Over the past 10 years it has become obvious that the Republican Party has abandoned the dense urban centers of most Ohio cities and suburbs.
Retreating to the safety of their easy wins at the state level, and the occasional local family dynasty, the red team has abdicated all interest and effort in even token attempts to run candidates in Franklin County. (Of course, the red team is still happy to take your money! It just won’t find it’s way into helping any candidate or issue in your neighborhood.)
After spending the same decade working tirelessly to eliminate any possible competition in the form of alternative political parties, (through lawfare, intimidation and fraud), this has left voters in our area with a large and growing slate of unopposed elections, where blue team candidates file paperwork and walk into elected office without winning an election.
This has left the Franklin County red team with a dwindling, defeatist and disenfranchised volunteer and voter base, thoroughly convinced in their permanent loss of representation at the local level. This is also leading to a loss of county and local political influence.
In contrast, the Franklin County Libertarian Party of Ohio has spent the last 10 years working to recruit and train candidates, fundraise and support issues, and generally work to support orphaned candidates and voters, (helping independents, and even blue and red team candidates when it made sense).
We did that work while fighting off constant attacks on our political credibility while only benefiting from ballot access half the time, and pushing through odious and burdensome petitioning requirements the other half.
How did Franklin County get to this point, with a dominating and lazy blue team, and an equally lazy, but vanishingly relevant red team?
Franklin County is an economic hub, home to Columbus, numerous smaller cities, boasting a diverse economy in finance, education, healthcare, and tech. Its central location, strong infrastructure, and vibrant workforce drive growth, attracting talent and investment, making it vital to Ohio’s prosperity.
With all this going for it, you’d think a major political party would be fighting for every precinct tooth and nail.
You would be wrong, and it wouldn’t be just the last ten years that that impression would be incorrect.
In the distant past, when smoke filled rooms were legal, and the common way to manage politics, the red and blue teams in Franklin County struck a deal, a détente, if you will, to stay out of each other’s way. At the state level the red and blue teams took cyclical turns running the state-wide offices of governor, secretary of state and rarely commanded more than slim margins in the state house or senate.
This made such an agreement more palatable for both sides, and elected roles in Franklin County were divided up based on who most often won, leading to many unopposed elections for both teams, and candidates with very little real support when some did go “rouge”. Elected roles like Mayor of Columbus, Columbus City Council, County Commissioners and urban State Representatives were firmly blue team, while County Prosecutor, County Engineer, County Treasurer and more rural State Senators were firmly red team.
Over time the district lines shifted, but the agreement was held for the most part and political power in central Ohio leaned blue or red without much real variance.
Then something unexpected happened.
A Green Party member filed to run for County Prosecutor, a race the county blue team had largely ignored, and rarely fielded a candidate to oppose. This candidate was brash and full of energy, a real firebrand and was talking about real reform and actual political action.
Of course, the blue team could not allow any such challenge to the status quo. (Let alone a Green!)
So, they found a paper candidate on short notice to also file in their primary, and with all the influence and endorsement of the blue county machine, the paper candidate sailed through the primary unopposed and found some enthusiasm among their voters.
And then the unthinkable happened.
The blue team candidate almost won the general election.
When the dust settled, the blue team tallied their numbers and realized something profound.
The demographics for central Ohio had shifted. There was no longer a reliable swing back and forth between so-called “liberal” and “conservative” voters. Columbus voters in particular seemed to have shifted firmly “liberal”.
This new understanding led the county blue team machine to ramp up recruiting, fundraising and undertake the effort of running a candidate for every race they could.
Meanwhile, the red team slumbered, even as several of their choice elected roles were competed right out from under them several times in a row. However, instead of fighting back with grass roots ground game and pouring effort and energy into revitalizing their sleepy base, they continued to demand the blue team honor the now defunct back-room agreements, and shifted strategy to controlling state level district lines.
The ”redistricting strategy” has kept the red team with a healthy margin of control of the State House and Senate, and the wide-spread, and numerous, rural voter base continues to fall for the faux conservative act for state-wide red candidates.
However, while the population of the State of Ohio is not growing (in fact, shrinking), urban and suburban central Ohio is gaining residents, both from other cities and from rural areas.
Red team’s control of the state-level government may be short-lived as local and county-level influence wanes. As demographic shifts and urbanization increase, their traditional rural base diminishes. This disconnect from local issues will erode voter support, leading to significant challenges in maintaining statewide power in future elections.
While at the highest level it looks like the Republican Party of Ohio is in control politically, the reality we are seeing is local and county GOP are in a death spiral.
Ohio is moving more and more purple, and the fake “conservatives” that made their bread and butter over pretending to care about small govt, low taxes and individual liberties days are numbered.
Franklin County Libertarians offer choice on the ballot, not a fake choice between voting and not voting, but real choice with candidates who listen, live and work in our communities, shop in the same stores and experience the same concerns and share values with neighbors.
We are not asleep, we are not going away, we are putting in the work, and we will represent all residents in Franklin County.
We are not red or blue.
We are not “liberal” or “conservative”.
We are Libertarians.
We stand for individual freedom, limited government, free markets, and personal responsibility.
Volunteer, donate and get involved.
