United States Senate special election in Ohio, 2026
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On November 3, 2026, there will be a special election to fill the rest of the six-year term that J.D. Vance (R) was elected to in 2022. Primaries are scheduled for May 5, 2026. The filing deadline was February 4, 2026.[1]
The special election will fill the vacancy left by J.D. Vance (R), who was elected to the vice-presidency.
As of February 14, 2026, 11 special elections have been called for the 119th Congress. From the 113th Congress to the 118th Congress, 80 special elections were held. For more data on historical congressional special elections, click here.
The outcome of this race will affect the partisan balance of the U.S. Senate in the 120th Congress. Thirty-three of the 100 U.S. Senate seats are up for election, and another two seats are up for special election. Democrats hold 13 of the seats up for election, and Republicans hold 22.
Currently, Republicans have a 53-45 majority in the chamber.[2] To read more about the U.S. Senate elections taking place this year, click here.
This page focuses on Ohio's United States Senate special election. For more in-depth information on the state's special primaries, see the following pages:
- United States Senate special election in Ohio, 2026 (May 5 Democratic primary)
- United States Senate special election in Ohio, 2026 (May 5 Republican primary)
Candidates and election results
General election
The primary will occur on May 5, 2026. The general election will occur on November 3, 2026. Additional general election candidates will be added here following the primary.
Special general election for U.S. Senate Ohio
Gregory Levy and Stephen Faris are running in the special general election for U.S. Senate Ohio on November 3, 2026.
Candidate | ||
 | Gregory Levy (Independent) | |
 | Stephen Faris (Independent) (Write-in) | |
| ||||
 = candidate completed the Ballotpedia Candidate Connection survey. | ||||
| If you are a candidate and would like to tell readers and voters more about why they should vote for you, complete the Ballotpedia Candidate Connection Survey. | ||||
Do you want a spreadsheet of this type of data? Contact our sales team. | ||||
Democratic primary election
Special Democratic primary for U.S. Senate Ohio
The following candidates are running in the special Democratic primary for U.S. Senate Ohio on May 5, 2026.
| ||||
| = candidate completed the Ballotpedia Candidate Connection survey. | ||||
| If you are a candidate and would like to tell readers and voters more about why they should vote for you, complete the Ballotpedia Candidate Connection Survey. | ||||
Do you want a spreadsheet of this type of data? Contact our sales team. | ||||
Withdrawn or disqualified candidates
- Fred Ode (D)
Republican primary election
Special Republican primary for U.S. Senate Ohio
Incumbent Jon Husted, Brian Bibler, and Susanna Brewer are running in the special Republican primary for U.S. Senate Ohio on May 5, 2026.
Candidate | ||
 | Jon Husted | |
| Brian Bibler | ||
| Susanna Brewer | ||
| ||||
| = candidate completed the Ballotpedia Candidate Connection survey. | ||||
| If you are a candidate and would like to tell readers and voters more about why they should vote for you, complete the Ballotpedia Candidate Connection Survey. | ||||
Do you want a spreadsheet of this type of data? Contact our sales team. | ||||
Libertarian primary election
Special Libertarian primary for U.S. Senate Ohio
Jeffrey Kanter and Bill Redpath are running in the special Libertarian primary for U.S. Senate Ohio on May 5, 2026.
Candidate | ||
| Jeffrey Kanter | ||
 | Bill Redpath | |
| ||||
| = candidate completed the Ballotpedia Candidate Connection survey. | ||||
| If you are a candidate and would like to tell readers and voters more about why they should vote for you, complete the Ballotpedia Candidate Connection Survey. | ||||
Do you want a spreadsheet of this type of data? Contact our sales team. | ||||
Voting information
- See also: Voting in Ohio
Polls
- See also: Ballotpedia's approach to covering polls
Polls are conducted with a variety of methodologies and have margins of error or credibility intervals.[3] The Pew Research Center wrote, "A margin of error of plus or minus 3 percentage points at the 95% confidence level means that if we fielded the same survey 100 times, we would expect the result to be within 3 percentage points of the true population value 95 of those times."[4] For tips on reading polls from FiveThirtyEight, click here. For tips from Pew, click here.
Below we provide results for polls from a wide variety of sources, including media outlets, social media, campaigns, and aggregation websites, when available. We only report polls for which we can find a margin of error or credibility interval. Know of something we're missing? Click here to let us know.
| Poll | Dates | Brown | Husted | Undecided | Sample size | Margin of error |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
Emerson College NoteHypothetical general election poll. | – | 46 | 49 | 5 | 850 RV | ± 3.3% |
| Note: LV is likely voters, RV is registered voters, and EV is eligible voters. | ||||||
See also
- Special elections to the 119th United States Congress (2025-2026)
- United States Senate special election in Ohio, 2026 (May 5 Democratic primary)
- United States Senate special election in Ohio, 2026 (May 5 Republican primary)
External links
Footnotes
- ↑ Ohio Secretary of State, "2026 Candidate Requirement Guide," accessed August 22, 2025
- ↑ Both independent U.S. senators — Bernie Sanders (I-Vt.) and Angus King (I-Maine) — caucus with the Democrats.
- ↑ For more information on the difference between margins of error and credibility intervals, see explanations from the American Association for Public Opinion Research and Ipsos.
- ↑ Pew Research Center, "5 key things to know about the margin of error in election polls," September 8, 2016
