Former Ohio Gov. Ted Strickland announced Tuesday that he will not be vying for his old seat in 2014 against John Kasich who beat him in the 2010 election.
In a statement, Strickland said that it was “a very difficult decision” to not run again, but that he and his wife would be “politically active private citizens.”
After six terms in Congress, Strickland served as the state’s governor for one term, losing to current Gov. John Kasich in 2010. Although Kasich’s term had a rough start, the Republican has since garnered more support from residents, the
Washington Post reports.
"Ohio has made giant leaps in progress in two short years under John Kasich and it will be hard for any Democrat to argue why he shouldn't continue to create jobs for hardworking Ohio families and put Ohio back on the right track,” Ohio GOP Chairman Bob Bennett told the Examiner.
Meanwhile, the Washington Post reports that in a statement, Democratic Governors Association Chariman Peter Shumlin said the party would be working to “return the seat to Democrats.”
In a Quinnipiac poll conducted in December 2012, 42 percent of those polled approved of the governor’s work.
"Ohio Gov. John Kasich still has work to do to convince voters that he deserves a second term, and there is significant support for a primary challenge to him. One in five voters are not sure whether they want him around for another four years," Peter A. Brown, assistant director of the Quinnipiac University Polling Institute, said in a release.
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