David Niven

The Ohio Democratic Party will soon have a new chair. David Pepper resigned last month. Whoever succeeds him will lead a party that has been in the minority at the Statehouse for most of the last 20 years, and in the last decade has not won a state-level office, save for three Supreme Court Justice seats. 

One of the three Democrats who won statewide in Ohio last week, U. S. Senator Sherrod Brown, says he’s thinking about his next step - maybe running for president.  

The latest fundraising numbers show Ohio's gubernatorial race could be the most expensive in the state's history. Republican Mike DeWine raised $2 million in August while Democrat Richard Cordray brought in 1.8 million. That means some competitive races up and down the ticket this fall.

Some political analysts think one Republican lawmaker’s plan to remove the only Democratic Justice on the Ohio Supreme Court could backfire. 

The amount of money being spent by drug companies to defeat Issue 2, the so-called Drug Price Relief Act, has broken the state's record for the most spent on a ballot issue. Backers of that plan have brought in around $14 million so far, but the drug company-funded campaign to defeat Issue 2 has raised $58 million dollars. That big money could yield big results.

Gov. John Kasich has won his first primary, here in his home state. But it’s not plausible that he’ll be able to get enough delegates to win the nomination outright. And his win makes it more difficult for the other two candidates in the race to win the nomination. So what does that mean for the future of the party as the campaigns journey toward the convention this summer in Cleveland?