Tuesday, May 8th was primary day in many states, including my home state of Ohio. While most results, such as Senator Sherrod Brown (the guy I’m voting for in November) winning 100% of the Democratic vote, were unsurprising, others, while maybe not shocking, were monumentous. At the very least, they were newsworthy.

Since Ohio is my main concern (considering that’s where I live), I’m mainly going to focus on the results from Ohio. But there is one thing from another state that I do want to discuss. So here are five major outcomes of this year’s primary (mainly from Ohio).

1. Issue 1 passes in Ohio

Tuesday was a big day for the fight against gerrymandering as Ohioans overwhelmingly voted for Issue 1, a gerrymandering reform. With 2020 being the year that decides how every state across the country redistricts, this issue is vitally important step in ensuring that all Ohioans are fairly represented for the next decade and beyond. Despite being a swing state, Ohio’s representatives are mostly Republicans, with a 11:4 ratio (OH district 12 is currently unrepresented).

With Issue 1 having passed, all future Congressional district maps must have bipartisan support, otherwise, they expire within 4 years as opposed to the traditional 10. The fact that this issue had bipartisan support, to begin with, is surprising considering that Ohio is one of the most heavily gerrymandered states in the country (one only needs to look at OH District 9 to see why). Hopefully now, future Ohio districts will more accurately represent Ohio’s approximately 50-50 voting demographics.

2. Mike DeWine beats out Mary Taylor

The era of John Kasich is officially over in Ohio as his lieutenant governor, Mary Taylor, lost to Ohio’s State Attorney General, Mike DeWine for the Republican governor candidate — that is, until Kasich runs for president again (which I don’t really think will happen in 2020 because that would be political suicide). Taylor’s campaign was pretty much doomed from the start after being endorsed by Kasich (who is not exactly the most well-liked Republican at the moment; see the 2016 Republican Primary and his subsequent refusal to officially support Trump). And as the last line of the article linked above says, Ohio Republicans are just trying to distance themselves from Kasich — which includes rejecting Taylor.

3. Richard Condray becomes Ohio’s Democratic candidate for governor

The Democratic Primary in Ohio was Richard Condray vs. former Cleveland mayor, 2 time presidential candidate, former congressman, and Cleveland State University and Case Western Reserve University alum, Dennis Kucinich. To be frank, everyone knew Kucinich would lose because... well, he’s just so radical and radical tends not to work when it comes to gubernatorial races (safe, moderate candidates usually work best). And Condray won in a freaking landslide, winning 86 of Ohio’s 88 counties (Kucinich won a grand total of 0). Also, Kucinich is kind of like Trump, so... he probably would’ve lost to DeWine in November anyway.

So, come November, Ohio’s gubernatorial race will be DeWine vs. Condray, which will be interesting. Will Ohio remain Republican after 8 years of Kasich or swing back to Democrat? Who knows?

4. Anthony Gonzalez becomes the Republican candidate for representative in OH District 16

This was perhaps the most talked about Congressional race in Ohio but only because it was a Trump-style candidate (Christina Hagan) vs. a traditional Republican (Anthony Gonzalez). And, like most anti-establishment candidates since Trump’s election, Hagan lost. She wasn’t even endorsed by Trump himself, according to the Canton Repository. This race continues to show the trend that President Trump himself is the only one who can run a successful anti-establishment campaign.

5. Speaking of untraditional candidates...

Ohio wasn’t the only state holding a primary on May 8th. West Virginia held their primary too, and their Republican Senate Primary was getting some national attention because of former coal executive and convicted felon, Don Blankenship.

Blankenship is perhaps the strangest candidate besides the actual Nazi running for Congress in Illinois (which is concerning, to say the least) and the accused child molester who lost Alabama’s special election in December — even stranger then Trump himself. Heck, Trump even went as far as to tweet to West Virginians to NOT vote for Blankenship.

Luckily, Blankenship lost — only winning ~19% of the vote. Still, it’s worth mentioning how bizarre Blankenship’s campaign was, considering it appears he was running against Senator Mitch McConnell, who doesn’t even represent West Virginia to begin with.

Just take a look at this video — in which he refers to McConnell as “Cocaine Mitch” and talks about McConnell’s “China family” (I believe the adjective he’s looking for is “Chinese”) — to see why I say that. And that’s not even mentioning his repeated “China people” ads (somebody teach this guy how to use adjectives) and calling his conviction over his involvement in a mine disaster that killed 29 miners a “fake prosecution.”

So, overall, this year’s primary shows that non-traditional, anti-establishment candidates are continuing the trend of being rejected by voters (at least in Ohio). This includes both Democrats, i.e. Dennis Kucinich, and Republicans, i.e. Christina Hagan. Also, much like Alabama, voters are still rejecting morally repugnant candidates such as Don Blankenship (still, that Nazi in Illinois is very concerning). And hopefully more states follow Ohio’s example and start passing laws to crackdown on gerrymandering.