Republican Rob Portman Retains US Senate Seat

Ohio’s U.S. Senate race was touted as a battle between two political heavyweights -- incumbent Republican Rob Portman and Democratic former governor Ted Strickland. But in the end Portman followed a very specific plan to victory.

A celebration like this may have seemed out of reach 15 months ago when Portman was trailing Strickland by 9 points in the polls and had very low name recognition. But Portman was a technician with his message and rarely strayed away from his talking points.

In his victory speech, Portman called for unity after an election that showed, in his opinion, that people were fed up with an inefficient government.

“They expect better.  We are capable of better and with a fresh start there will never be a better moment than now to rise above the dysfunction in Washington, DC, and find that common ground.”

A huge piece to Portman’s win was campaign fundraising, with more than $36 million coming in from outside spending.  In the end, Portman won with 58% of the vote to Strickland’s 37%.