COLUMBUS, Ohio (24-7 News)--Democrat Tina Maharath is being declared the winner in the third senate district, flipping the seat in Franklin County from red to blue.
After a final count of provisional and absentee ballots yesterday, the 27-year old first-time candidate from Canal Winchester pulled ahead of her opponent and outside the margin requiring a recount.
Maharath had been the subject of over a million dollars' worth of vicious attack ads by the Republicans and was not endorsed by the Democratic Party, whose preferred candidate failed to qualify for the ballot.
With the victory, Maharath is the only Ohio Democrat to successfully pick up a GOP held seat in the 2018 elections. The GOP still holds an overwhelming majority in the Ohio Senate when the new General Assembly is sworn in in January 2019.