Richard Cordray, the former director of the Bureau of Consumer Financial Protection (it was called the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau when he ran it) won the Democratic primary in Ohio yesterday and will run against Mike DeWine for governor of the state in November.
Cordray, a former attorney general of Ohio before he ran the CFPB for five years, beat Dennis Kucinich, a former Congressman and fringe presidential candidate for the party’s nomination. Cordray garnered 62% of the votes from Democrats yesterday, followed by Kucinich who earned 23%.
From one published report: “This victory happened for a reason,” Cordray said after claiming victory. “You demanded change and we heard you and we want the same.”
DeWine is currently the state of Ohio’s attorney general who narrowly beat Cordray for the position in 2010.
The midterm elections are being closely watched by pundits and political experts who are calling it a referendum on the first two years of the Trump presidency. Worries are the Republicans could lose control of the House of Representatives, the Senate, and a number of state houses to Democrats. A Cordray victory in November would be a blow to Republicans in Ohio, which has long been a swing state on the national political scene.