I remember during the campaign ohio democrats were super happy and excited about their bench saying that it was one of their greatest ever but when election day came only brown won in fact democrats fell short in all of the other races what happened? was Cordray a bad candidate or was the states Republican trend too strong?
Cordray underperformed in areas that he needed to win to win Ohio.
Rural Appalachian like Southeast Ohio was a rare bastion of support for the democrats in comparison to the farmlands of western ohio despite both being socially conservative. But that bastion finally realigned to the republicans with Trump winning high margins when Obama got 40%+ in many of those counties. And they turned out far far less for Cordray than they did for Strickland.
Along with the metropolitan areas of Dayton, Mahoning, The area from Toledo to Cleveland.
What really helped the republicans is that Kasich's governorship was associated with a huge recovery and people didnt felt a need to vote for a democrat say the way that Michigan did(especially since Ohio is more rightwing than Michigan that went to Trump by a handful of votes). FYI: The economy of the midwest except for Minnesota, Iowa and Indiana to a lesser extent has been in a precarious state since friggin 2000 due to deindustrialization.
