The 2016 United States Senate election in Ohio was held November 8, 2016, to elect a member of the United States Senate to represent the State of Ohio, concurrently with the 2016 U.S. presidential election, as well as other elections to the United States Senate in other states and elections to the United States House of Representatives and various state and local elections. The close of registration for electors in the primary election was December 16, 2015, and the primary election took place on March 15, 2016. Incumbent Republican U.S. Senator Rob Portman faced former Democratic Governor Ted Strickland. Green Party nominee Joseph DeMare was also on the ballot along with two other independent candidates and one officially declared write-in candidate. Initially, the seat was viewed by many to be a potential Democratic pickup, but Portman ultimately won reelection to a second term by a landslide, winning 58.03% of the popular vote. His popular vote total of 3,118,567 is the second largest in the state's history, falling 346,084 votes short of George Voinovich's record of 3,464,651 in his 2004 reelection to his second and final term.
Republican primary
Senator Rob Portman ran for re-election to a second term in office. He considered running for president in 2016, but ruled out running for two offices at the same time, even though Ohio law does allow it. He ultimately declined to run for president. The National Organization for Marriage and other socially conservative groups, unhappy with Portman's public backing for same-sex marriage, pledged to back a primary challenger. Tea Party groups, who heavily backed Portman in 2010, said that they were unlikely to do the same if he runs for re-election.
Ted Strickland, former governor of Ohio and former U.S. Representative
Joe DeMare, factory worker and environmentalist
Scott Rupert, truck driver and candidate for the U.S. Senate in 2012
Tom Connors
James Stahl
Endorsements
Debates
Predictions
Polling
Hypothetical polling
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Results
By congressional district
Portman won 13 of 16 congressional districts, including the 13th, which Hillary Clinton also won in the presidential race.
District
Portman
Strickland
Representative
60%
36%
Steve Chabot
65%
31%
Brad Wenstrup
36%
59%
Joyce Beatty
69%
26%
Jim Jordan
66%
30%
Bob Latta
66%
29%
Bill Johnson
66%
29%
Bob Gibbs
72%
24%
Warren Davidson
43%
51%
Marcy Kaptur
60%
36%
Mike Turner
22%
73%
Marcia Fudge
62%
34%
Pat Tiberi
48%
46%
Tim Ryan
61%
34%
David Joyce
61%
34%
Steve Stivers
62%
32%
Jim Renacci
Analysis
Despite being seen early on as a tight race, Portman began to gain the upper hand as Strickland's campaign was said to be the worst he had ever run. Portman received the endorsements of many labor unions including the Ohio Teamsters and the United Mine Workers Union, both of which usually endorsed Democrats. In the end Portman ended up winning in a landslide, the only region where Strickland outperformed Hillary Clinton was in Appalachia, but his performance there was still disappointing for an area he used to represent in Congress.
