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

U.S. Representative The United States House of Representatives is a chamber of the bicameral United States Congress; it is the lower house, with the U.S. Senate being the upper house. Together, the House and Senate have the authority under Article One of th ...

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 A state senator is a member of a State legislature (United States), state's senate in the bicameral legislature of 49 U.S. states, or a member of the unicameral Nebraska Legislature. History There are typically fewer state senators than there ...

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

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

Ohio Governor The governor of Ohio is the head of government of Ohio and the commander-in-chief of the U.S. state's Ohio National Guard, military forces. The officeholder has a duty to enforce state laws, the power to either approve or veto bill (proposed law ...

John Kasich John Richard Kasich Jr. ( ; born May 13, 1952) is an American politician and author who was the 69th governor of Ohio from 2011 to 2019, a member of the U.S. House of Representatives from 1983 to 2001, and a Republican candidate for the pre ...

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 List of United States congressional districts, congressional district in central Ohio, covering Athens County, Ohio, Athens County, Coshocton County, Ohio, Coshocton County, Fairfield County ...

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

Delaware Delaware ( ) is a U.S. state, state in the Mid-Atlantic (United States), Mid-Atlantic and South Atlantic states, South Atlantic regions of the United States. It borders Maryland to its south and west, Pennsylvania to its north, New Jersey ...

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, and

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counties, as well as portions of Franklin,

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, 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. Known for various roles, including leading man characters, Bacon has received numerous accolades such as a Golden Globe Award and a Screen Actors Guild Award. Bacon made his featu ...

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

Tim Kane Timothy Joseph Kane is a Visiting Fellow at the Hoover Institution at Stanford University and professor of economics at the University of Austin (UATX). He served as a U.S. Air Force intelligence officer with two overseas tours of duty. Kane c ...

, economist, former Air Force intelligence officer *Melanie Leneghan, Liberty Township trustee *Pat Manley, architect *Carol O'Brien, Delaware County Prosecutor

Declined

* Andrew Brenner, state representative (running for state senate) * Anne Gonzales, state representative (running for state senate) *

governor A governor is an politician, administrative leader and head of a polity or Region#Political regions, political region, in some cases, such as governor-general, governors-general, as the head of a state's official representative. Depending on the ...

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

J. D. Vance James David Vance (born James Donald Bowman, August2, 1984) is an American politician, author, attorney, and Marine Corps veteran who is the 50th vice president of the United States. A member of the Republican Party, he represented Ohio in ...

, 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 2016 was designated as: * International Year of Pulses by the sixty-eighth session of the United Nations General Assembly. * International Year of Global Understanding (IYGU) by the International Council for Science (ICSU), the Internationa ...

*Jackie Patton, nurse *John Peters, special education teacher *John Russell, farmer and nominee for

state representative A state legislature is a legislative branch or body of a political subdivision in a federal system. Two federations literally use the term "state legislature": * The legislative branches of each of the fifty state governments of the United St ...

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), 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 com ...

), 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 in the United States