Ohio Democratic Party Chair Kathleen Clyde used a baseball metaphor to describe the scenario facing Democrats this November.
Addressing attendees at the state party’s annual fundraising dinner in Columbus Saturday night, she said the upcoming election is like a Cleveland Guardians player stepping up to the plate in the ninth inning with a chance to be a hero.
“We haven’t won yet. But we’re at bat and the bases are loaded,” Clyde said, addressing hundreds who filled a ballroom in the Columbus Convention Center. “Let’s hit a grand slam.”
Like the long-suffering Guardians, Ohio Democrats are in the midst of a prolonged period without much success. Unfortunately for the metaphor’s sake, the Guardians also have a long history of falling short in the biggest moments. Still, the notes Clyde and other Democrats sounded Saturday night were the most convincingly optimistic the party has sounded in years as they hope to benefit from voter dissatisfaction over the rising cost of living and the traditional mid-term backlash against Republican President Donald Trump.
Democrats are trying to rebound from their lowest point: the 2024 presidential election. Longtime party standard-bearer Sherrod Brown lost his U.S. Senate seat to Republican Bernie Moreno that year as Donald Trump was reelected to the White House while winning by double digits in Ohio. Brown’s the party’s Senate nominee again this year, and was among the speakers Saturday night.
“There’s so much excitement in this room tonight,” Brown said to cheers from the audience. “I feel the same enthusiasm in our cities. I feel the same enthusiasm in our suburbs. I feel it in farm country, and we see people showing up like never before.”
Ohio Supreme Court Justice Jennifer Brunner is the only remaining Democrat to hold a statewide office. Serving as a warm-up speaker Saturday, she described her lonely status on the court.
“I have been holding my finger in the dike,” said Brunner, “and I’m waiting for my colleagues to get here.”
Brunner is being challenged this November by Republican Colleen O’Donnell, while Democratic appellate judge Marilyn Zayas is challenging Republican Justice Dan Hawkins.
Ohio Democrats digging out of a hole
Since Trump emerged as the country’s dominant political force a decade ago, Ohio has shifted from the quintessential presidential swing state to a Republican stronghold.
But polling shows Brown and governor nominee Amy Acton running head-to-head with their Republican opponents this year. Even though political polls have consistently undermeasured Republican support in Ohio over the past decade, Democrats have been encouraged nonetheless, especially as nonpartisan analysts have reassessed Ohio’s governor and U.S. Senate races as toss-ups rather than likely Republican wins.
In her own speech Saturday, Acton, the former state health director under outgoing Republican Gov. Mike DeWine, said Republican Vivek Ramaswamy and his allies have spent tens of millions of dollars on attack ads targeting her since March.
They “haven’t moved the needle,” Acton said, alluding to polls that suggest the race is tied.
“It’s actually driven his negatives up more,” Acton said, using political polling jargon that references how positively or negatively voters view a political candidate. “And right now guys, the gloves are definitely off.”
Acton went on to rip Ramaswamy as a self-interested billionaire, criticizing him for spending tens of millions of his own money on his campaign and referencing the tens of millions a pro-Ramaswamy political action committee has raised from Elon Musk and other billionaires.
“All of us in this room, and everyone we know, we’re linking arms. We’re pushing back. And we are going to tell Mr. Ramaswamy in no uncertain terms: You cannot buy this state,” Acton said.
The pro-Ramaswamy ads have portrayed Acton as erratic and unqualified, saying she made incorrect statements about the COVID-19 pandemic during the early months of the 2020 pandemic as DeWine’s health director. DeWine, who has endorsed Ramaswamy, has said Acton provided him with good advice, and that he alone is responsible for his administration’s decisions.
In line with the attacks, Ramaswamy’s campaign manager, Jonathan Ewing, mocked Acton on social media Saturday night over a photo that showed her reading off a teleprompter. In another post, he referenced a 2019 incident in which police were called to Acton’s home after she got in an argument with her husband, an episode that has been a staple of the anti-Acton attack ads this year. The Ohio Republican Party chimed in: “Wow. Amy Acton won’t take public questions and can’t speak without a teleprompter.”
Possible 2028 contender stumps for Brown
The headlining speaker on Saturday was Arizona U.S. Sen. Mark Kelly, who spent the weekend campaigning with Brown. Kelly, a former NASA astronaut and Navy pilot who was reelected in 2024, has expanded his national profile since Trump called for his arrest and execution over a post in which Kelly encouraged military members not to follow “illegal orders” – which the president and his allies viewed as treasonous.
“Donald Trump said I should be hanged, executed, prosecuted,” Kelly said. “I mean, this guy can’t even get the order right. And then, and then he tried to indict me and put me in jail. But really, all of the bull—t was not about me. It’s about silencing people who are willing to speak out.”
Kelly appeared with Brown in Cincinnati and Cleveland over the weekend, and told the audience he hopes his “friend” will return to the Senate.
“He’s always fought for better health care, for fair wages, and protections for Ohio families with courage and conviction. God knows we need more of that in Washington right now,” Kelly said.
National Republican Senatorial Committee spokesperson Nick Puglia issued a statement about Kelly’s visit: “Sherrod Brown fought for open borders alongside radical leftists like Mark Kelly for 32 years in Washington, and now they want to raise Ohioans’ taxes to give free healthcare to illegal aliens.”
This story originally appeared at signalohio.com.