A sunny, windy primary election day in Ohio on March 19 brought voters out from across Butler county and within Ohio’s 4th Senate District. 

It was a “pretty quiet day,” said Nicole Unzicker, director of the Butler County Board of Elections, with nothing out of the ordinary. Countywide, with early voting partially recorded, fewer than 20% of registered voters cast ballots in the March 19 primaries. 

In the 4th Senate District race, incumbent Sen. George Lang (R-West Chester), beat former Ohio State House Representative, Candice Keller, of Middletown, and former Washington, D.C. advisory neighborhood commissioner, Mark Morgan, of Middletown. 

Lang won more than 60% of the votes cast in the Republican primary, according to the Ohio Secretary of State’s unofficial election results. Keller came in second place with 27% of votes, and Morgan, in third, received nearly 13%. 

The candidates did not return calls for comment by publication time.

According to the Ohio Secretary of State, 33,000 votes were cast in the Republican primary and more than 8,000 in the Democratic primary for the 4th district race.

Tom Cooke, of Oxford, who was unopposed in the Democratic primary, said he’s looking forward to discussing a number of issues with Lang.

“Mr. Lang voted against women’s reproductive rights and access to abortion,” Cooke said over the phone. “The people of Butler County clearly pointed out that they were in favor of reproductive rights, so he’s on the wrong side of that issue.”

In the November 2023 general election, Butler county voted in favor of passing Ohio’s Issue 1 – the state constitutional amendment relating to abortion and other reproductive decisions – with a 50.8% margin. 

Cooke said other issues will include his opponent’s opposition to raising the minimum wage, his support for fracking, and his idea to remove the state income tax.

“My strategy is to put the heart back in Ohio and focus on the people rather than just business development,” Cooke said.