Donald Trump has won Ohio — and its 18 electoral votes — according to multiple national news outlets.
Trump has been leading in Ohio polls relatively consistently since mid-September, but the race was not without intrigue. Despite lagging in the polls and deprioritizing the state earlier on, Hillary Clinton made a final push in the Buckeye State, with campaign appearances and increased Ohio-focused advertising.
Early voting carried Barack Obama to victory in Ohio in the 2012 election. And while early voting got off to a slow start in 2016, Democratic counties like Cuyahoga (home to Cleveland) and Franklin (home to Columbus) picked up the pace in the final days before the election, giving the Clinton campaign some promise in the final weeks.
But it was not enough. Despite a determined Clinton ground game, Ohio’s demographics proved enthusiastic for a Trump win. Ohio has grown disproportionately whiter, older, and less educated than the rest of the nation, and Rust Belt Republican voters have seemingly subscribed to the economic and trade anxiety heightened by the Trump campaign. That hasn’t always been the case in Ohio — the white population is less Republican than the demographics imply, and combined with an active African-American population in 2012 it let Obama defeat Mitt Romney by 3 points.
Ohio has traditionally voted with the winning candidate. It has consistently since 1964; Obama won the state in both 2012 and 2008, George W. Bush took it in 2004 and 2000, and Bill Clinton won in 1996 and 1992. No president since John Kennedy in 1960 has won the presidential election without Ohio on his side. But Ohio’s importance as a swing state seemed to fade this year; based on the electoral map and early voting numbers, Trump’s win in Ohio doesn’t necessarily break the election for Clinton.
The win will likely be a blow for Ohio governor and former Republican presidential candidate John Kasich, however, who has made his disapproval of the GOP’s nominee public. Kasich said he voted for John McCain, the Republican Party’s 2008 nominee for president, instead.
Kasich beat Trump in his own state during the primaries, but clearly Ohio Republicans weren’t willing to abandon Trump in the general election.
