Last night John Boehner won his primary with 85% of the vote. A win for Boehner was all but guaranteed, but what makes it interesting is that the two challengers Boehner faced gained a cumulated total of 15% of the votes. These were two people who essentially did no campaigning at all and in a closed primary. So that means there are 15% of Republicans in OH-08 that wanted someone rather than Boehner.
This now sets the stage for November, where Boehner will have to defend his seat against Democrat Justin Coussoule. Coussoule is the first opponent Boehner has faced who is actively running and even embracing social media as a campaign tool. Boehner won in 2006 by about 30% against a Democratic candidate who basically didn’t campaign and only raised $5,000.
Now we got Boehner facing an actual challenger and that could make for a close race here in OH-08. Justin does have an uphill battle in this usually redder than red district, but given the low approval ratings of Boehner, we could maybe see a November miracle happen.