State reference

How does government work in Ohio?

Ohio’s legislature, governor, courts, local governments and election offices, with a source for every fact.

Facts checked November 5, 2026. Anything we could not verify from a source is left out rather than guessed. Rules change, so confirm deadlines with the official election office.

132

State legislators

Legislature

4 years

Governor’s term

Governor

Counties

Local

Seats in the US House

Clerk of the House

Foundation: Constitution of the State of Ohio source
In effect since: 1851 source

What may surprise you here

Candidates for governor and lieutenant governor file together as one joint ticket from the primary stage. source
Voters can propose laws to the General Assembly, and can also propose constitutional amendments on their own. source

Legislature

Name: General Assembly source
Senate: seats: 33 source
Senate: term in years: 4 source
House of Representatives: seats: 99 source
House of Representatives: term in years: 2 source
Term limits: 8 years in each chamber source

Structure set by: Ohio Const. art. II, sec. 1.

Governor and statewide offices

Term in years: 4 source
Term limit: No more than two successive four-year terms source
Next regular election: 2030 source
Lieutenant governor: joint ticket source
Attorney general: elected source
Attorney general’s term in years: 4 source
Secretary of state: elected source
Secretary of state’s term in years: 4 source

Courts

Highest court: Supreme Court source
Intermediate appeals court: Courts of Appeals source
Main trial court: Courts of Common Pleas source
How high-court judges reach the bench: mixed: elected by voters statewide, by appellate district, or by county source

Local government

Called: county source
How many: 88 source
Cities and towns: Ohio’s municipal governments are cities (incorporated places with 5,000 inhabitants or more) and villages (fewer than 5,000) (2022). source
Schools: An elected board of education governs each city, local or exempted village school district in Ohio (2022). source

Elections

Chief election official: Secretary of State source
Who runs elections locally: County boards of elections source
Primary type: partially open source
Regular governor elections fall in: even source
Citizen initiatives: yes source

Who holds these offices

As of November 5, 2026. Terms of the current Congress run to January 3, 2027. Winners of the November 3, 2026 elections are not shown until results are certified and they take office.

Governor: Mike DeWine Republican, in office since January 14, 2019. source

US senators for Ohio
Senator	Party	Seat	Senator since	Current term ends
Jon Husted	Republican	Class 3	January 21, 2025	November 3, 2026
Bernie Moreno	Republican	Class 1	January 3, 2025	January 3, 2031

Members of the House for Ohio
Seat	Member	Party	In the House since
District 1	Greg Landsman	Democratic	January 3, 2023
District 2	David J. Taylor	Republican	January 3, 2025
District 3	Joyce Beatty	Democratic	January 3, 2013
District 4	Jim Jordan	Republican	January 4, 2007
District 5	Robert E. Latta	Republican	December 13, 2007
District 6	Michael A. Rulli	Republican	June 11, 2024
District 7	Max L. Miller	Republican	January 3, 2023
District 8	Warren Davidson	Republican	June 9, 2016
District 9	Marcy Kaptur	Democratic	January 3, 1983
District 10	Michael R. Turner	Republican	January 7, 2003
District 11	Shontel M. Brown	Democratic	November 4, 2021
District 12	Troy Balderson	Republican	September 5, 2018
District 13	Emilia Strong Sykes	Democratic	January 3, 2023
District 14	David P. Joyce	Republican	January 3, 2013
District 15	Mike Carey	Republican	November 4, 2021

Boundaries for the 119th Congress, simplified from the Census Bureau cartographic boundary file. For an exact address, use the House lookup.

Who has held each Senate seat since 2001

Each band is one person in the seat. The line marks November 2026; anything to its right is the rest of a current term. Dates through 2026 come from the congress-legislators public dataset, whose current members are matched against the Senate’s own roster on every build.

Senate seat, Class 1