Time to face the music.
Tuesday was a really bad night for Republicans, no matter where you look.
In Kentucky, the Democratic governor, Andy Beshear, won a second term in a state where, three years ago, Donald Trump won by 26 percentage points.
In Virginia, Democrats took control of both chambers of the state legislature, handing the Republican governor, Glenn Youngkin, an embarrassing defeat.
And in Ohio, voters streamed to the polls to send a message to the GOP and its allies in the anti-abortion rights movement, approving a reproductive rights amendment by a whopping 14 percentage point margin.
To put it as kindly as possible, bad stuff flows downhill; and, on Tuesday, the laws of gravity kicked in and it landed squarely in the lap of the once-mighty Hamilton County Republican Party.
"It was a pretty bad day."
That was the assessment of Tuesday's election from the normally optimistic and upbeat Russell Mock, a former judge who took over as chairman of the Hamilton County GOP in January, after Alex Triantafilou left to become the state party chair.
When Russell Mock says his party had a bad day, you can take it to the bank.
Here, in short, is the damage report:
- The GOP faced off with Democrats in 38 contested races across Hamilton County's cities, villages, townships and school districts. The Republicans won only 16 of them.
- Curt Kissinger, the GOP municipal court judge in District 4, a largely suburban district, lost to Democrat Samantha Silverstein by a whopping 14 percentage points.
- The abortion rights amendment pumped up the Democratic turnout in Hamilton County and throughout southwest Ohio, to the point where Issue 1 passed with 65% throughout Hamilton County and an astronomical 81% in the heavily Democratic city of Cincinnati, dragging down a lot of GOP candidates.
- One of the victims of that surge was the only Republican on a nine-member Cincinnati City Council, Liz Keating, who was elected two years ago and served with eight Democrats for the past two years.
The defeats for Kissinger and Keating seem to have really stuck in the craw of chairman Mock.
"Curt Kissinger has been a great judge and he did nothing to deserve this,'' Mock said. "But he got crushed in Norwood, which has been pretty Republican in recent years."
Anderson Township didn't help Kissinger either, Mock said. A surge of Democratic voters for Issue 1 and a contentious heated Forest Hills school board race hurt the incumbent Republican's chances, Mock said.
RELATED: Forest Hills voters shake up school board with election of 2 new members
To add insult to injury, the GOP-endorsed candidates in that school board race lost, too.
Keating's loss, Mock said, can be attributed to the same factors — a surge in Democratic voting on Issue 1 and the Democratic sample ballot passed out at the polls on Election Day.
All of the nine Democratic-endorsed candidates on the slate card won. Keating was squeezed out, losing to fellow Council Member Seth Walsh by a scant 180 votes, according to the unofficial vote count.
"If you are going to vote one person off City Council, it should not have been Liz Keating," Mock said. "She has been an important voice on a council controlled by Democrats. But her name wasn't on that Democratic sample ballot. Simple as that."
Keating was the only endorsed Republican in an historically small field of only 10 candidates. The fact the GOP didn't run any other candidates says a lot about the party's chances in this heavily Democratic city.
But Mock says he won't write off the city.
"Things can change very quickly in politics," Mock said. "I am still going to be actively looking for people in the city who would be good candidates two years from now."
Mock said the party put the word out to its voters that they should vote for Keating and no one else.
"We were telling our people this was a 'one and done' election," Mock said.
The problem was that there aren't enough Republicans left in the city to make a difference.
RELATED: Democrats win all 9 Cincinnati Council seats
But Mock said the GOP will keep trying at the city level.
"One-party government is not good for anybody," Mock said.
(That might be a piece of advice he could pass on to his fellow Republicans in the Ohio Statehouse.)
The few bright spots
There were a few bright spots for the Hamilton County GOP.
The party picked up some seats on the Northwest and Oak Hills school boards.
And there was some concern going into the election about whether Republican Symmes Township trustee Phil Beck was in danger of losing, Mock said.
"As it turned out, he was fine," Mock said. "Phil won with 62% of the vote."
But just the fact that there was some concern for a Republican running in Symmes Township speaks volumes about where the party is today.
Mock said he is looking ahead to 2024, when everything from the presidential race to county offices will be on the ballot.
The priority next year for the Hamilton County GOP, Mock said, will be electing Melissa Powers, who was appointed to the county prosecutor's job after Joe Deters was appointed to a vacant Ohio Supreme Court seat.
RELATED: Former judge Melissa Powers named Hamilton County's new prosecutor
"The prosecutor's office is the last bastion of law and order in this county," Mock said. "We will pull out all the stops for Melissa Powers."
"We're not done yet,'' Mock said. "Tuesday was a rough night. But there will be better days ahead."
