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COLUMBUS, Ohio With just 5 months to go until Ohios primary candidate filing deadline, theres an unusual dearth of Democratic candidates for most statewide offices in 2022.

While there are competitive Democratic primaries on tap for the two top statewide offices U.S. Senate and governor so far the only Democrat to launch a down-ticket statewide campaign is Chelsea Clark, a relatively unknown city council member from suburban Cincinnati, for secretary of state.

No Democrats have announced or are even publicly exploring campaigns for attorney general, state treasurer or state auditor. By comparison, by mid-August 2017, the eventual Democratic nominees for all four executive down-ticket offices had announced their intention to run months earlier.

You would think that things already would be ramping up, particularly in terms of challengers to incumbents, but it just hasnt happened, said Paul Beck, a political scientist at Ohio State University.

Ohio Democratic Party spokesman Matt Keyes said state party leaders are still recruiting candidates ahead of the Feb. 2, 2022 primary filing deadline, and some have expressed interest though he declined to name who those people are.

Weve had some good conversations, and were confident that were going to have a strong, diverse ticket, he said.

According to conversations with Keyes, other Democratic officials and Ohio political observers, here are three reasons that so few Democrats have thrown their hats into the ring for statewide offices so far:

In 2018, in addition to winning the governors race, Republicans swept races for attorney general (Dave Yost), secretary of state (Frank LaRose), state treasurer (Robert Sprague), and state auditor (Keith Faber). Next year, all four are expected to run for re-election, and theyre considered to be even stronger candidates this time around. Not only are they incumbents (which makes it easier for them to raise money and have a name familiar to voters), but conventional political wisdom dictates that the party controlling the White House tends to face problems during midterm elections. In 2018, Republican Donald Trump was president; this cycle, its Democrat Joe Biden. In addition, many Democratic rank-and-file members are paying more attention to the races for governor and U.S. Senate, which they see as more important and potentially more winnable.

Perhaps the biggest factor giving Democrats pause is redistricting. As Ohio like other states is launching its decennial process of redrawing its congressional and legislative districts, many Democrats are waiting to see what the new maps look like before deciding on their 2022 plans. Democrats in the state legislature (a frequent source of statewide candidates for the party) want to see if the redrawn districts put their re-election chances into jeopardy, and Democrats both in and outside of the legislature are keeping open their options of running for Congress or another legislative seat if redistricting gives them a good shot at winning.

For the past decade, Ohio Democrats have faced the same knock on their election chances: with Republicans holding control over all three branches of state government (and dominating Ohios congressional delegation), there arent as many prominent Democratic officeholders rising through the ranks to run a competitive campaign for statewide office. That often means that Democrats who do run have to spend more time introducing themselves to voters, raising money and building a statewide political campaign.

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Here are 3 reasons why there arent more Ohio Democrats running for statewide office in 2022 - cleveland.com