Donald Trump wins big over Kamala Harris in Ohio

Donald Trump’s victory in Ohio was the biggest victory of any president in 40 years. Republicans have won three presidential elections in a row for the first time since 1988.

Ohio voters chose former President Donald Trump over Vice President Kamala Harris in a double-digit victory, a result that underscored Ohio’s transition from a presidential front-runner to a solidly Republican state.

Trump, as expected, won Ohio’s 17 Electoral College votes. He won re-election on Wednesday morning. Ohio Sen. J.D. Vance will become vice president and Gov. Mike DeWine will choose Vance’s successor in the closely divided U.S. Senate.

Trump’s margin of victory also sealed fate longtime Democratic Senator Sherrod Brown, who lost his bid for re-election Trump-backed businessman Bernie Moreno.

Trump won Ohio easily in 2016 and 2020, so his victory in 2024 would not be surprising.

But the difference was impressive. Trump’s victory marked the third straight election in which the Buckeye State has gone Republican. The last time Republicans won three presidential elections in a row was 1988, when the state elected President George H. W. Bush after voting for President Ronald Reagan in 1984 and 1980.

Trump’s 11-point lead was the largest for an Ohio presidential candidate in 40 years since President Ronald Reagan defeated Walter Mondale by nearly 19 points in 1984.

Ohio election results

Neither presidential candidate was actively campaigning in Ohio. Vance held a rally in his hometown of Middletown shortly after he was named Trump’s running mate last summer. Harris’ ally, Minnesota Gov. Tim Walz, held a fundraiser in Cincinnati and Cleveland.

Ohio’s Midwestern neighbors became the real prize of the Electoral College on Tuesday. Michigan, Pennsylvania and Wisconsin played key roles in the outcome of the 2024 presidential race, along with states such as Arizona, Georgia, Nevada and North Carolina.

The 2024 presidential race has been a rollercoaster. Democratic President Joe Biden withdrew from the race in July over health concerns and endorsed Harris. A shooter tried to kill Trump at a rally in Butler, Pennsylvania. Trump and Vance spread a false story that legal Haitian immigrants in Springfield, Ohio were eating pets. The presidential candidates only held one debate.

Jesse Balmert covers government and state politics for the USA TODAY Network Ohio bureau, which serves the Columbus Dispatch, Cincinnati Enquirer, Akron Beacon Journal and 18 other affiliated news organizations across Ohio.