Kasich wins reelection as Ohio governor

Ohio Gov. John Kasich (R) won reelection Tuesday, beating a Democratic challenger whose campaign largely fell flat months into the contest, The Associated Press has projected.

Kasich had held a strong double-digit lead in polls in recent months over Ed Fitzgerald, the Cuyahoga County executive.

{mosads}Kasich is considered a contender for the Republican nomination for president in 2016, though he quickly gave up on a 2000 run. He has been Ohio’s governor since 2011.

The AP called the race when polls closed at 7:30 p.m. No votes had been tallied.

Fitzgerald’s campaign got off to a strong start last year and largely tried to focus on criticism of Kasich’s economic policies, tax cuts and transparency.

But Fitzgerald lost his running mate, Eric Kearney, to a controversy over Kearney and his wife’s tax debt.

More recently, Fitzgerald had to defend himself over a 2012 incident in which he was found in a car early in the morning with a woman who was not his wife. He did not have a valid drivers license at the time, according to the Cleveland Plain Dealer.

The race largely centered on public education, workers rights, civil rights and local government funding, the Plain Dealer said. But Fitzgerald failed to recover from his campaign problems to become a closer contender.