Ohio House 16th: Brady (D) Wins

I just spoke to Jennifer Brady (D-Westlake) who informed me that she has surged ahead in the vote count and that opponent Ed Herman (R-Rocky River) has called to concede the contest.

Brady's election is one of the most amazing stories of this election cycle in Ohio. She is a mother and homemaker who has been active in politics but has never run for office. She jumped into this race as a late replacement candidate with energy and passion. Very late in the campaign a technical challenge to her place on the ballot, apparently engineered by her opponent or his party, disrupted her efforts and could have been a disaster. The Cuyahoga County Board of Elections and the Secretary of State ruled against her. However, she won her case on appeal to the courts and maintained her focus on running her campaign.

I told Brady that her victory is a big story, and she said that the real big story is her volunteers. Brady deserves a lot of the credit for re-energizing Democrats on the west side of greater Cleveland because she has been very active in grassroots organizations there, and her campaign was flooded with willing volunteers. At the election night party last night, which was tense due to the tight race, Brady was impressed that her volunteers all wanted to talk about issues like education and health care.

Brady told me that Herman's concession call was cordial and gracious and she appreciates it very much. He is relatively young and Brady pointed out to him that at his age she was not on any kind of path to being a state representative, so he should not be too discouraged.