Well the 2016 election is finally over, after a year and a half of campaigning. Donald Trump won Ohio and its 18 electoral votes. Donald Trump received 52% of the vote and Hilary Clinton got 44%. The Presidential race did not turn out the way that many people thought it would. When looking at a county level map of Ohio, Hilary only won 7 counties and yet received 44% of the vote, this is clearly due to the large population centers that are near Cincinnati, Columbus and Cleveland. Trump won in Ohio by 8.5%, a margian that was larger even than polls that came from the Trump administration. Trump won Ohio by getting the vote of the rural areas, and the areas that have many frustrated layed off union workers. Trump won by appealing to the emotions on sensitive topics, and the slogan "Make America Great Again" really took hold in Ohio. I am interested to see what the next four years bring, much of his campaign I heavily agree with, though I am very reserved on if I think he can do any of it or not.
http://www.chroniclet.com/elections/2016/11/11/Democratic-GOP-leaders-in-Ohio-digest-election-results.html
Political Geography 446: Ohio
Sunday, November 13, 2016
Thursday, November 10, 2016
Ohio Election Results
Well, Donald Trump is President. Didn't see that one coming. However, Ohio went as expected.
For the Presidential race, I thought it would be closer, but Donald Trump did win. Trump won over 52% of the votes, Hillary won about 43.5%, with the other 4.5% or so going to the third party candidates.
The Senate race went as expected, with the Republican incumbent Rob Portman winning in a landslide over the Democrat Ted Strickland.
In the House of Representatives races, 12 districts went Republican while 4 went Democrat. The same distribution as before the election, with the districts staying with the same party.
As far as state legislative elections go, the Republicans cleaned house, winning 2/3rds of the state representative seats and claiming all but 2 of the 16 senate seats up for grabs
This is a perfect example of the effects of gerrymandering. The Presidential race shows the legislatures should have stayed Republican, but not by such a wide margin. The state is much more evenly split than is represented by the legislative bodies make up.
For the Presidential race, I thought it would be closer, but Donald Trump did win. Trump won over 52% of the votes, Hillary won about 43.5%, with the other 4.5% or so going to the third party candidates.
The Senate race went as expected, with the Republican incumbent Rob Portman winning in a landslide over the Democrat Ted Strickland.
In the House of Representatives races, 12 districts went Republican while 4 went Democrat. The same distribution as before the election, with the districts staying with the same party.
As far as state legislative elections go, the Republicans cleaned house, winning 2/3rds of the state representative seats and claiming all but 2 of the 16 senate seats up for grabs
This is a perfect example of the effects of gerrymandering. The Presidential race shows the legislatures should have stayed Republican, but not by such a wide margin. The state is much more evenly split than is represented by the legislative bodies make up.
Thursday, November 3, 2016
Polls Widen, Clinton Attempts to Rebound
Polls are obviously just polls, but their importance to how candidates campaign cannot be stressed enough. The Trump campaign has spent a lot of time in Ohio recently, and coincidentally, he has seen a bump in the polls in Ohio. Hillary, not so much, but she is pulling out all the stops now. From artist Jay-Z, to Reverend Jesse Jackson, to Hollywood star Mellie Grant, and President Obama; they are putting a vast amount of their resources into Ohio at the moment. The Trump campaign has one of his sons there currently, and his schedule has openings, but it is unclear how much time he will spend there through Tuesday to combat the Clinton Campaigns efforts to reclaim Ohio.
Ohio may be leaning Trump, but this fall has been a very close back and forth. Really, at this point, it is looking like every day, every event, and every bit of news on both of the candidates could send the votes one way or the other.
Meanwhile, the Republicans still have the senate race locked up, like they have since mid July.
sources:
http://www.realclearpolitics.com/epolls/2016/president/oh/ohio_trump_vs_clinton-5634.html
http://www.realclearpolitics.com/epolls/2016/senate/oh/ohio_senate_portman_vs_strickland-5386.html
http://www.ohio.com/news/politics/local/campaigns-rap-preach-and-rally-in-ohio-on-final-days-of-presidential-election-1.723994
Tuesday, November 1, 2016
Ohio State Overview
https://docs.google.com/presentation/d/1NZfpGjZLcCNeUzI_nYSalsTqIsoXMhOlPkEMQ3QYZZw/pub?start=true&loop=false&delayms=3000
Monday, October 31, 2016
Ohio GOP Efforts at Voter Suppression could help Donald Trump's Chances of Winning Ohio
If the
Trump campaign did not believe they could win Ohio, then Donald would not be
spending so much time there. Ohio has been a critical state throughout this election
and it will continue to be a state to watch as the election draws closer. In
order for Trump to win, democratic voters would have to stay home and Trump
would have to be able to pull the votes from Republicans that are on the fence.
