Ohio - 9th District

Incumbent -- Marcy Kaptur (D) ; Running for re-election

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District Information

District Profile from Politics in America

Along nearly 80 miles of Lake Erie's shoreline, the traditionally Democratic 9th moves east from Lucas County and Toledo into Cleveland's orbit in Lorain County. More than two-thirds of the district's population resides in Lucas. Outside of that county, farmland and vacation spots contribute to the local economy.

At the mouth of the Maumee River, the largest river flowing into the Great Lakes, Toledo still accounts for 46 percent of the 9th's residents despite a decade of population loss. Once nicknamed the "Glass City" because of its history in that industry, Toledo relied on auto manufacturing for decades. The city's blue-collar industries now struggle to provide enough jobs. Chrysler and General Motors once employed thousands of district residents, but production outlook for the local plants remains uncertain. The city's health care sector has grown due in part to the merger of the University of Toledo and the Medical University of Ohio.

Agriculture is important to the 9th, with greenhouse and fruit production leading the way, but tourism is a key secondary economy. Sandusky's Cedar Point Amusement Park attracts more than 3 million visitors annually to its 364-acre park and resort; it claims the most rides (75) and roller coasters (17) of any park in the world. In addition, millions of visitors travel to Lake Erie's Bass Islands each year, and Penn National Gaming plans to open a casino in Toledo in early 2012.

Toledo's large concentrations of ethnic blue-collar workers -- Germans, Irish, Poles, Hungarians and Hispanics -- make it a lonely Democratic outpost in rural, Republican northwestern Ohio. The 9th's easternmost county of Lorain (shared with the 13th) leans Democratic and takes in the strongly liberal area around Oberlin College. The district's Republicans tend to live in affluent suburbs on Toledo's west side, but are not enough to sway the district's vote at the federal level. Overall, the 9th gave Barack Obama 62 percent of its 2008 presidential vote.

Major Industry

Agriculture, health care, tourism

Cities

Toledo, 287,208; Sandusky, 25,793; Oregon, 20,291

Notable

Oberlin College, founded in 1833, was the first co-educational institution of higher learning in the United States.