There were a minimal amount of surprises in the Ohio and Ottawa County primary elections on Tuesday, May 3. Local voters in the Genoa Area Local School District managed to dodge severe budget cuts by narrowly approving a 6-mill tax that would generate $1.3 million per year for five years, 1,367-1,256.

It was the fourth attempt to pass a Genoa School levy, after failing as recently as May and September in 2021.

Voters also passed 0.5 mill replacement levy for Genoa Schools to fund education technology by a healthier margin, 1,585-1,037.

The busiest local political race had four Republicans buying lots of local television advertising for the shot at challenging the legendary Marcy Kaptur for the 9th Congressional District, which includes Ottawa, Lucas, Fulton, Erie, Wood and Defiance. A long-time U.S. congresswoman, Kaptur was first elected in 1983. She is a power broker in Washington because of her seniority and chairmanships, and was unopposed for the Democratic nomination.

On the Republican side, the challengers included State Sen. Theresa Gavarone in District 2, and relative newcomers J.R. Majewski, Craig Riedel and Beth Deck. While Gavarone had name recognition, Majewski won with 21,657 votes, followed by Riedel (18,565), Gavarone (17,377) and Deck (2,906).

An even noisier Ohio political battle was for the seat of retiring U.S. Senator Rob Portman, who had endorsed Jane Timken. With the endorsement of former president Donald Trump, author J.D. Vance managed to get 340,991 votes, a healthy victory over Josh Mandel (253,051); Matt Dolen (247,042; Mike Gibbons (123,417); Timken (62,237); Mark Pukita (22,478); and Neil Patel (9,870).

Around Ottawa County, County Commissioner Donald Douglas and Auditor Jennifer Widmar, both Republicans, were unopposed and no Democrats were in the primaries. In the tussle for a seat on the Democratic Central Committee, Paul Dunfee of Marblehead topped former state senator and Ohio Democratic Party Chairman Chris Redfern of Marblehead, 36-22.