Friends, the Ohio Republican Primary Election was a TREMENDOUS VICTORY for gun voters!
The best news first: more pro-gun candidates won yesterday than in any election since Ohio Gun Owners was started.
So many won, in fact, that we would wager the Ohio General Assembly that starts in January next year could be THE most conservative, pro-gun General Assembly in Ohio history.
But we aren’t gonna’ get ahead of ourselves and start dreaming up what if scenarios… those are already ready to rock!
So let’s get into the breakdown from Tuesday night’s victory:
U.S. Senate
Bernie Moreno, who pledged in writing on the Ohio Gun Owners Candidate Survey his total fealty to gun owners and the 2nd Amendment, DESTROYED gun-grabber Matt Dolan!
Matt Dolan’s career looks like it’ll finally get flushed down the toilet of Ohio history, and that’s where it belongs.
Quite a few OGO members supported Frank LaRose’s bid for the seat, but many relayed to us that the Buckeye Firearms Association’s endorsement of LaRose was the deciding factor in throwing their support to Bernie Moreno.
Bernie’s victory sets the stage for a matchup between him and Ohio’s most notorious gun-grabber, Democrat incumbent Sherrod Brown!
The stakes are high in this one, and the outcome will likely determine the balance of power in the U.S. Senate!
U.S. House
CD09
In Congressional District 9, pro-gun Derek Merrin beat Craig Riedel for the Republican nomination to face Democrat nutjob and gun-control militant Marcy Kaptur in November.
With the Republican majority in the U.S. House of Representatives at its slimmest point in history, Merrin vs Kaptur in Ohio CD09 is easily in the top ten of when it comes to hotly contested districts.
Ohio has a couple of notable members of congress, but none of them have made gun rights or the 2nd Amendment a legislative priority.
Derek Merrin has the potential to change that, and whoever wins this election could very well determine whether the Republicans maintain control next year or if the Democrats retake the majority.
CD13
In Congressional District 13, 100% survey-signer Kevin Coughlin emerged victorious in his Republican primary election against two other candidates and will face off against incumbent Democrat Emilia Sykes.
Like CD9, this district is very evenly split and could go either way.
Of course, Emilia Sykes, the former Minority Leader in the Ohio House, is a militant gun-grabber – and whoever wins could sway the balance of power in Congress!
CD02
In Congressional District 02, candidate David Taylor, who signed OGO’s 2024 Congressional Candidate Survey 100% pro-gun, won the primary and will likely win the seat in November.
Numerous other candidates had also signed OGO’s survey, including fabled former Ohio House Representative and OGO bill sponsor Ron Hood.
Notably, the former front-runner for the district, Ohio State Senator Shane Wilkin, was easily dispatched by Taylor after Wilkin refused to sign OGO’s candidate survey and instead championed his endorsement by the corrupt “Buckeye Firearms Association.”
Ohio House
In District 15, OGO 100% survey-signer Aaron Borowski emerged victorious in his primary and will face off against Democrat Chris Glassburn in this open Cuyahoga County seat.
In District 17, OGO 100% survey-signer Mike Dovilla defeated Gordon Short for the Republican nomination. He will face off against Democrat Jessica Sutherland in this very competitive general election!
In District 46, pro-gun incumbent and 100% survey-signer Thomas Hall TROUNCED his opponent for the Republican nomination and will most likely cruise to victory in November to serve Butler County for another two years!
In District 47, pro-gun candidate Diane Mullins defeated corrupt Sara Carruthers, one of the chief RINO opponents to OGO’s priority legislation, the Ohio Second Amendment Preservation Act.
Carruthers’ political career is now happily interred in Ohio Gun Owners’ political graveyard, which is growing like summer weeds!
Gun owners in Butler County will now enjoy VASTLY superior representation at the Ohio Statehouse!
In District 51, pro-gun challenger Jodi Salvo STOMPED OUT the political career of incumbent Brett Hillyer!
Hillyer was the temporary speaker who held a skeleton session to move HB51 from floor vote eligibility back to the House Rules committee.
In District 54, pro-gun candidate Kellie Deeter won her primary for the Republican nomination and will most likely cruise to victory in the General Election to replace outgoing State Rep Dick Stein!
In District 55, pro-gun candidate C. Michelle Teska cruised to victory in her Republican primary and will go on to easily defeat her Democrat opposition in the November general election!
In District 61, Ohio Gun Owners is very pleased to announce that pro-gun Beth Lear won her primary and will easily cruise to victory in November!
In District 62, SAPA sponsor and pro-gun incumbent Jean Schmidt emerged victorious in her Republican Primary and will easily cruise to victory in November.
We’ll be keeping an eye on her former opponent, Dillon Blevins, as he’s a hard-charging, up-and-coming conservative that we think is going to be around for a while!
In District 65, pro-gun candidate David Thomas bested his opponent for the Republican nomination and will most likely be headed to Columbus next January to replace the outgoing Representative Mike Loychik.
