Ohio Senate

2020 Election Update

Heading into the 2020 election, Republicans controlled the Ohio Senate 24 to 9. Democrats lost one seat (SD 32) for a net loss of one seat; Republicans now control the chamber 25 to 8. EveryDistrict endorsed Joel O’Dorisio (SD 2), Crystal Lett (SD 16), and Tom Jackson (SD 24).

The below table shows 2020 and 2018 election results for the Ohio Senate. The LDI scores are for the 2020 cycle. EveryDistrict will release new scores and district rankings after the redistricting process.

2018 Election Update

After the 2016 election, Republicans controlled the Ohio State Senate 24-9. In the 2018 election, Democrats gained one seat and lost one seat, resulting in no change in the partisan composition of the Ohio State Senate.

Democrats flipped SD 3 and lost SD 33. EveryDistrict identified four other seats on the ballot as competitive and endorsed candidates in those four districts: Paul Bradley (SD 5), Sharon Sweda (SD 13), Louise Valentine (SD 19), and Lauren Friedman (SD 29).

Understanding the Map

EveryDistrict’s Legislative District Index (LDI) is the gold standard of state legislative competitiveness. Our LDI ranks state legislative districts on a scale from 100 to -100, using statewide elections data. Districts with a score of 100 would vote for statewide Democratic candidates by an average of 100 points (with the Democratic candidate receiving 100% of the vote); districts with a score of -100 would vote for statewide Republican candidates by an average of 100 points (with the Republican candidate receiving 100% of the vote). For a more realistic example, a district with a score of 10 would vote for statewide Democratic candidates by an average of 10 points (meaning we would expect the Democratic state legislative candidate to win with 55% of the vote compared to the Republican winning 45% of the vote).

After the 2018 election, EveryDistrict reviewed and enhanced our LDI system, improving the accuracy of the metric with new methodologies and the most recent electoral data.

For more information about EveryDistrict’s LDI, please click here.