There have been times that Ohio voters thought the Democratic candidate would
win by a landslide and in turn they don’t show up to vote. This election is
different than virtually every other election before. Trump is losing in some historically
Republican suburbs.
The
southwestern corner of the state of Ohio will be a good indicator of who will
end up winning Ohio. This is a key area to watch on election night because there
are many voters on the fence. This election is shaping up to be much close than
it appeared it was going to be two weeks ago. The resurfacing of more emails
and a new investigation is overshadowing the controversial comments from Trump
last week. In turn the polls have Trump gaining momentum. Things are looking to
be pretty tight in the upcoming week, with Election Day just around the corner,
things are far from over.
Monday, October 24, 2016
Gerrymandering in Ohio
With the state of Ohio back in play for Hilary Clinton and the Democrat after Republican Donald Trump's precipitous fall from the top of the polls, many in the Democratic party were hoping to see a gain in seats. Due to extreme gerrymandering, do not hold your breath Democrats. Richard Gunther who is a professor emeritus at the Ohio State University says that the Buckeye State has a special place in politics, ranking third out of 50 states for worst examples of gerrymandering (Pennsylvania and Virginia are ranked ahead for the dubious distinction). A great stat that shows the ridiculous lines that have been drawn is that "While Republican congressmen received 52 percent of the vote in 2012, Gunther said, they received 75 percent of the seats in the state". Even with high turnout, Democrat voters have little chance of swaying elections already predetermined.
This sad trend is likely to play out across the country and it will only be magnified in the battleground state of Ohio. I find it really interesting that both John Kasich, the GOP governor, and the Republican Secretary of State want to see gerrymandering as a thing of the past. I think that a lack of competitive House races is partially a reason we see such polarized positions in the current political sphere. It will be interesting to see if there will finally be a push to end this practice that belongs in the annals of history.
Something to keep an eye on is if Clinton is able to drive high voter turnout in places like Cleveland and Columbus to win Ohio. If there seems to be a decisive Democratic victory for the presidential race in the state with little change to the House structure, will there be a more public outcry to change redistricting laws? It will also offer more proof for those trying to make that claim there is indeed still systematic racism with practices such as gerrymandering that reduce minority voter power.
http://www.dispatch.com/content/stories/local/2016/10/23/election-2016--ohio-incumbents-are-shoo-ins-thanks-to-district-maps.html
This sad trend is likely to play out across the country and it will only be magnified in the battleground state of Ohio. I find it really interesting that both John Kasich, the GOP governor, and the Republican Secretary of State want to see gerrymandering as a thing of the past. I think that a lack of competitive House races is partially a reason we see such polarized positions in the current political sphere. It will be interesting to see if there will finally be a push to end this practice that belongs in the annals of history.
Something to keep an eye on is if Clinton is able to drive high voter turnout in places like Cleveland and Columbus to win Ohio. If there seems to be a decisive Democratic victory for the presidential race in the state with little change to the House structure, will there be a more public outcry to change redistricting laws? It will also offer more proof for those trying to make that claim there is indeed still systematic racism with practices such as gerrymandering that reduce minority voter power.
http://www.dispatch.com/content/stories/local/2016/10/23/election-2016--ohio-incumbents-are-shoo-ins-thanks-to-district-maps.html
Sunday, October 23, 2016
60 Minutes "Out of Touch" vs. "Far Detached"
This week I
decided to take a different angle at the upcoming presidential election. As I
was siting in my living room after the Patriots vs. Steelers games, a 60
minutes special involving the looming election came on the air. The show was
overall very unbiased; it showed and interviewed supporters from both sides. The segment had the goal of figuring out which
candidate is more out of touch with reality. The state of Ohio has picked the
winner of every election since 1964, and no Republican has won an election
without taking Ohio, and this is why Ohio is so influential at this time. The latest
poll has Hilary and Trump in a dead heat coming into the final two weeks.
Interestingly they interviewed a
couple that had different political views, the wife supported Hilary and the
husband a Trump supporter. The husband was a steel worker who lost his job when
the mill shut down; he believes that Donald Trump will bring back the jobs to
the state of Ohio. In contrast his wife believes that Donald is nothing but
talk and she believes that Hilary can bring back the jobs just the same. I
found it interested that one of the men stated that Hilary was too far detached
from what they are going through in Cleveland, he pointed out that Hilary was
wearing clothes that cost more than what he would make in a full years work at
the mill when he still had his job. All in all it was a very interesting clip
that shows that many people support each candidate for many different reasons,
and for right or for wrong, it will make for an interesting race in Ohio.
http://www.cbsnews.com/news/60-minutes-ohio-voters-donald-trump-hillary-clinton/
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