Republicans have their sights set on ousting Rep. Marcy Kaptur (D-OH) from a seat President Donald Trump won by double digits. But they could be unsuccessful yet again, given the baggage of the GOP candidates most likely to be nominated.
Kaptur, the longest tenured woman in Congress, has served for over four decades, despite the Ohio GOP’s best effort to draw her out via mid-decade redistricting. Kaptur’s seat went from having voted for President Donald Trump by 7 percentage points in 2024 to 11 percentage points in a new map drawn by the state legislature last year.
Yet, the wily 79-year-old Democrat could get a lucky break because of the caliber of candidates the GOP is likely to nominate for the general election.
“No matter who emerges from Republicans’ ugly primary battle tomorrow, we’re not seeing a candidate in that field who can consolidate support or seriously threaten Marcy Kaptur in the general,” a Democratic operative, who requested anonymity to speak candidly, told the Washington Examiner.
Polling shows a tight contest between Republican state Rep. Josh Williams, former state Rep. Derek Merrin, and political newcomer Madison Sheahan. Until January, Sheahan was deputy director of Immigration and Customs Enforcement under former Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem.
Kaptur beat Merrin in 2024 by just over 2,000 votes, despite Trump carrying the district. The narrow loss in a good year with Trump at the top of the ballot has Democrats confident they can beat Merrin, if he’s the nominee, in 2026, when the environment is likely much friendlier.
Sheahan, meanwhile, is under scrutiny over ties to Noem and her tenure at ICE, which saw federal officers sent to cities across America. Her time at the agency also overlapped with the shooting of Renee Good in Minnesota by an ICE officer. The 29-year-old Sheahan has also faced sexual misconduct allegations, reported by the Daily Beast, which she has denied.
Williams, 41, was first elected to the state legislature in 2022. He’s made a name for himself as a parental rights advocate, even leading an effort to ban drag shows from being performed at venues where minors could be present.
Williams, however, has also come under fire for Facebook posts and memes he shared, some of which were sexual in nature, between 2018 and 2022.
“If after I nut I still want you to be lying next to me then i know if u a keeper. If I ask you ‘what you bout to get into?’ Just know we was just f***ing,” Williams wrote in one post.
In recent weeks, Merrin has come under fire for his ties to a consulting firm that is attempting to highlight Williams’s prior social media posts ahead of the primary.
The baggage by all three GOP candidates has Democrats giddy that Kaptur, who was first elected in 1982, can win another term.
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“Kaptur has proven cycle after cycle she’s a strong, trusted voice for OH-09 — and, bottom line, an election winner. She’s defied political gravity before — winning even when Donald Trump carried the district handily in 2024 — and there’s nothing about this cycle that suggests that’s changing, especially as the national environment continues to move in Democrats’ direction,” the Democratic operative continued.
The Washington Examiner reached out to Kaptur, Sheahan, and Merrin’s campaigns.