In the immediate aftermath on Monday of a leaked draft copy of an impending Supreme Court decision to overturn 1973’s Roe v. Wade ruling legalizing abortions, many top Democrats and political prognosticators insisted the Democratic base would be instantly fired up to turn out at the polls and elect pro-abortion politicians in response.
Except, that wasn’t the case in Ohio’s primary election Tuesday, as roughly twice as many Republican voters turned out in comparison to Democratic voters, Breitbart reported.
Separately, the results in Ohio’s open GOP Senate primary contest also knocked flat a prevailing narrative among Democrats and the media that suggested that former President Donald Trump’s influence had waned, as the Trump-endorsed candidate, J.D. Vance, far exceeded expectations and handily won the GOP nomination amid a crowded field of more experienced contenders.
Republicans double-up Democrats for primary elections turnout
According to the Ohio Secretary of State’s website, nearly 1.7 million ballots were cast in Tuesday’s election and, in virtually all of the races held, nearly twice as many of the ballots cast were for Republican candidates as compared to Democratic candidates.
That was particularly evident in the gubernatorial race, where just over a million ballots were spread among four GOP candidate teams while only about 500,000 ballots were cast for a pair of Democratic candidate teams. Incumbent GOP Gov. Mike DeWine received more than 514,000 votes, which by itself was more than the combined total of 502,100 votes for both Democratic candidates.
In the Senate primary, about 510,000 votes were cast for a trio of Democratic candidates while more than 1 million ballots were submitted for seven Republican candidates vying for the nomination to replace retiring Sen. Rob Portman (R-OH).
For what it is worth, GOP winner J.D. Vance received nearly 341,000 votes, about 32 percent of all GOP votes cast, while Democratic winner Rep. Tim Ryan (D-OH) received nearly 356,000 votes or about 69 percent of all Democratic votes cast.
This is not what was expected
Making the shocking disparity in turnout even more compelling in light of the faulty predictions Monday was an analysis from MSNBC showing that Democratic turnout was down roughly 27 percent compared to 2018’s election while Republican turnout was comparatively up by 28 percent over the prior gubernatorial/midterm elections.
NBC’s Steve Kornacki: In Ohio, Democrats saw “turnout DOWN 27% in their primary relative to 2018. On the Republican side, turnout UP 28%.” pic.twitter.com/wskbPeOxmd
— RNC Research (@RNCResearch) May 4, 2022
The Columbus Dispatch also reported on Tuesday’s turnout disparity and put forward a few excuses that were immediately floated by Democrats as explanations for the lack of an anticipated wave of Democratic voters energized by the leaked Supreme Court draft opinion.
Those excuses included a possible lack of enthusiasm for a continuation of Democratic policies as well as a lack of competitive races on the Democratic side of the open primary races. Another possible theory was that some left-leaning independents and Democratic voters cast ballots for Republican races instead of their own in an effort to manipulate the results and pick GOP candidates they believed would be vulnerable in the November general election.
Regardless, Ohio GOP spokesman Dan Luscheck told the Dispatch, “Ohio Democrats’ entire narrative for 2022 fell flat on its face when the primary results came in,” and explained, “One, Ohioans are feeling the impact of (President) Joe Biden’s failed policies, and two, Ohio Democrats have a weak slate of inexperienced candidates who were unable to motivate their voters.”
