Spotlight on the OH 18th Congressional District

Republican Winner, Bob Gibbs
The 18th Congressional District stretches from north to south in the eastern region of Ohio, taking in the towns of New Philadelphia, Mt. Vernon, Newark, Zanesville, and Chillicothe. Primarily rural, it has a decidedly conservative lean in Presidential voting history, opting for George W. Bush by double digits in 2000 and 2004 and John McCain by eight points in the last election. Therefore, it is an anomaly that the district’s current representative is Democrat Zack Space, who was first elected in 2006. Prior to that, Republican Robert W. Ney enjoyed a ten year stint as representative. Right before the 2006 election, Ney resigned after being convicted on charges related to the Jack Abramoff influence peddling scandal. Zach Space benefitted from Ney’s fall from grace and the ensuing Republican disarray and won a landslide victory that year. In his second run in 2008, Space notched a win against Fred Dailey, a former state agriculture department director. State Sen. Bob Gibbs defeated Fred Dailey by such a narrow margin in the recent May 4 primary that a mandatory recount was triggered. After the recount, Gibbs’ lead held and he went on to trounce the incumbent Space, winning by a huge 52% to 40% margin.
Bob Gibbs
  • Graduate, The Ohio State University Agricultural Technical Institute, 1974
  • Founder and owner/operator, Hidden Hollow Farms, a livestock production farm 
  • President of the Ohio Farm Bureau Federation for two terms
  • Board of Trustees of the Ohio Farm Bureau, 1985-
  • Ohio House of Representatives, 2002-2008
  • Ohio State Senate, 2008-present: Chairman of the Senate Ways and Means Committee, Vice-Chairman of the Senate Agriculture Committee, Highways and Transportation Committee, Environment and Natural Resources Committee
  • Recognitions: “Guardian of Small Business” by the National Federation of Independent Businesses; Legislator of the Year by the Ohio Restaurant Association; three time recipient of the Watchdog of the Treasury award from United Conservatives of Ohio; prestigious Pork All-American award from the National Pork Producers Council
  • Life-member, NRA
ISSUES
  • Support public policies that incentivize the private sector to be innovative and invest capital to create jobs by cutting taxes, suspending the capital gains tax and regulatory relief; support initiatives to eliminate wasteful spending and reform the budgeting process; curtail the practice of earmarks; support Ohio’s manufacturing base and draw innovative and ground-breaking industries to the state; oppose Cap-and-Trade; increase access to health insurance while not making taxpayers and small business shoulder an unfair burden in terms of the cost, address the issue of tort reform and portability; Pro-Life; protect right to keep and bear arms
Federal spending and borrowing is so out of control that our national security and individual freedoms are at risk. I am committed as your Congressman to cut the spending and borrowing, and eliminate the practice of earmarks. Washington needs to send the pro-business signals that create confidence in our economy and ensure it is on solid ground so that businesses can confidently make investments and create jobs. The only way to restore confidence is to get spending under control, cut taxes and cut the red tape that is choking our economy.
New Leadership
The Spotlight On reports are overviews of actual Republican primary winners or top Republican primary contenders. Spotlights should not be interpreted as recommendations to support specific candidates. Before supporting any candidate, do thorough research to confirm that the candidate shares your views on issues you deem most important.