Republican Mike DeWine Defeats Richard Cordray in Ohio Governor Race

Ohio's Republican Attorney General Mike DeWine defeated Democrat Richard Cordray in a tight gubernatorial race, succeeding term-limited Republican Gov. John Kasich.

DeWine beat Cordray 51.1 percent to 46 percent. 

DeWine, a former lieutenant governor, congressman, and U.S. senator, presented himself as a no-nonsense man of law and order. He pledged to give more money to community colleges and focused on jobs and the economy.

"This state is moving forward and what my vision for this state is that we continue to keep moving and we keep moving because we have an obligation to turn a better state over to our kids and to our grandkids," DeWine told supporters in Miami Valley. 

Meanwhile, Cordray made health care his defining issue and claimed DeWine failed in the opioid battle over the last eight years.

"What Ohioans have told us, they have told Betty and me again, is that they're worried about health care. They want to know that they're going to have leaders in the state of Ohio and do what we said we'd do and bring down costs in the healthcare system," Cordray told supporters at the Montgomery County Democratic Headquarters in downtown Dayton.

Although DeWine campaigned neither as the Trump candidate nor the anti-Trump candidate, the president stumped for him on Monday. 

Trump said Democrats would bring socialism, illegal immigration and increased taxes to Ohio and the rest of the country. He campaigned for Republicans in Democratic-heavy northeastern Ohio, hoping to kill a blue wave there. 

"If the radical Democrats take power, they will take a wrecking ball to our economy,” Trump said. 

The president said "everything is at stake" and declared Cordray "a bad person" who "has hurt a lot of people." Trump wanted DeWine to replace Kasich, who had repeatedly criticized the president.  

Ohio's next governor will play a key role in redrawing state legislative districts after the 2020 census.