COLUMBUS, Ohio (AP) — Her Trump-backed Republican rival said Friday he had called on Democratic U.S. Rep. Marcy Kaptur to concede defeat in the 2024 election.
In a video posted on rest and recharge with his family.
The race for Ohio’s 9th Congressional District was not settled until Wednesday, when Kaptur led Merrin by about 2,300 votes, or 0.7% of the vote, according to official results. That barely prevented the automatic recount that would have been triggered at 0.5%. Libertarian Tom Pruss, whose campaign was boosted by more than $400,000 from the pro-Democrat Voter Protection Project, won more than 4% of the vote.
Merrin pointed to the contest’s enormous price tag as evidence that Republicans were competitive with the longest-serving woman in Congress.
“Guys, they spent over ten million dollars against us. The Democrats supported a third party candidate to siphon votes from us, they beat us hard in the media for almost a hundred days, and that’s life, man, that’s politics,” he said. “We were lucky that we could get the money. Our message got out, and outside groups were able to talk about Marcy’s record, and that way it was mostly a fair fight – and Marcy Kaptur got more votes than us, and that I accept.
Merrin pledged to help the other Republican candidates who were successful in the state as he faces term limits in the Legislature at the end of the year. That includes newly elected President Donald Trump, who won Ohio for the third time on Nov. 5, and Bernie Moreno, who dethroned veteran Democratic U.S. Sen. Sherrod Brown.
“We stood up for our Constitution, we fought for lower taxes and fiscal responsibility, set out a vision for greater prosperity in northwest Ohio and we couldn’t win,” Merrin said, “but our message and our team across America won . ”
