Election Night 2025 may not have been a good night for Republicans, though the races and thus losses were limited to a handful of states. What does that mean for next year with the midterms and statewide races? Is there reason to panic? How will it go in Ohio? With the next Election Day now less than a year away, Ohio candidates on both sides of the aisle are talking about next year.
Perhaps one of the most significant takeaways of Tuesday night was democratic socialist Zohran Mamdani being elected the next mayor of New York City. Ohio Republican Party Chairman Alex Triantafilou wasted no time in linking him to Ohio Democrats, including Dr. Amy Acton who is running for governor, and former Sen. Sherrod Brown, who is eyeing a comeback by running for his old position in 2026.
In a quoted repost of Mamdani “refus[ing] to apologize” for being young, Muslim, and a self-admitted democratic socialist, Triantafilou warned that “this is what [Brown] and [Acton] want to bring to Ohio.”
On Tuesday night, Triantafilou posted his thoughts about whether the elections that took place would affect Ohio. Triantafilou stressed unity around Ohio Republicans, supporting Sen. Jon Husted in his election against Brown, as well as Vivek Ramaswamy, a businessman running for governor.
Triantafilou also brought up speculation that former Rep. Tim Ryan may enter the gubernatorial race to run against Acton in the Democrat primary.
The Daily Signal reached out to the Acton and Brown campaigns for comment regarding Triantafilou’s posts.
An earlier Wednesday morning post mocked as “media spin” the talking point that the blue victories in blue states had meaning elsewhere, including in Ohio, an increasingly red state.
Triantafilou cited the liberals “rooting against” President Donald Trump, also making clear that “that doesn’t mean the inevitable swing of the pendulum isn’t here.” Triantafilou particularly stressed the need to “LISTEN TO VOTERS” to “keep stacking wins,” which he assured Ohio Republicans would do.
The chairman isn’t the only one pointing to Mamdani for political gain. In July, not long after Mamdani won the Democrat primary, a Super PAC supporting Ramaswamy put up billboard ads in New York City inviting disenchanted residents to move to the Buckeye State.
Ramaswamy himself shared his thoughts in a video post on Tuesday night, which did not hold back from touching upon the disappointments for his party. “We got our a**es handed to us in New Jersey, Virginia, and New York City,” he began, as results on the gubernatorial and mayoral races flashed on the screen. “Democrats swept all three,” he reminded, also highlighting “two key lessons for Republicans.”
“Our side needs to focus on affordability,” Ramaswamy listed as the first lesson. “Make the American dream affordable,” he stressed, also calling for the need to “bring down” all kinds of costs, with a need to also “lay out how we’re gonna do it.”
The second lesson, was to “cut out the identity politics,” offering that “it doesn’t suit Republicans, it’s not for us, that’s the woke left’s game, not ours. We don’t care about the color of your skin, your religion. We care about the content of your character. That’s who we are.”
Ramaswamy had campaigned for New Jersey’s Republican gubernatorial nominee, Jack Ciattarelli last month, and posted his support for him over X on Tuesday afternoon as well. According to the Associated Press, with 95% of the votes counted, Ciattarelli trails Democrat Gov.-Elect Mikie Sherrill, 43.2% to her 56.2%.
Acton put out a quoted repost of Ramaswamy’s video message, also stressing affordability. Other posts of hers from Tuesday congratulated Sherrill as well as Gov.-elect Abigail Spanberger in Virginia. “One year until we make history” she also posted, in reference to her own race.
As for the Senate, Husted’s campaign appears to be feeling confident. On Tuesday night, the Team Husted X account posted a reminder about now Republican Sen. Bernie Moreno’s win, after he beat Brown by 3.6 percentage points, or more than 200,000 votes last year.
The gubernatorial race is considered “Likely Republican,” while the Senate race is “Lean Republican” after Brown officially announced in August.
