Ohio Dem chairman to step down
Ohio Democratic Party Chairman David Pepper announced Monday that he will step down at the end of the year.
Democrats now have a month to decide the future of their party and who will lead it. The assignment is a tough one: revive the party in rural Ohio, improve on victories in metropolitan counties and raise enough money to unseat Republicans who control every branch of Ohio government.
The uphill climb will start immediately. Sen. Rob Portman, R-terrace Park, and Gov. Mike Dewine are running for re-election in 2022, and they will need credible, well-funded challengers.
Pepper took over the Ohio Democratic Party in 2015 after the party lost every statewide race in 2014, including Pepper’s bid against Dewine for attorney general. Former chairman Chris Redfern resigned after losing his Statehouse seat as well.
Pepper, a former Cincinnati City councilman and Hamilton County commissioner, emphasized building up the party’s bench with a diverse group of local candidates. During his tenure, Democrats improved their showing in metropolitan counties, gaining control of the Hamilton County Commission and winning Statehouse seats in Columbus’ Franklin County.
Between 2018 and 2020, Democrats re-elected U.S. Sen. Sherrod Brown and picked up three seats on the Ohio Supreme Court – a push Pepper hopes will help to fend off gerrymandered maps going forward.
However, Pepper has overseen a party that has lost the presidency twice to
Republican Donald Trump, most of its statewide races and ground in eastern Ohio. In 2020, Vice President Joe Biden calculated that he could win the presidency without Ohio, and that gamble paid off.
“Of course we have faced challenges, setbacks and disappointments in this era of Trump, and much work remains to address those challenges,” Pepper wrote to fellow Democrats. “But even in tough times, the hard-working team here – working with so many of you – left it all on the field.”
Democrats will meet in the coming month to pick Pepper’s successor. He suggested candidates should interview with the party’s executive committee at its Dec. 15 meeting and set a vote later in the month.
Whoever is selected can expect a thankless job, party secretary Bill DEMora said. “For lack of a better word: it sucks. You’ve got to raise money. You’ve got to keep all these egos in check,” Demora said. “You never get to leave when you want to.”
The next chair of the party will have to regain Democratic support in rural and struggling industrial areas of the state, areas that Trump and Republicans have dominated in recent elections.
Ohio Democrats might find their next chair in a rural county or in an area like Youngstown and the Mahoning Valley, said Bonnie Dunkelman, a Democrat from Anderson Township in the eastern suburbs of Cincinnati. She serves on the Ohio Democratic Party executive committee.
“Maybe somebody has magic sauce for helping us engage or reengage what we lost in rural areas,” Dunkelman said. Dunkelman didn’t want to name names yet but thinks some candidates will emerge in the next few days.
One name floated Monday was former state Sen. Lou Gentile, a Steubenville native who represented a large swath of Appalachia along the Ohio River before he lost that seat in 2016.
Sen. Sherrod Brown’s advice on picking the next leader will carry significant weight with many Democrats, said Tim Burke, the former Hamilton County Democratic chairman who is on the Ohio Democratic executive committee.
The Democratic senator from Cleveland has managed to outperform other Democrats in rural areas. So whoever succeeds Pepper will need to have the same message, Burke said.
“It’s got to be somebody who can talk the talk in those areas,” Burke said. Burke said he doesn’t know who that might be. “I want to see who the candidates who come forward are. There’s no question it’s going to be a challenge. It’s going to be difficult.”
Enquirer reporters Jackie Borchardt and Scott Wartman contributed to this article.