MEMO from the Ohio Democratic Party

FR:  Chris Redfern, Chairman; Doug Kelly, Executive Director
RE:  Historic Democratic Victories in Ohio and How We Did It

For the past two years, the Ohio Democratic Party (ODP) focused on building an election-winning infrastructure to help elect Democrats at all levels in 2008. Our approach was simple: build it early, build it big, and build it from the ground up.

And when ODP combined with Senator Obama’s Campaign for Change (CFC), our joint efforts became super-charged. Here’s a brief recap of Tuesday’s historic top-to-bottom Democratic victories in Ohio and how we pulled off these stunning wins.
 

Barack Obama Wins Ohio – and the Presidency

• President-elect Barack Obama won Ohio, 51%-47% (with 98 percent reporting). He not only broke a 12 year losing cycle for Democratic Presidential nominees, but he is the first Democratic nominee to break 50% since Lyndon Johnson in 1964.

• When Ohio was called for Obama at 9:25 pm, it eliminated any chance of McCain winning the White House. In short, we knocked McCain out in Ohio.

• At least two new Democrats in Ohio were elected to Congress. Democrat Steve Driehaus won in Ohio’s 1st Congressional District, beating GOP incumbent Steve Chabot, while Democrat John Boccieri beat the GOP’s Kirk Schuring in Ohio’s 16th district. A third potential pick up, Mary Jo Kilroy’s race, is still too close to call.

• These two new Democratic seats are in historically leaning-Republican districts, a testament to strong candidate recruitment, a winning message, and a robust GOTV infrastructure created by Ohio Democrats.

• Not a single Democratic incumbent lost their seat. In fact, all incumbent Democrats won by significant margins.

• Democrats picked up a net of six seats (at least) in the Ohio House of Representatives, giving Democrats control of the House for the first time since 1994.

• Democratic winners include: John Carney (22nd district), Ray Pryor (85th), Mike Moran (42nd), Mark Schneider (63rd), Connie Pillich (28th), Debbie Phillips (92nd), Nancy Garland (20th), and Matt Patten (18th). Marian Harris (19th), another Democratic pickup, is leading by a handful of votes with 100 percent of precincts reporting.

• Since 2004, Democrats have gained a total of 17 net seats in the Ohio House (4 seats gained in 2004; 7 in 2006; and at least 6 in 2008).

• Additionally, Democrats won back the Ohio House under the district lines that Republicans had drawn – the first time EVER that any Party in Ohio has regained the House majority under the lines drawn by the opposing Party.

• By winning back the Ohio House, Governor Strickland now has a productive legislative partner to help continue to turn around Ohio and improve the lives of working families.

• Democrat Richard Cordray retained the Ohio Attorney General’s post for Democrats, beating the GOP’s Michael Crites by a wide margin.

We won Ohio at all levels because the Ohio Democratic Party, Senator Obama’s Campaign for Change, and our coordinated campaign partners worked together in an unprecedented manner. Here is what we accomplished as of November 3rd:

• CFC/ODP registered 105,862 new Ohio voters during this cycle.

• Democrats have a registration advantage of 986,495 in Ohio – the highest in a generation.

• We placed organizers in all parts of Ohio. The result: Obama outperformed John Kerry’s vote share in 76 of Ohio’s 88 counties.

• Combined, CFC and ODP recruited and engaged more than 60,000 volunteers all across Ohio, with each volunteer assigned to one of 1,200 neighborhoods.

• We attempted 11,168,942 voter contacts, and completed 3,552,486 conversations with Ohioans at the door or on the phone. 

• More than 8.7 million flyers or packets of information were delivered to Ohioans.

• ODP/CFC hired more than 700 people in 24 regions across the state.

• During our six day GOTV effort, we filled more than 127,374 volunteer shifts (130% of our goal) and used nearly 700 separate staging locations to coordinate our door-to-door voter contact efforts.

• During that time, Ohio Democrats attempted 3,152,000 voter contacts, speaking with 448,471 voters across Ohio, and dropping more than 4.9 million door-hangers.