In District 71, OGO member Levi Dean, son of Representative DESTROYED his opposition to secure the Republican nomination!
Levi is the son of current State Representative and OGO bill sponsor Bill Dean and promises to be a pro-gun fighter in Columbus just like his dad!
In District 72, anti-gun incumbent Gail Pavliga was DEFEATED in her Republican primary by pro-gun OGO survey signer Heidi Workman!
Gail Pavliga has been a major obstacle to passing SAPA, and the gun owners in Portage County will be enjoying vastly improved representation at the Ohio Statehouse in 2025.
In District 73, OGO survey signer and incumbent Jeff LaRe emerged victorious in his Republican Primary and will be returning to Columbus next General Assembly.
In District 83, pro-gun candidate Ty Mathews was victorious in his Republican primary and will go on to win in November.
In District 89, pro-gun and 100% survey-signer DJ Swearingen, a staunch defender and advocate for the Ohio Second Amendment Preservation Act, won his primary election!
In District 90, pro-gun incumbent, 100% survey-signer Justin Pizzulli was victorious in his Republican Primary besting two challengers.
Justin Pizzulli is one of only eight Republicans in the Ohio House that has actually cast a YES vote on SAPA in the House Government Oversight Committee!
In District 94, OGO survey-signer Kevin Ritter emerged victorious in his primary and will most likely be heading to Columbus in 2025 to replace the outgoing State Rep Jay Edwards.
And there are PLENTY more unchallenged pro-gun candidates who also were elected last night!
County Sheriffs
The 2024 Ohio Republican Primaries marked OGO’s initial entry into Ohio’s Sheriff Primaries, and our first efforts at mobilizing the gun vote in those races.
It was high time we did, because the lobby association for the sheriff’s has become overrun by metro-county sheriffs who are using the name of their association to try to destroy pro-gun bills.
In Union County, 13 year incumbent and anti-gun RINO County Sheriff Jaime Patton was totally destroyed by challenger and Pro-SAPA candidate Mike Justice!
Jaime Patton was a radical opponent of SAPA, he refused to sign our 2024 Sheriff’s candidate survey, he endorsed gun-grabber Matt Dolan for U.S. Senate and was himself endorsed by Democrat Franklin-county sheriff Dallas Baldwin.
Maybe worse, as Director for the Board of Buckeye State Sheriff’s Association, Patton tried to sabotage HB51 from passing and made it clear that he prioritized the federal monies associated with ATF gun control task forces over the rights of the citizens of Union County!
So MASSIVE congratulations to Union County gun voters!
In Knox County, pro-gun challenger and OGO survey signer Daniel Weckesser emerged victorious in his Republican primary for Sheriff!
Daniel pledged to support your gun rights 100% as county Sheriff and defend your freedoms from tyranny!
Knox county’s current Sheriff, David Shaffer, is also on the Board of Directors of the anti-gun Buckeye State Sheriffs Association – a great flip for Knox County gun owners!
In Henry County, pro-gun candidate Marc Ruskey won the Republican Primary and has pledged his 100% support for your gun rights as County Sheriff! And with no Democrat Sheriff candidate running, Ruskey will be Sheriff starting in 2025.
In Clark County, incumbent Deb Burchett was dethroned by pro-gun challenger and 100% OGO survey signer Christopher Clark!
Of note: Burchett is close political allies with former Representative Kyle Koehler, who sabotaged the Stand-Your-Ground effort in 2020 and who is now trying to make a comeback in the Ohio Senate.
The Official Beginning
As I sit here writing this breakdown, the people I want to thank the most is you, OGO members and supporters.
Because of you and people like you from every corner of the state, this was a WIDLY successful republican primary election for Ohio Gun Owners!
We’ve always said that the Ohio Republican Primaries are when OGO’s grassroots army does their best “lobbying,” and boy did you deliver.
Ohio Gun Owners was outspent by the compromisers and the gun-grabbers by orders of magnitude in these elections, but OGO’s grassroots army is better than every other political force in Ohio, and we proved that when gun voters across the state showed up in a BIG way.
Because of you and your support for Ohio Gun Owners, OGO was able to spend tens of THOUSANDS of dollars exposing anti-gun RINOs and educating gun voters on where their candidates really stood.
But now that the Republican Primaries are over, we are turning our gaze back to the Ohio Statehouse to get House Bill 51, the Ohio Second Amendment Preservation Act moving, and to the General Election on November 5th.
We’ve got a lot of work to do here at OGO when it comes to making forward progress on gun rights in Ohio.
I hope you’ll join with us in that effort by making a VICTORY chip-in contribution today, in honor of all of the success that you and I have enjoyed – and to help us continue fighting for you in Columbus!
This is YOUR victory, and you dang well deserve it.
For Freedom,
Chris Dorr, Director
Ohio Gun Owners