Republicans Underperform Again

By Sniffles

Pundit World wasn't paying much attention to yesterday's special election in Ohio's sixth Congressional district, but we cats were. We wrote Postcards to Voters on behalf of Mike Kripchak, the Democratic candidate, to fill the remainder of Republican Bill Johnson's term until November. (Bill Johnson resigned to become head of Youngstown State University, complicating Mike Johnson's life by making his House majority even narrower than it already was.)

The sixth district is deeply red. Benedict Donald won it in 2020 by nearly 30 points. But as the Postcards people pointed out, "Anything is possible in a special election if we mobilize our voters." How true that was: The GOP candidate, Michael Rulli, won by nine percentage points — well below his expected margin.

You might say, nine points is a lot. Yep. But Rulli's saggy showing should be keeping Republicans up at night. He won key counties in the district by margins that were eye-poppingly smaller than Trump's were four years ago. For example, Rulli won Noble County by 28 points (compared with Trump taking it by 63). Benedict Donald carried Washington County 70 percent to 29 percent in 2020 — Rulli only won it by just 53 to 47. And Democrats absolutely dominated the early and mail-in vote.

(Side note: It would be fascinating if a dedicated and smart political journalist would check how much of Rulli's money — of which he had vastly more than Kripchak did — went for TV and consultants, and how much for grass-roots organizing. But sadly, that kind of journalist doesn't seem to exist anymore. Still, we can dream, can't we?)

This fall, we'll be throwing our big-dollar donations at House races that are closer than OH-06. But with Rulli and Kripchak set to face off again on November 5 for a full term, make no mistake: Kripchak and Ohio Democrats have their playbook ready, and we'll be writing more postcards. After all, anything is possible. We cats PURR.