A special election for Ohio's 12th congressional district was held August 7, 2018, following the resignation of Republican

U.S. Representative The United States House of Representatives, often referred to as the House of Representatives, the U.S. House, or simply the House, is the lower chamber of the United States Congress, with the Senate being the upper chamber. Together they c ...

Pat Tiberi Patrick Joseph Tiberi (; born October 21, 1962) is an American lobbyist and politician who served as the U.S. representative for from 2001 to 2018. His district included communities north and east of Columbus. He is a member of the Republican ...

. The Republican Party nominated State Senator

Troy Balderson William Troy Balderson (born January 16, 1962) is an American politician and businessman serving as the U.S. representative from Ohio's 12th congressional district since 2018. He served as an Ohio state senator representing the 20th district fro ...

for the seat while the Democratic Party nominated Franklin County Recorder Danny O'Connor. Balderson led O'Connor in preliminary results; however, the race was not officially called on election night. Constantly updated Counting of outstanding ballots began on August 18 and was completed on August 24. The outstanding ballots did not change the margin enough to trigger an automatic recount, so Balderson was declared the winner on August 24.

Background

On October 19, 2017, nine-term incumbent Republican Representative

announced that he would leave office before January 31, 2018, in order to lead the Ohio

Business Roundtable The Business Roundtable (BRT) is a nonprofit lobbyist association based in Washington, D.C. whose members are chief executive officers of major United States companies. Unlike the U.S. Chamber of Commerce, whose members are entire businesses, BR ...

. On January 3, 2018, he announced that he would officially resign January 15. On January 5, Ohio Governor

John Kasich John Richard Kasich Jr. ( ; born May 13, 1952) is an American politician, author, and television news host who served in the U.S. House of Representatives from 1983 to 2001 and as the 69th governor of Ohio from 2011 to 2019. A Republican, Kasic ...

set the primaries for the special election for May 8, and the general election for August 7. The winner of this special election would serve for five months until January 2019, unless also elected in the regularly scheduled November general election.

Ohio's 12th congressional district Ohio's 12th congressional district is a United States congressional district in central Ohio, covering Delaware County, Morrow County, and Licking County, along with parts of Franklin, Marion, Muskingum, and Richland counties. The distric ...

at the time was located in the central portion of the state and included all of

Delaware Delaware ( ) is a state in the Mid-Atlantic region of the United States, bordering Maryland to its south and west; Pennsylvania to its north; and New Jersey and the Atlantic Ocean to its east. The state takes its name from the adjacent Del ...

Licking Licking is the action of passing the tongue over a surface, typically either to deposit saliva onto the surface, or to collect liquid, food or minerals onto the tongue for ingestion, or to communicate with other animals. Many animals both gro ...

, and

Morrow Morrow is a word meaning "the next day" in literary English. It also means "morning" in archaic English Morrow may also refer to: Places in the United States and Canada United States * Morrow, Arkansas *Morrow, Georgia * Morrow, Louisiana *Morr ...

counties as well as portions of Franklin,

Marion Marion may refer to: People *Marion (given name) *Marion (surname) *Marion Silva Fernandes, Brazilian footballer known simply as "Marion" *Marion (singer), Filipino singer-songwriter and pianist Marion Aunor (born 1992) Places Antarctica * Mario ...

, Muskingum, and Richland counties. The district had been in Republican hands for all but one term since 1939, and without interruption since 1983.

Republican primary

Candidates

Nominee

, state senator

Eliminated in primary

Kevin Bacon Kevin Norwood Bacon (born July 8, 1958) is an American actor. His films include the musical-drama film '' Footloose'' (1984), the controversial historical conspiracy legal thriller '' JFK'' (1991), the legal drama '' A Few Good Men'' (1992), t ...

, state senator *Lawrence Cohen, accountant *Jon Halverstadt, real estate investor *

Tim Kane Timothy Joseph Kane (born April 28, 1968) is an American economist who is the President and Founder of The American Lyceumwww.theamricanlyceum.orga 501(c)(3) organization seeking to promote solution-focused, civic debate. Kane was the JP Conte ...

, economist, former air force intelligence officer *Melanie Leneghan, Liberty Township Trustee *Pat Manley, architect *Carol O'Brien, Delaware County Prosecutor

Declined

Andrew Brenner Andrew O. Brenner (born January 14, 1971) is a U.S. Republican party politician and member of the Ohio Senate, currently serving his second term for the 19th Senate District. Biography In 2010, former Representative Kris Jordan moved to the Ohi ...

, state representative (running for state senate) *

Anne Gonzales Anne Gonzales (born August 12, 1963) is a former member of the Ohio House of Representatives, representing the Nineteenth District between 2011 and 2019. She is a realtor and an Executive Director for Vision Professionals Board. Career Gonzale ...

, state representative (running for state senate) *

Governor A governor is an administrative leader and head of a polity or political region, ranking under the head of state and in some cases, such as governors-general, as the head of state's official representative. Depending on the type of political ...

and former U.S. Representative *Clarence Mingo, Franklin County Auditor (endorsed Kevin Bacon) *

J. D. Vance James David Vance (born James Donald Bowman, August 2, 1984) is an American venture capitalist, author, and politician who is a United States senator-elect from Ohio, elected in 2022. A member of the Republican Party, he came to prominence with ...

, author and venture capitalist

Endorsements

Polling

Results

Democratic primary

Candidates

Nominee

*Danny O'Connor, Franklin County Recorder

Eliminated in primary

*Ed Albertson, businessman and nominee for OH-12 in

2016 File:2016 Events Collage.png, From top left, clockwise: Bombed-out buildings in Ankara following the 2016 Turkish coup d'état attempt; the Impeachment of Dilma Rousseff, impeachment trial of Brazilian President Dilma Rousseff; Damaged houses duri ...

*Jackie Patton, nurse *John Peters, special education teacher *John Russell, farmer and nominee for State Representative in 2016 *Zach Scott, former Franklin County Sheriff *Doug Wilson, health care professional

Withdrew

*Crystal Lett, healthcare advocate

Declined

*Jeremy Blake, Newark city councilman (running for state representative) * Jay Goyal, former state representative and small business owner

Endorsements

Results

Independents

Candidates

Withdrawn

*Jonathan Veley, attorney

General election

Candidates

(

Republican Republican can refer to: Political ideology * An advocate of a republic, a type of government that is not a monarchy or dictatorship, and is usually associated with the rule of law. ** Republicanism, the ideology in support of republics or agains ...

), state senator *Joe Manchik (

Green Green is the color between cyan and yellow on the visible spectrum. It is evoked by light which has a dominant wavelength of roughly 495570 nm. In subtractive color systems, used in painting and color printing, it is created by a combi ...

), small business owner *Danny O'Connor ( Democratic), Franklin County Recorder

Predictions

Endorsements

Polling

Results

O'Connor dominated the district's portion of Franklin County, home to the largest share of the district's population. However, he could not overcome a 4,800-vote deficit in normally heavily Republican Delaware County, the largest whole county in the district. Still, this was the closest that a Democrat had come to winning the district since 1982.

County results

References

External links

Troy Balderson (R) for CongressJoe Manchik (G) for CongressDanny O’ Connor (D) for Congress
{{2018 United States elections Ohio 2018 12 Ohio 2018 12 2018 12 Special Ohio 12 Special United States House of Representatives 12 Special United States House of Representatives 2018 12 August 2018 events in the United States