Democrats are hoping to take back an Ohio House seat in Portage County in this year's election that went red in 2020. The race pits the incumbent Republican against a prominent local Democrat.
Portage County has a history of electing both Democrats and Republicans, but the county went very red in 2020. A Republican won the Ohio House seat that serves only Portage County in a race against the incumbent Democrat, Republicans swept the county commissioners' seats, and the county went more for former President Donald Trump than it did in 2016.
Kathleen Clyde represented the county for eight years in the Ohio House, ran against Frank LaRose for Secretary of State in 2018 and was appointed to fill out the remainder of a term as Portage County Commissioner until 2020 but lost her bid for election to the seat. In her 2018 bid against LaRose to become the state's top election official, Clyde was the Democrat closest to winning a statewide race, losing by only 3%. She decided to run for the Ohio House again after watching the chaos of redistricting, which ended in unconstitutional, Republican favoring maps.
“This is the type of district that Democrats have to win back to restore partisan balance in our statehouse," Clyde said.
If elected, Clyde wants to work to make redistricting fair and nonpartisan in the state.
"We still have opportunities to fix the districts the way we have it now," Clyde said.
She hopes to be able to work with the Ohio Redistricting Commission, which was created by an amendment to the Ohio Constitution in 2015, to fix the maps before trying to pass another ballot initiative to change the system again.
"I'm hopeful that we can keep working with these reforms that we have, and another part of that too is trying to win back some of the districts in the map now," Clyde said. "And this district presents that opportunity."
Facing Clyde is Republican State Rep. Gail Pavliga, who flipped Portage County red in 2020. She’s touting herself as a moderate Republican who’s accomplished a lot in the House during her short tenure.
“And I’m not into bashing anybody, but the thing is you know that I want a fair shake that somebody realizes that as a noncareer politician, I walked into a very, very important job with an agenda in mind, and I’ve accomplished it," Pavliga said.
Her accomplishments include passing bipartisan legislation to address the opioid epidemic, sponsoring a fully funded program for special advocates and getting money in the state budget to open a dental school in Northeast Ohio.
Prior to running for office, Pavliga worked as a licensed therapist, running her own Christian counseling center and teaching at Malone University. She serves as vice chair of the Behavioral Health and Recovery Supports Committee in the House. She worries that if she loses, mental health won't be advocated for as much in the Statehouse.
"We will lose a huge mental health voice, because like I said, I'm that go-to person in the House and the Senate for informed discussion and good bills for that, for mental health, for addiction, for recovery," Pavliga said. "And I take that very seriously."
She said she's spent her time in the House focusing on mental health issues.
"Right now we are concerned about mental health," Pavliga said. "We're concerned about opioids, addiction, recovery and getting good policies and services to be able to address those issues."
Pavliga thinks her track record will win her the vote over Clyde’s years of experience in office.
“Experience in something and accomplishing something are two different things," Pavliga said. "Ms. Clyde is a career politician. She basically has held no job in the last dozen years other than running for office.”
But Clyde says she had many accomplishments during her time in office.
“I got a lot of legislation passed when I was in the House for four terms, working to help families in Portage County, help our school district, helping at Kent State," Clyde said.
Clyde's presence in the community could help mitigate the fact that she's challenging an incumbent, said Stephen Brooks with the Bliss Institute of Applied Politics at the University of Akron.
"With Clyde's experience and I assume her visibility in the district, people know who she is and all of that," Brooks said. "I think that really diminishes some of the incumbent advantage that the Republican [Pavliga] would have."
This makes the race a little unusual, said Brooks.
"Usually when somebody's challenging the incumbent, they are not necessarily a newcomer to politics, but they are a newcomer to that specific seat," Brooks said.
In the end, name recognition might be the key to this race, said Brooks.
“Somebody that had voted for Clyde in the past sees that name but knows very little about the race, then they may be more likely to vote for her, because they recognize who it is," Brooks said.
Beyond name recognition, candidates need a lot of money. Clyde has outraised Pavliga so far in the race, with $362,137 to Pavliga's $227,833, according to the latest campaign finance report. However, the Ohio GOP is known to swing in at the last second and fund House races like these, said Brooks.
In the meantime, Clyde is doing everything she can to get her name out.
“We’re able to do a lot of grassroots work, going door to door, talking to voters one on one, which we were not able to do during the pandemic," Clyde said.
There's also a key demographic back in Portage County that may not have voted in the county in 2020 that Clyde thinks could help her win.
"We also have Kent State students back on campus. They were fully remote in the fall of 2020. I think having them here, they've been very engaged in this election. We've seen a high number of voter registrations," Clyde said. "I feel like that is a positive sign heading to election day as well for different result in Portage County than we saw in 2020."
In Pavliga’s conversations with voters, she’s hearing a lot of worry about extremism in politics.
“I think people are looking for more common sensical solutions than they are extremist positions," Pavliga said.
Clyde is also hearing these concerns from voters and said that Pavliga’s endorsement of many extreme GOP bills isn’t good for the county.
“I am not a rubber stamp of a extreme Republican supermajority, like my opponent is," Clyde said.
The issue that's most concerning is abortion, Clyde said.
“We should go back to where we were with Roe v. Wade in place," Clyde said, "and we need to fight these extreme bans and protect women’s access to reproductive healthcare in our state.”
Pavliga has cosponsored legislation that would limit access to abortion in the state and calls herself “prolife.” But she doesn’t agree with Clyde’s analysis of her views as extreme.
“I’m considered a moderate, because I think I’ve got to be able to in this community listen to all sides of a story," Pavliga said.
Pavliga said extremism is detrimental to accomplishing anything in politics.
"Extremism equals an emotional position, and the only way we start to make changes is when we find issues that bring us into the middle ground with things that both parties can agree on," Pavliga said. "And then you start the conversation from there."
Stephen Brooks with the Bliss Institute thinks Pavliga has a slight edge in the race but wouldn’t be surprised if Clyde ultimately wins.
“I think this is a real tossup," Brooks said.
With redistricting, the number of registered Democrats and Republicans is incredibly close, said Brooks.
"One analysis of the redistricting suggests that the Republican [Pavliga] has 49% and Clyde has 48%," Brooks said.
This election will show if Democrats getting back out to grassroots campaigning can really win them elections, and whether that could make the difference in a race where both candidates have name recognition.
