Democrats swept all four contested, competitive statehouse races in central Ohio in the Nov. 3 general election, flipping an Ohio House seat in Delaware County and an Ohio Senate seat, according to final, unofficial vote counts from the Franklin County Board of Elections and the Ohio Secretary of State’s office reported by The Columbus Dispatch.
The biggest flip came in Ohio House District 60, where Democratic challenger Shelby Kimball, of Dublin, defeated Republican incumbent Brian Lorenz, of Powell, with about 52% of the 62,012 votes cast, according to final, unofficial Secretary of State results cited by The Columbus Dispatch. In Ohio Senate District 3, Democrat Stacie Baker, a Reynoldsburg City Council member, defeated Republican incumbent Michele Reynolds with about 52% of the 129,788 votes cast, The Dispatch reported.
Democratic incumbents held the region’s other two competitive House seats. In District 10, Mark Sigrist, of Grove City, defeated Republican Denise D’Angelo with about 59% of the 44,597 votes cast, according to unofficial Franklin County results reported by The Columbus Dispatch. In District 11, Crystal Lett, of Hilliard, beat Republican Shawn Kaeser, of Dublin, with about 62% of the 56,849 votes cast, The Dispatch reported.
The results helped Democrats break the Republican supermajority in the Ohio House for the first time since 2013, according to The Columbus Dispatch. All 99 House seats were up for election, and Democrats had secured enough wins by early Nov. 4 to break it, according to the Democratic Legislative Campaign Committee, as reported by The Dispatch.
“I intend to serve the people, listen to their concerns, and always vote in their best interests,” Kimball said in a prepared statement quoted by The Columbus Dispatch. Baker told The Dispatch: “It’s a great night. It’s a blue tsunami and people are hungry for change.” Lett told a Dispatch reporter Nov. 4 she was “very humbled and honored to have earned reelection.”
Both incumbents had local roots. Lorenz, a former Powell mayor, had held District 60 since 2023, when House Republicans appointed him to replace Rep. Kris Jordan, who died that February, according to The Columbus Dispatch. Reynolds had held Senate District 3 since 2023. Baker, 44, works for the Franklin County Treasurer’s Office, and Kimball, 34, is a Marine Corps and Army veteran and recent Ohio State graduate, The Dispatch reported.
The sweep stops at the Senate as a whole. Only 17 of the Senate’s 33 seats were up Nov. 3, and The Columbus Dispatch reported it is unlikely Democrats will break the Republican supermajority there. Even so, a House without a Republican supermajority, alongside a Democratic governor, changes the math on veto overrides at the Statehouse.
All results remain unofficial until county boards of elections certify their counts. The Dispatch reported Lorenz and Reynolds did not respond to its requests for comment, while Kaeser congratulated Lett in a prepared statement. Once certified, Kimball and Baker will take their seats when the new General Assembly convenes in January.
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