Mike DeWine - 2006 Bid For Re-election

2006 Bid For Re-election

DeWine faced conservative Republican challengers William G. Pierce and David R. Smith for the nomination of the Republican Party in the May 2006 primary. DeWine won with 71.82% of the votes.

DeWine's Democratic opponent in the November 2006 general election was 13th District Congressman Sherrod Brown, who won 78.05% of Democrats' votes in the primary, defeating truck driver Merrill Samuel Keiser, Jr. Iraq War veteran Paul Hackett dropped out of the Democratic race earlier in the election cycle.

Most political watchers believed DeWine was one of the Senate's most vulnerable incumbents in the 2006 elections. Democrats poured resources into the Ohio race due to considerable anger at corruption in the Bob Taft administration. In addition, many conservative Republicans felt that DeWine was too "liberal" and "out of touch with conservative values" for their liking, especially considering his well-established record of supporting gun control, and being a member of the "Gang of 14". DeWine even tried to distance himself from the Republican party in television ads, where he touted himself as an "Independent."

At first, the GOP worked hard to keep DeWine in office. However, according to an article in the October 16, 2006, edition of The New York Times, top Republican officials on the national level determined that DeWine would probably be defeated and moved financial support from his race to other Republican senatorial candidates they felt were more likely to win.

DeWine lost by a margin of almost 12%, as below:

DeWine did well in most of his home region of western Ohio, but Brown dominated almost all of the eastern half of the state, along with the Lake Erie shore out to Toledo.