Secretary of State Jon Husted's office released political party statistics for how Ohio voted in 2018's May primary.
Ohio Republicans had the biggest overall turnout in the primary and grew their affiliation base by 60,000, gaining almost 28,000 voters who were previously affiliated with the Democratic Party. However, they also lost voters to the Democratic ballot to the run of 61,000, giving the Democratic Party the largest growth in affiliation at 165,000. While a fraction of Ohioans voted in the primary, the numbers from May elections can be a good indication of how Ohio is voting come November.
"One of the best indicators of the strength of one party over another is their registration, turn out in primaries, enthusiasm," says Professor of Political Science Dr. Rob Alexander of Ohio Northern University. "A lot of people actually registered to vote for the Democrats so that's a good sign for the Democrats but yet it's mixed with a good sign for the Republicans that there was a lot of action going on, on that side."
While all parties gained voters, most registered voters did not participate in the primaries, and over half of Ohio's 7.9 million registered voters are not affiliated with any political party.
