Richard Cordray won the Democratic primary for governor of Ohio on Tuesday, beating former Congressman Dennis Kucinich after a competitive contest.
Corday, the former director of the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau, ran on the “kitchen table” issues of healthcare and the economy in his bid to replace Republican Gov. John Kasich. Despite being cast as a bland candidate, Ohio voters picked Cordray over Kucinich, a longtime liberal hero who received an endorsement from Bernie Sanders’ group Our Revolution.
Progressive champion Sen. Elizabeth Warren, D-Mass., backed Cordray’s bid, but the former Ohio attorney general took hits from the Left. Kucinich criticized Cordray’s stance on guns and environmental protection.
Cordray repeatedly reminded voters throughout the primary that he was former President Barack Obama’s guy who took on payday lenders and big banks.
Kucinich attempted to appeal to voters with his progressive agenda of tuition-free college, Medicare for all, and touted his “F” rating from the National Rifle Association.
“If there was indeed truth-in-labeling in elections, Richard Cordray would be running as a Republican,” Kucinich said, according to the New York Times.
But Kucinich took heat from Democrats throughout the race for repeatedly taking money from a group sympathetic to Syrian President Bashar Assad.
In the end, Cordray prevailed, and he’ll proceed to the general as Democrats hope to take the governorship in a purple state that’s taken a turn toward Republicans in recent cycles.
He will face Attorney General Mike DeWine, who won a tough Republican primary against Lt. Gov. Mary Taylor. The Republican Governors Association taunted Cordray as a “power-hungry insider” with an “extreme liberal agenda and record of mismanagement” in a statement after his nomination.
