Only one Democrat remains on the seven-member Ohio Supreme Court after Republicans clinched all three seats and tightened their hold on the court in Tuesday's election.
Coupled with a continued grip on the state's legislature and a flipped seat in the U.S. Senate, political experts say the judicial implications could be great on the state's residents.
"I think the court has lost a tremendous amount of credibility," said David Cohen, a professor of political science at the University of Akron, on the Sound of Ideas, a public affairs radio program. "I don't think that really anybody realistically views the court as an independent branch at this point in Ohio."
Prior to 2022, Ohio Supreme Court justices did not campaign using party affiliations. The shift makes the state one of seven others that now allows judges to run partisan.
Cohen called the court a "political weapon" when considering how party affiliations impact campaign finance and voters.
Cohen said he believes that now with near-total Republican control of the Supreme Court, all voter-backed issues are "at risk." That includes abortion, which Ohioans last year voted to enshrine into the state's constitution.
"[The judges] are simply going to be an organ of the Republican Party and they will be a rubber stamp largely of actions that are taken in the legislature," Cohen said.
At the statehouse, Republicans held onto their majority control.
"We're no longer a battleground state, that's for certain, and I think the most surprising thing about Ohio was the fact that Donald Trump increased his vote margin here to 11 points from eight points in 2016 and 2020 and showed his dominance of the state," Cohen said. "There's a reason that neither presidential campaign campaigned in the state or invested any resources. And I think the election result of a couple of nights ago validated those strategies."
"It'll be complete and total dominance of the Republican Party in Ohio," Cohen said.
Ohioans also elected car salesman and Republican Bernie Moreno to the U.S. Senate, ousting long-time Senator Sherrod Brown, a Democrat who has served in office since 2007. That means for the first time since 2006, both Ohio senators are Republican.
Meanwhile, Gov. Mike DeWine is already fielding calls from potential candidates vying to fill the Senate seat that will be left vacant by Vice President-elect J.D. Vance in January. DeWine's pick, a Republican, will hold the office until a special election in November 2026. The winner will finish out Vance's term through 2028, at which point, another election will be held.
