If Sherrod Brown loses, what's next for the Ohio Democrats?

[SnowLabrador]

In my view, it's going to be difficult for the OH Dems to come back from the complete conquest of all statewide offices by the GOP. Trends in the state look pretty grim; no young Democrats want to move to Ohio, not that I blame them. It's hard for me to see them winning another statewide race until the next realignment given 2022. What do you all think?

[Progressive Pessimist]

Just trying to keep the congressional districts they have, or trying to get one born out of fairer maps.

[wnwnwn]

Try to win back some Cleveland area suburbs and NW Ohio. In other words, try to keep in the long term those two swingy CDs.

[Badger]

Try to win back some Cleveland area suburbs and NW Ohio. In other words, try to keep in the long term those two swingy CDs.

Look at the rural counties where Obama at least performed well against Romney in 2012 even if he lost. Places like scioto, ross, pike, other appalachian, etc. We don't need to flip those counties blue, but we can't lose them by a three to one or even two to one margin either when Obama lost these places by single digits

[Bleach Blonde Bad Built Butch Bodies for Biden]

Go back to looking like the party of working-class people of all backgrounds, because like it or not the perception isn't there right now.

If not that, I don't know. Get used to losing elections, I guess.

[wnwnwn]

Go back to looking like the party of working-class people of all backgrounds, because like it or not the perception isn't there right now.

If not that, I don't know. Get used to losing elections, I guess.

DNC can´t control what the activisat left push, unless you want a New Dealer dictadorship with chairman Fetterman. Surely not.

[Bleach Blonde Bad Built Butch Bodies for Biden]

Go back to looking like the party of working-class people of all backgrounds, because like it or not the perception isn't there right now.

If not that, I don't know. Get used to losing elections, I guess.

DNC can´t control what the activisat left push, unless you want a New Dealer dictadorship with chairman Fetterman. Surely not.

The DNC can't control what activists do, no. But they can run a campaign that's not just "We're better than the other guy."

[Vice President Christian Man]

Try to win back some Cleveland area suburbs and NW Ohio. In other words, try to keep in the long term those two swingy CDs.

Look at the rural counties where Obama at least performed well against Romney in 2012 even if he lost. Places like scioto, ross, pike, other appalachian, etc. We don't need to flip those counties blue, but we can't lose them by a three to one or even two to one margin either when Obama lost these places by single digits

This is a very underlooked point. People like to blame historically Dem areas like the Cleveland exurbs and Youngstown, but the map speaks for itself.

[Oryxslayer]

Fight to ensure the fair maps amendment gets implemented in full. It's impact on the state legislature would give them necessary breathing space.

[kwabbit]

Retain their current congressional seats and wait for a map that allows them to get the North Columbus metro district that would exist in a fair map. They aren’t going to win the state back anytime soon, but they are developing a geography advantage in the state at least.

[Sir Mohamed]

Just trying to keep the congressional districts they have, or trying to get one born out of fairer maps.

This, and maybe Dems have a shot winning the governorship during a R midterm with a strong candidate and a weak opponent. Still a longshot at best though. Dems only controlled the Gov's chair for 4 years since 1991.

Feels like the real realignment in OH (and IA) was actually the 2014 election.

[Del Tachi]

Go the way of the Missouri or Iowa Democrats.

[President Johnson]

Just trying to keep the congressional districts they have, or trying to get one born out of fairer maps.

This, and maybe Dems have a shot winning the governorship during a R midterm with a strong candidate and a weak opponent. Still a longshot at best though. Dems only controlled the Gov's chair for 4 years since 1991.

Feels like the real realignment in OH (and IA) was actually the 2014 election.

They're not winning back the governorship any time soon, if I had to bet.

However, I think Ohio is still more competitive than Iowa these days. The latter is just totally gone.

[GM Team Member and Deputy PPT WB]

Try to win back some Cleveland area suburbs and NW Ohio. In other words, try to keep in the long term those two swingy CDs.

Look at the rural counties where Obama at least performed well against Romney in 2012 even if he lost. Places like scioto, ross, pike, other appalachian, etc. We don't need to flip those counties blue, but we can't lose them by a three to one or even two to one margin either when Obama lost these places by single digits

yeah, this is one of those things that Fetterman was focused on which helped him. The swings weren't huge, maybe 5 points, and more in the areas around Pittsburgh, but that adds up.

[ProgressiveModerate]

In addition to what people have said about getting fairer maps, I would also add try to maintain a decent geographic distribution of voters.

recent Dem gains in Ohio have been disproportionately concentrated in suburban communities, and suburban communities are really the only swingy parts of Ohio at this point - there are no bluer rural communities left and the urban cores are obviously deep blue. Even if the GOP gains further statewide by juicing greater margins out of rural OH and closing the gap a bit in some urban non-white areas, if Dems continue to juice up suburbs, they might actually be able to gain a bit of ground in the state legislature, and break the supermajority.