Democrats have an eye toward November as Cordray wins Democratic nomination in Ohio governor's race
By David Weigel May 8 at 11:09 PM
In race after race on Tuesday, Democrats voted to support the more electable-looking candidate to stop Republicans.
In Ohio, voters set up one of the year’s marquee gubernatorial races with the choice of Democrat Richard Cordray, who ran the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau under President Barack Obama, over former congressman Dennis Kucinich to face longtime state Attorney General Mike DeWine.
Kucinich’s run was seen as a test of whether Democrats would back left-wing candidates against the “establishment.” But in Ohio and other states, the party’s left fell short as better-funded candidates easily won their primaries.
In Indiana’s 2nd District, a health-care executive and former Republican named Mel Hall defeated candidates who backed a “Medicare for All” single-payer health-care system. In West Virginia’s 3rd District, state Sen. Richard Ojeda (D) romped to a win — even after telling primary voters that he had backed Trump in 2016. And in North Carolina’s 9th and 13th districts, moderate Democrats won landslides over more left-wing challengers.
The reasons were clear even at Kucinich’s election night party, where voters who had considered Cordray to be too moderate on guns and health care said they’d back him in November.
“I will be fine supporting Cordray,” said Melanie Wilson, 35, as she waited for results at Kucinich’s party in Cleveland. “We definitely want a Democrat to win in November in Ohio. We need that.”
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https://www.washingtonpost.com/powerpost/ohio-primary-voters-pick-candidates-for-one-of-the-years-biggest-governor-races/2018/05/08/2c2f6178-52c5-11e8-a551-5b648abe29ef_story.html