Ramaswamy is a better topic for me.

I prefer to talk more about Vivek only because I know him well.

I've known him since he was a young man.

It's a longer story than we have time for me to tell you, but Vivek is a self-made guy.

I grew up in a middle class family, in, suburban Cincinnati.

Spent his first, formative, early years.

And I'm in a public school system, went on to an incredible business career.

He may be the single brightest person that we've ever had.

Run as a Republican.

He's an expert orator.

In addition to that, the grassroots energy we experienced under Vivek Ramaswamy as a party is off the charts.

He is ready to lead on day one.

He's a man of ideas and energy and enthusiasm.

He's a far better cabinet than Amy Acton will remind voters about, what Amy Acton did in her tenure, the short tenure that she had in government.

But she's not ready to lead.

Vivek Ramaswamy, last question.

Next year, there's talk of a blue wave for Democrats nationally.

What do you think about Ohio?

Well, we see a blue wave in Ohio.

No, we won't see a blue wave in Ohio.

But I was honest with you earlier about our assessment of this.

We take nothing for granted in this state.

We've got to just keep doing what we know how to do, and that is turn out our voters and talk to our voters about why our solutions make the most sense.

And contrast that against a very different vision from a pretty extremist Democratic Party.

Next week, the two candidates in the U.S.

Senate race, incumbent Republican John Husted, the former lieutenant governor and Democratic challenger and former U.S.

Senator Sherrod Brown.

And that's it for this week, for my colleagues at the Statehouse News Bureau of Ohio Public Media.

Thanks for watching.

Please check out our website at State news.org or find us online by searching.

State of Ohio show.

Stay in the know by registering for Ohio State House alerts through this QR code, or by texting state news to this number.

And you can also hear more from us on our podcast.

The Ohio State House scoop every Monday morning.

Thanks for watching.

Happy 2026.

And please join us again next time for the State of Ohio.

You.

Support for the Statehouse News Bureau comes from Medical Mutual, dedicated to the health and well-being of Ohioans, offering health insurance plans, as well as dental, vision and wellness programs to help people achieve their goals and remain healthy.

More at Med mutual.com.

The law offices of Porter, right, Morris and Arthur LLP.

Porter, right, is dedicated to bringing inspired legal outcomes to the Ohio business community.

More at Porter.

Right.

Com Porter Wright inspired every day.

You know, Ohio Education Association representing 120,000 educators who are united in their mission to create the excellent public schools.

Every child deserves more at o h e talk.