MANSFIELD – Ohio Gov. John Kasich won his home state in Tuesday’s presidential primary election, with Richland County supporting him.
Major news networks declared Kasich the winner shortly before 9 p.m. As of 11:30 p.m., the Ohio Secretary of State reported Kasich was ahead with 43 percent of the vote after 41 percent of Ohio precincts reporting.
“You’d better believe it’s about pulling us together, not pulling us apart,” Kasich declared in a victory speech in Berea, according to the Columbus Dispatch. “We are going to go all the way to Cleveland and secure the Republican nomination.”
Richland County voters followed statewide trends, declaring Kasich the winner but only by a very narrow margin. The Ohio governor barely edged businessman Donald J. Trump with 8,979 votes to Trump’s 8,812 votes. The two candidates were virtually tied with Kasich at 36.70 percent of the vote and Trump at 36.02 percent.
The two remaining Republican candidates Ted Cruz and Marco Rubio followed in third and fourth place, respectively. Cruz earned 5,727 votes (23 percent), and Rubio was a distant fourth with only 511 votes (2 percent). A total of 24,466 votes were cast for Republican candidates in Richland County.
After losing to Trump in his home state of Florida, Rubio announced he would suspend his presidential campaign.
“After tonight it is clear that while we are on the right side, this year we will not be on the winning side,” Rubio said in his concession speech in Miami, according to POLITICO. “I ask the American people do not give into the fear, do not give into the frustration.”
Rubio is the latest Republican candidate to suspend his presidential campaign, with the original field of 10 now narrowed to three. However, Richland County voters noticed that although many candidates had previously suspended their campaigns, they still appeared on the ballot.
“There are some candidates on our list that have obviously dropped out, but the only one that officially notified the secretary of state by the withdrawal deadline was Rand Paul, so we have to post a notice at the polls that any votes cast for Rand Paul will not be counted,” said Richland County Board of Elections Director Paulette Hankins. “The other candidates that have dropped out officially did not notify the secretary of state in time, so their votes are going to be counted just as if they were still running if anyone votes for them.”
Candidates that appeared on the ballot despite suspending their campaigns included Jeb Bush, Ben Carson, Chris Christie, Carly Fiorina, Mike Huckabee and Rick Santorum. Between the six candidates, they collected 437 votes in Richland County. Carson collected the most votes among suspended candidates with 248 votes.
On the Democrat’s side, Hillary Clinton earned 55 percent of Richland County votes after Tuesday’s primary, leaving her opponent, Bernie Sanders, with 43 percent. Roque de la Fuente gleaned 1 percent, with 115 votes.
Richland County cranked out 9,403 Democratic voters with a turnout rate at 43 percent.
On a state level, Clinton won by 13 percent against Sanders, earning her all 143 democratic delegates, according to the Associated Press.
She also won in Florida, Illinois and North Carolina, putting her ahead by roughly 300 delegates. Clinton’s winnings now amount to 15 states, as opposed to Sanders’ nine with Missouri to close to call early Wednesday morning.
“We are moving closer to securing the Democratic party nomination and winning this election in November,” Clinton told her supporters at a West Palm Beach, Fla. rally Tuesday night, the Washington Post reported.
She congratulated Sanders, who has yet to drop out of the race, for running a “vigorous campaign.”
