The Ohio Democratic Party on April 11 officially endorsed former Ohio Gov. Ted Strickland in his campaign for U.S. Senate, tilting the party’s primary further away from Strickland’s primary opponent Cincinnati City Councilman P.G. Sittenfeld.
The announcement comes as Strickland and Sittenfeld continue to square off over who will represent Democrats in a vital U.S. Senate race next year.
The endorsement wasn’t entirely unexpected. Strickland has statewide name recognition, polling that shows him trouncing incumbent Republican Senator Rob Portman by nine points at this early point in the campaign and the endorsement of former president Bill Clinton.
But the endorsement stings all the same for Sittenfeld, who has outraised Strickland so far in the campaign. Despite raking in more than $750,000 for his campaign to Strickland’s $670,000 in the first three months of this year, the 30-year-old Sittenfeld is fighting an uphill battle against a far more established and experienced fixture in the state’s Democratic Party.
At a recent board meeting for Ohio Democratic delegates, Strickland said that experience makes him the superior candidate.
“This isn’t a Little League baseball game,” Strickland said, according to the Cincinnati Enquirer. “This is a U.S. Senate race.”
Sittenfeld announced his campaign Jan. 22. Many in the party initially assumed he would drop out if a senior figure like Strickland jumped in, but when the former governor announced his campaign Feb. 25, Sittenfeld held fast — to the chagrin of some in the party.
Either Strickland or Sittenfeld will have a challenge ahead in taking on Portman, who has the weight of the dominant Ohio Republican Party on his side and the advantages of already holding the office. Though some political analysts have predicted a primary challenger from the right for Portman, who has expressed support for same-sex marriage after his son announced he was gay, none has emerged yet. Meanwhile, Portman has raised $2.75 million this fundraising period, bringing his campaign war chest to more than $8 million.
The race is a key one for Democrats looking to take back the Senate after losing control of it to the GOP in the 2014 elections. The party hopes the boost it historically gets from presidential elections will increase its fortunes across the board, erasing some of the gains made by Republicans last year. Ohio’s other senator, Sherrod Brown, is also a Democrat.
This article appears in Apr 15-21, 2015.