Rep. Jennifer Gross (R-West Chester) is seen previously speaking to the House Health Committee. Photo: The Ohio Channel

Landon Meador, 23-year-old Democratic opponent to incumbent State Rep. Jennifer Gross (R-West Chester) conceded defeat to his opponent, with results from the Akron Beacon Journal showing he had lost to Gross 38.2% to 62.5%

Announcing the end of his campaign on Twitter, Meador wrote “While we did not have the perfect night– we have continued to speak on the change Ohio first would do.”

That Tweet, sent at 9:42PM was then deleted.

On Facebook, Meador professed his gratitude to everyone who got his campaign off the ground, writing “We want to express our immense gratitude for the poll workers, pages and volunteers during this election season. We couldn’t have made it to today without you all!”

Rep. Gross, at the time of publication, has not posted about her campaign’s victory on social media.

Since being elected in November of 2020, Gross has remained undefeated. She held a 27-point lead over her Democratic opponent Chuck Horn on election night in 2020 and was comfortably reelected in 2022 with 66.2% of the vote.

Gross has built quite a reputation in the Ohio Statehouse. She championed anti-vaccine legislation, advocated for giving the legislature sole authority over interpreting Ohio’s abortion amendment and sought to eradicate the commercial activity tax. She’s also tried to cast witches out of the Ohio Statehouse.

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Formerly represented by George Lang, House District 45 is located in the solidly Republican Butler County, which has only once voted for a Democratic presidential candidate in the past 70 years. Locally, a Democrat hasn’t been elected to a General Assembly seat in Butler County since 1970.

Meador, a 23-year-old recent graduate of Northern Kentucky University, hoped to break that trend as the Democratic candidate running against Gross in November. CityBeat sat down with Meador to talk about his goals for strengthening small businesses, capping tuition costs for healthcare workers and making state politics more transparent. Read CityBeat’s interview with Meador here.

This article appears in Oct 30 – Nov 12, 2024.