Lorain County Democrats kick off 2026 political campaigns

AMHERST — Lorain County Democrats hosted a campaign kickoff Thursday evening. Lorain County Commissioner candidate Brian Baker and state Rep. Joe Miller, running for the Ohio Senate, invited supporters to the Bricklayers Union Hall to mark the official start of their bids for elected office. They were joined by fellow Democrats John Kulewicz, running for Ohio attorney general, and state Rep. Allison Russo, D-Upper Arlington, running for Ohio secretary of state. Baker, a longtime local and national union official, is running for the seat currently held by Republican Jeff Riddell. Riddell previously said he is not running for a second term. Baker will face fellow Democrat Carolyn White in a primary this spring. Baker ran unsuccessfully for the countywide office in 2024 against incumbent Republican Dave Moore. Miller, the current state representative for Ohio's 53rd House District, is term-limited — prompting him to throw his hat in the ring for a state Senate bid. He faces Republican Gayle Manning, who is also term-limited out of her House seat in Ohio's 52nd House District. The seat is currently held by Gayle Manning's son, Nathan Manning, who plans to run for the Ohio House seat his mother is vacating due to his own term limit. Miller, who has another year left in the Ohio House, hopes to flip a longtime red state Senate seat to blue next year. He noted many of the Democratic candidates appearing on the ballot this spring will have primaries, and that whatever the results of those races, the party will get behind the winner and stand "shoulder to shoulder to win back Ohio." Baker, a longtime electrician and union organizer, apologized for his tardiness to his own campaign kickoff, explaining he was at a hearing in New Russia Township for a rezoning to make way for the proposed 622-acre "mega site" near the Lorain County Regional Airport. Residents packed the township hall to decry the county's plan to turn a swath of land from agricultural to business to make way for a development in the rural community. "What I ran on in 2024 was trust and integrity, and there's not any at the Lorain County commissioners," he said. "I will tell you there's no transparency there." He referenced the lack of redevelopment at the Midway Mall site, the County Port Authority's plan to purchase the former Days Inn property, continued problems with 911, an unbalanced county budget and ongoing contract negotiations between the county and United Auto Workers Local 2192. Kulewicz, a Columbus attorney and Upper Arlington city councilman, running for state attorney general, referenced a need for a state AG who will fight consumer fraud, wage theft, discrimination, collusion and other abuses. He referenced the Ohio House Bill 6 scandal, the largest in the state's history, in which FirstEnergy paid to push through legislation to bail out the company's nuclear and coal plants and led to former House Speaker Larry Householder's 20-year prison sentence for racketeering and an alleged lackluster state economy as reasons for a change in attorney general. "We need an attorney general that rather than fight culture war cases in other states and other courts all around the nation, is going to bring all those attorneys home and tell them you're going to work on cases here, you're going to work on wage theft, anti-trust violations, things that matter to us in Ohio," Kulewicz said. Kulewicz will face former Ohio Rep. Elliot Forhan in the Democratic primary in May. The winner of that election will face Republican Keith Faber, who is currently state auditor. Russo, who, like Miller, is term-limited in her Ohio House seat, pledged to work to improve the state's economy, housing, health care and grocery affordability if elected as secretary of state. Those are things everyone wants, she said, regardless of their party affiliation, and voters hold the power to keep their elected officials accountable. "You have an opportunity to elect someone in the secretary of state's office to be the advocate for voters, period," she said. "... We have a tremendous opportunity with these statewide elections to get people in our state government, get people in the legislature who are actually going to be focused on the issues that our communities care about." Russo faces Dr. Bryan Hambley in a Democratic primary this spring. The winner of that primary will face the winner of a Republican primary between current Ohio Treasurer Robert Sprague and Marcell Strbich for a bid at the secretary of state seat in November. Contact Carissa Woytach at (440) 329-7245 or cwoytach@chroniclet.com.