Hudson Democrat Casey Weinstein pivots from House re-election to seek seat in Ohio Senate

After wresting control of his district from Republicans in 2018 and handily defending it twice, Rep. Casey Weinstein, D-Hudson, will not seek a fourth term in the Ohio House.

He’s running, instead, for the Ohio Senate on a new election map that gives Democrats some of their best chances of cutting into a GOP statehouse supermajority starting here in Summit County.

“I think over my three terms in the statehouse, I've been able to do a combination of things: I've been able to work with my party and across the aisle to get priorities done for our state and for our district and our region, and I've been able to establish a foundation where I can push back against some of the egregious legislation that harms my constituents as well,” Weinstein told the Beacon Journal ahead of publicly announcing his Senate bid Friday.

The seat he’s seeking is currently held by Sen. Vernon Sykes, D-Akron, a former Akron councilman and two-time member of the Ohio House who is term-limited from seeking re-election to the Senate in 2024. Sykes has no future plans to share at this time, he said.

Weinstein is the first to announce his candidacy for a seat that, because of its higher concentration of liberal voters, could be decided in the Democratic primary on March 19. A previous round of redistricting gave Weinstein’s current 34th House district the northernmost tips of Akron. The new 28th Senate district he’s seeking would cover all of the Rubber City.

“I'm incredibly excited to represent the city and take this next step and be as loud and proud of a voice as I can be for us in the Senate,” said Weinstein, a Jewish U.S. Air Force veteran who’s used his platform to push back against hate and antisemitism.

No competition, for now

The current 28th Senate district has historically been a gimme for Democrats.

Redrawn by the GOP and reluctantly approved by Democrats on the Ohio Redistricting Commission, the new House and Senate maps must withstand a lawsuit accusing Republicans of again gerrymandering Ohio.

As it stands, though, the new 28th district Weinstein is seeking would no longer spill out of Summit County to cover all of Portage and part of Geauga counties. And it leans about 55-45 in favor of Democrats, according to statewide election results from 2016-2022 compiled by Dave’s Redistricting, an online mapping program that promotes civic engagement.

With the lion’s share of voters living in Akron, Republicans haven’t invested in the 28th district Senate race for several election cycles. But now, the 28th also includes Green and Hudson – cities that have long sent Republicans to the Ohio House and Senate.

And an open race for Weinstein’s House district creates fertile ground for Democrats. Like the current 34th House district, the new boundaries set for the 2024 election start with Hudson to the north. But the redrawn district trades Cuyahoga Falls for Tallmadge, Munroe Falls and North Akron.

This new 34th House district is even more likely than the current iteration to vote Democrat in statewide and presidential races. But at this early stage, there’s no public talk of Democrats who might run for the open House seat or even challenge Weinstein in the upcoming primary for the Senate race.

While leadership in the Summit County Republican Party is unaware of any candidate pulling petitions, Chairman Bryan Williams said he has "met with several candidates who are each considering a run in OH28. None are prepared to consider publicly. I am certain we will have a competitive candidate capable of defeating Mr. Weinstein."

Meanwhile, Rep. Tavia Galonski, D-Akron, will continue to reside in the new 28th Senate district. She said she plans to run for a fourth and final term in the Ohio House. After Weinstein announced his candidacy Friday, Galonski said, "I'm 100% behind Casey for senate."

"I'm just delighted to be able to run for re-election in the 33rd [House] district," she said.

Hudson could have two senators, but no Republican representation

If no one challenges Weinstein in the March presidential primary and he prevails next November in the general election, something unusual would happen: the House and Senate seats that cover Hudson could be controlled by Democrats, and two Hudson residents, one from each party, would serve together in the Ohio Senate.

That’s because Sen. Kristina Roegner, R-Hudson, whose current four-year term ends in 2026, no longer lives in the district she represents. GOP leaders on the Ohio Redistricting Commission drew her into the 28th Senate district. The whirlwind of redistricting these past few years have had Roegner representing communities as far west as Wayne County. The latest version of the 27th Senate district, which she will continue to serve, now starts in Summit County and goes east to capture all of Portage County and part of Geauga – but not Hudson.

“I am sad that Hudson's not in the map,” said Roegner. “I've served as a representative of Hudson for five years on council and then 14 years in the legislature. So, certainly, I'll miss Hudson. But that being said, I'm still here, and at the end of the day, I can still officially or unofficially represent them. I know I'm not going to forget about my hometown, but it certainly does make it a little more awkward.”

Roegner, who defeated Weinstein in 2016 when she was still in the Ohio House, said members of the party in power who get along with leadership are “able to get things done, whether you're talking about policy, passing bills and getting things to the legislature that way, or even capital budget money, you know, being able to bring dollars back home. That's just a fact. So if Hudson is represented by two Democrats, that's sad.”

Roegner living in a community she no longer represents directly is similar to how state Sen. Matt Dolan, a Chagrin Falls Republican running for the U.S. Senate, was drawn out of his district in the last round of redistricting.

“It's, to me, another reason why redistricting becomes such a bad deal – the way that we're currently doing it for voters – because sometimes their representatives and senators don't live in the districts that they get re-gerrymandered into," Roegner said. "I ultimately hope that we can come to a point where we take this out of politicians’ hands and empower citizens, a bipartisan or nonpartisan group of citizens, to do something that's more fair and more representative for the voters and our constituents.”

Reach reporter Doug Livingston at dlivingston@thebeaconjournal.com or 330-996-3792.

This article originally appeared on Akron Beacon Journal: Rep. Casey Weinstein announces bid for Ohio Senate in 2024