Brad Wenstrup

A week ago, in the aftermath of a violent, destructive and deadly rampage of the U.S. Capitol by a mob of Trump supporters – a rampage that could have been much worse – we were inundated by tweets and press releases from Republicans in the Ohio congressional delegation decrying what had happened in their workplace, the very center of American democracy.

But barely a word about who inspired a frenzied mob of thugs to scale the walls and cause chaos in the halls of Congress – the president of the United States, Donald J. Trump.

Ohio Rep. Brad Wenstrup has won a fifth term in the U.S. House over Democratic challenger Jaime Castle, with Tuesday night results showing the 62-year-old Cincinnati resident with 60% of the vote.

Across Ohio, Kentucky and Indiana, absentee ballots have been mailed, early voting is in place, and Nov. 3 – Election Day – is here. No matter how or when you fill out your ballot (though if voting by mail in Ohio, it needed to be postmarked by Nov. 2; and by Nov. 3 in Kentucky and Indiana) WVXU has everything Tri-Staters need to know about the candidates vying for your vote.

You'd have to have your MAGA hat screwed on too tight to believe that Donald Trump, by appointing Louis DeJoy, a political crony who has told a congressional committee that "I know very little about postage stamps," didn't start out with the intent of wrecking the U.S. Postal Service for political purposes.

When Jaime Castle, a Mount Washington Democrat, was mulling over the possibility of taking on U.S. Rep. Brad Wenstrup in Ohio's 2nd Congressional District, she met with someone who had recently been through a tough congressional campaign: Hamilton County Clerk of Courts Aftab Pureval.

Rep. Brad Wenstrup won a fourth term in the U.S. House with a large margin over Democratic challenger Jill Schiller Tuesday.

Now, here's a head-scratcher for you.

Democrat Jill Schiller is out campaigning hard in Ohio's Second Congressional District, harder than anyone else has since incumbent Republican Brad Wenstrup first won the seat in 2012.

Cincinnati Congressman Brad Wenstrup, who was a combat surgeon, was pressed into action Wednesday morning during the shooting at the Republican congressional baseball practice in Alexandria, Va.

There are still about 19 months before anyone in the U.S. has to vote in the mid-term Congressional elections of 2018 – a fact that would make one think that things are rather quiet on that front these days.

Except they aren't quiet.

In fact, there is a small crowd of potential Democrats gathering (and organizing) to take on three-term incumbent Republican Brad Wenstrup in Ohio's Second Congressional District next year.

Does this seem odd to you? In this heavily Republican district, one that stretches from eastern Hamilton County east to Pike and Scioto counties?

Update Sept. 2​6, 2016: The Ohio Democratic Party has taken the unusual step of endorsing a write-in candidate in the Second Congressional District race. 

Saturday, party leaders met in Columbus and gave their endorsement to Janet Everhard, a retired physician from New Richmond over the man who won the March Democratic primary, truck driver William R. Smith of Pike County.

CLEVELAND – Every one of the 66 Ohio delegates to the Republican National Convention here are committed to cast their ballots for Gov. John Kasich Tuesday night.

And they will cast their votes for the losing candidate. Donald J. Trump will be the nominee.

Rep. Jean Schmidt had been living on the edge ever since she was first elected in a special 2nd Congressional District election in 2005.

This year, she fell off the edge.

On January 7, Brad Wenstrup, the podiatrist and Iraq war veteran from Columbia Tusculum who defeated her in last March’s GOP primary, will take over as the congressman from the sprawling district that runs from eastern Hamilton County all the way to Pike and Scioto counties.

For Schmidt, the past eight years was quite a ride.

Brad Wenstrup, the newly-elected congressman from Ohio's 2nd Congressional District, has volunteered to join the House Republican Policy Committee, a group which helps set the legislative agenda for House Republicans.

Wenstrup - a 54-year-old podiatrist and Iraq war veteran from Columbia Tusculum - takes office in January, after pulling an upset victory over Rep. Jean Schmidt in the March GOP primary and easily defeating a little-known and seldom-seen Democrat, William R. Smith of Pike County, in the November election. Wenstrup won with 59 percent of the vote.

First district Congressman Steve Chabot has been re-elected for a ninth term. He says he's willing to work with President Obama, if Mr. Obama is willing to work with Congress.

"We need to do what's right for the country and it's a whole lot better if you have a President working together. The President wasn't particularly interested in working with a Republican Congress recently in the last couple of years and hopefully that will change."