The 2016 United States Senate election in Ohio was held on 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, other elections to the United States Senate in other states, 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, with some early polls showing Strickland ahead, but Portman attained a lead in the summer which grew through the duration of the campaign, and ultimately won re-election to a second term in a landslide, winning 58% of the vote. His 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 set in his 2004 re-election. Despite expanding his margin of victory, he lost Franklin County, a county he won in 2010 and home to the state's capital and largest city Columbus, signaling a long-term shift of this historically competitive county in Ohio elections.
Republican 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.
Portman won 13 of 16 congressional districts, including one held by a Democrat.
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 won 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.
Official campaign websites (archived)