CLEVELAND — President Trump defeated Joe Biden in Ohio Tuesday, which granted him 18 electoral votes in the battleground state.
3News spoke to both sides regarding the elections in Ohio and what is next in the Buckeye State. That includes David Pepper, Chairman of the Ohio Democratic Party.
"It's disappointing," Pepper admitted. "I would have loved to turn Ohio blue for Joe Biden, but given how close it is nationally and in these other swing states, in the big picture, I think this is where Ohio falls.
"We obviously did everything we could, but it wasn't as if Ohio was at the center of the priority map for the Biden campaign. I am proud that we, until the very end, had Donald Trump worried about Ohio. He was literally here with a week to go."
Lisa Stickan, Chairman of the Republican Party of Cuyahoga County, says she was confident the president would take Ohio going in.
"We had a general sense of how things were going on the ground within the state," she said. "I know early on in the night there was some hope within some Democrat circles about Ohio, but I think given where we knew the votes were still within the state and even in Cuyahoga county, President Trump met his numbers; did a little better actually, a point or two."
Stickan says she is pleased with the outcome, especially during a pandemic.
"You saw a lot of people in line on Election Day, so there was excitement throughout the state," she said. "[Republicans in Ohio] had a plan, they worked the state very hard, they stuck to their plan, they made those voters contacts, and you can’t substitute that. There's no substitute for hitting the ground, getting literature out, and knocking on doors before the pandemic and then ever after they were still trying to meet voters in the way voters were comfortable."
So what's next for the state?
"We kept control of the [Ohio] Supreme Court with Justice [Sharon L.] Kennedy's victory," Stickan explained. "I think also what's next, in two years we have a governor's race. I think it's going to be another exciting election year and cycle for Ohio Republicans."
And for the Democrats?
"What's next is the opportunity to end gerrymandering, the system where they create districts or the politicians create districts they cannot lose," Pepper said. "[It] is a poison on our politics, and by electing Jennifer Brunner [for] Supreme Court, we think we just took a big step on eliminating gerrymandering in the state forever."