At least two races in Northeast Ohio could be impacted by the Ohio Republican Party's decision not to endorse some incumbent Republicans in Statehouse races this year.
The state GOP opted not to endorse nearly two dozen Republican incumbents, a decision stemming from lingering controversy over 2023’s House Speaker vote.
Rep. Gail Pavliga was surprised when she heard the Ohio Republican Party had declined to endorse her run for a third term.
“I think that there is nothing in my record that shows that I have been anything less than common sense and conservative and have built our Republican platform not only here in Portage County but across the state," she said.
Pavliga, who’s in her second term, was one of 22 incumbents that the state GOP did not endorse this year and one of 12 facing challengers.
Pavliga’s actions in the Statehouse show she’s not loyal to the Republican party, said Heidi Workman who's challenging Pavliga in the primary. Workman calls herself a conservative grassroots organizer and says Pavliga’s actions in the Statehouse show she’s not loyal to the Republican party.
“It was a deep betrayal of the Republican voters who elected a supermajority Republican House," she said.
The betrayal? Last year, Pavliga joined Democrats in voting for Rep. Jason Stephens to serve as Speaker of the House. Stephens beat fellow Republican Rep. Derek Merrin, who was selected after an informal caucus vote.
The action by the state Republican party not to endorse candidates like Pavliga has the potential to move this party infighting from the Statehouse to the frontlines of local elections. And Workman’s campaign shows she feels that deeply.
“It is a battle between whether our Ohio House of Representatives stays blue or turns back to red the way the voters elected it to be," she said.
In other words, in Workman’s opinion, Republican representatives siding with Democrats in the speaker race turned the Statehouse to Democratic favor, despite Republicans holding a supermajority. She’s not the only candidate in Northeast Ohio vying to defeat an incumbent Republican who feels that way. Daycare owner Gary Fox is running against Rep. Sharon Ray in Medina County.
“In our district, we have a Republican representative that is first not representing our district well in general and certainly not upholding Republican values, conservative values as far as governance goes," he said.
Unlike Pavliga, Ray did not vote for Stephens for Speaker, yet the state party deemed her too close to the Speaker and his political team, because she accepted the role of Assistant Majority Whip.
"It was a resounding rebuke to her partnering and working with Democrats now very openly," Fox said.
A state party not endorsing its own incumbents is rare, Stephen Brooks with the Ray C. Bliss Institute of Applied Politics at the University of Akron said. But infighting like this can happen when a party holds a supermajority in a legislative branch.
“In politics, you kind of always have to have a battle," he said, "and if you don’t have the Democrats to worry about then the fighting moves inward.”
He’s not sure if the lack of endorsements will have an impact on what voters think about when they cast their ballots.
“If they are not endorsing in that kind of a race, it is more just a statement to say we’re not pleased with what’s going on," Brooks said.
That’s what incumbents Pavliga and Ray think too, they said. Pavliga's record in the House instills confidence in her constituents, she said.
“I think they take the actions of their representative and their ability to deliver on their promises that they have made to the county," she said, "and I think overall people are much more interested in what I am able to accomplish for them.”
Pavliga also took office during a red wave in Portage County, beating incumbent Rep. Randi Clites in 2020 and former Rep. Kathleen Clyde in 2022.
"I have defeated two high-level Democratic challengers in the last few years," Pavliga said, "and we would never want to risk this seat to somebody who is not a proven winner that can defeat Democrats in this race."
Nathaniel Adams, a research assistant at State and Federal Communications, is running unopposed in the Democratic primary for Pavliga's seat.
Pavliga still has the backing of the National Rifle Association, Buckeye Firearms Association and more than 30 Portage County officials, she said.
“We’ll also make note that my opponent was also not endorsed by the Ohio Republican Party either," she said.
Ray's constituents know her and what she stands for, she said, and she’s not worried about disapproval by her opponent Gary Fox for working with Democrats.
“There was some criticism that I worked it too well with our friends on the other side of the aisle," she said, "and to that I say, ‘Yes, and I’ll continue doing it.’”
Meanwhile, Pavliga and Ray’s opponents are continuing to pick apart every vote they’ve made and person they’ve aligned themselves with to try to sell them to voters as “bad Republicans.”
"She [Ray] is just not a good Republican," Fox said. "She is not a good representative, and we don't want our name - we don't want our party being associated with her."
But it won’t be until votes are counted on March 19 that the state party will see if their move had an impact on politics at the local level.
