Democratic candidate and small business owner Sarah Grace will face Republican candidate Jay Edwards in the November elections.
Just days after her campaign team knocked on its 1,000th door, Sarah Grace, one of two democratic candidates for the 94th District's seat in the Ohio House of Representatives, overtook Eddie Smith to secure her spot in the November elections.
Having won the primary election with 6,934 votes, 2,256 more than Smith, Grace now faces a new opponent — Republican candidate Jay Edwards, whose primary campaign ran unopposed.
"I'm ecstatic," Grace said as the final results rolled in. "I'm going to keep working just the way I have been, running a positive campaign ... and talking about all the great things I can do for our district."
Grace, a Vermont native, has spent 19 years of her life in Athens, including four years as a student at Ohio University, where she studied biology. Today, she lives in Athens with her husband, Todd Grace, who is the sitting Athens County Municipal Court judge, and their four children.
Together, the Graces own two local businesses: Grace Rentals, LLC and the Wizard's Guild, a comic books and collectibles stores.
Though her political experience is limited — her background is in real estate management — Grace has constructed her campaign on the platforms of improving community infrastructure, healthcare, public education and the economy.
Grace’s opponent in Tuesday’s primaries, Smith, is a graduate student at OU, where he also serves as president of the university’s Graduate Student Senate. Despite falling short at the polls, Smith hopes to engage in "any opportunity to help" his community.
"We gave everything we had," Smith said, adding that he was "very proud" of his campaign committee.
Although Grace and Smith ran their campaigns on similar platforms that stressed the importance of areas such as affordable education and rights for labor unions, the candidates differed on two key issues.
"As far as big issues, I'm really passionate about education and healthcare," Grace said. "I think we have to provide equal access to equal healthcare and education in our community."
Smith’s long-term environmental goal is the elimination of injection wells used for hydraulic fracturing, commonly referred to as fracking. Grace has called for a less vigorous approach, opting to support further regulation on the industry. The United States Bureau of Land Management is considering opening 31,900 acres of the Wayne National Forest for gas and oil drilling, something that has ignited political tensions within House District 94.
Within the past week, Smith and Grace also have clashed against the backdrop of the Grace campaign's Facebook page on matters of the minimum wage, evoking impassioned responses from community members. Grace, who supports a minimum wage raise to $10.10, as proposed in the Focus on the Future economic agenda, countered the opinions of Smith, who has since deleted his comments from the page.
If elected, Grace hopes to serve as an advocate for the students and teachers in Southeast Ohio’s public education system and has voiced her opposition to “excessive” standardized testing. She also voiced another concern Tuesday night about the accessibility of broadband Internet in the counties of the 94th District.
For 17-year-old Jay Mathson, this year's election was special. Just days ago, an Ohio judge ruled that 17-year-olds are allowed to vote in Tuesday's primaries if they would be of age, 18, by the general election in November.
"I just wanted to be a part of my family and also a part of the family that is the United States," Mathson said. "I voted for Sarah."
Andy Price, communication secretary for the OU College Democrats, shared in the excitement at the Pigskin Bar and Grille, where the group shared space with Bobcats for Bernie, as well as the Sarah Grace campaign.
"It's very interesting to see, because the student vote here is very high," Price said. "This really is a snapshot of what local politics is all about here in Athens County."
The results of the United States' Senate primary race mean former Ohio Gov. Ted Strickland (D) and current U.S. Senator Rob Portman (R) to face off in November’s general election.
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Statewide in the Republican primary, Portman beat Don Elijah Eckhart with slightly more than 80 percent of the vote as of press time. In the Democratic primary, Strickland beat P.G. Sittenfeld (D) with about 65 percent of the vote.
Athens County mirrored the rest of the state in both races. For the Republicans, Portman beat Eckhart with slightly more than 77 percent of the vote. Strickland beat Sittenfeld with more than 80 percent of the vote.
— Mikaela Ashburn, Julia Fair, Kaitlin Fochesato and Maddie Peck contributed to this report.
@lauren__fisher
