Richard Cordray, Betty Sutton Join Forces In Bid For Governorship

Two leading Democratic candidates for governor have decided to join forces. Richard Cordray and Betty Sutton will run for governor and lieutenant governor respectively, the duo announced this week.

"We all deserve leadership focused on the kitchen tables issues that impact all of us," the duo said on Cordray's website. "For too long special interests have controlled Columbus and life has gotten tougher for everybody without a seat at the table."

Cordray is the favorite to win the Democratic nomination for governor. He was the former Consumer Financial Protection Bureau chief and a former attorney general for Ohio. Sutton was a U.S. Representative from Ohio's 13th district.

The duo will likely have to edge out Republicans Mike DeWine and Jon Husted, who formed their own governor-lieutenant governor ticket last month. Current governor, John Kasich, is term-limited and will depart in 2018.

Still, another leading Republican candidate is Kasich's lieutenant, Mary Taylor. She just announced her own running mate, Nathan Estruth, a businessman and political outsider who has worked as an executive for Procter & Gable and iMFLUX.

Republicans have owned the governorship for nearly three decades. Kasich has been the leader of the state since 2011. Prior to his tenure as governor, Ohio was led for four years by Democrat Ted Strickland. Before Strickland there were three straight Republican governors, whose combined tenures date back to 1991. That means Republicans have controlled the statehouse for 23 of the past 27 years.

Democrats are set to throw some weight behind Cordray and Sutton in an attempt to reclaim the statehouse. The party is likely banking on anti-Trump backlash, an interesting strategy considering President Trump won confidently in Ohio in 2016, edging Hilary Clinton by more than 400,000 votes, nearly 9 percent of the total vote.

Still, the Washington Post called Ohio's race for the statehouse a must-watch campaign and it continues to produce excitement. The paper said, "Democrats hope that Republicans' domination of the state mansion, plus anti-Trump sentiment, plus a liberal hero of sorts in former Consumer Financial Protection Bureau chief Richard Cordray running for the Democratic nomination, could give them the edge."

AP Photo/Tony Dejak