4:15
There seems to be an assumption out in Punditry Land that this will be a safe seat for the GOP in 2022 – an open seat because of the somewhat dubious belief that Ohio has turned red. Red now; red forever.
Assumptions, though, are dangerous things in politics. Events intervene. Stuff happens. What looks like a sure thing now may not be so certain in 2022.
Still, there's no doubt that Republicans should be optimistic.
Last November, Donald Trump won Ohio by eight percentage points – the first time since 1960 that Ohio did not go to the winner of the presidential election.
The Ohio GOP has skunked the Democrats in non-judicial statewide contests for over a decade, with the lone exception being the senior senator from Ohio, Sherrod Brown.