Hoagland and Republicans sweep state Senate races

Republicans won the overwhelming majority of Ohio’s State Senate seats Tuesday night, and the 30th District seat was no exception. Republican Frank Hoagland beat incumbent Democrat Lou Gentile by 8,859 votes, winning eight of the 10 counties represented in the 30th District.Gentile, who was appointed to the position to fill a vacant seat in 2011 before being elected to a full term in the Senate in 2012, won the popular vote in Athens and Jefferson counties, earning 47.2 percent of the total votes, according to The New York Times.Senate races across the state had similar results. Of the 16 Senate seats up for election this year, 14 went to Republicans.However, the 30th District election is distinct from those in the rest of the state in one key way: Hoagland is the only candidate, Republican or Democrat, to beat an incumbent senator. The nine other incumbent senators running for reelection in Ohio — all of whom were Republicans — won.Hoagland is also the first Republican to win the 30th Senate District since 1980, when Senator Bill Ress was elected to his first and only term.“With this election, the people of Eastern and Southeastern Ohio called for change,” Hoagland said. “I’m ready to answer that call just as I did when I joined the Navy.”