COLUMBUS — Ohio voters will pick a new state auditor this fall in one of the open statewide races created by term limits, choosing between Republican Secretary of State Frank LaRose and Democrat Annette Blackwell, the mayor of Maple Heights. Both candidates laid out their cases in interviews published Wednesday, Oct. 14, less than three weeks before the Nov. 3 election.
The seat is open because Auditor Keith Faber is term-limited after two terms in the job. Faber is not leaving the ballot — he is running for Ohio attorney general against Democrat John Kulewicz — and LaRose is likewise barred by term limits from seeking another term as secretary of state.
The auditor’s office is Ohio’s financial watchdog. It reviews the financial records of public offices across the state and investigates fraud and corruption in public agencies. The auditor also sits on the seven-member Ohio Redistricting Commission, giving the office a voice in how state legislative and congressional district lines are drawn.
LaRose, 47, is in his second four-year term as secretary of state, Ohio’s chief elections officer. He grew up in northeast Ohio, enlisted in the U.S. Army and served as a Green Beret, and in 2024 he ran for the U.S. Senate, losing the Republican primary to Bernie Moreno. He is campaigning on his experience running a statewide office.
Blackwell, 64, has been mayor of Maple Heights, a Cleveland suburb of roughly 23,000 people, since 2016, and her current mayoral term runs through December 2027. Before entering public office she worked in the private and nonprofit sectors for employers including KeyBank, University Hospitals of Cleveland, Deloitte and Ryan LLC, experience she points to as grounding for a fiscal-watchdog role.
The race is part of an unusual statewide shuffle: because every nonjudicial statewide office is open this year, current officeholders are effectively trading seats, and Republicans have a chance to control all of them. Republicans have held the auditor’s office since 1995, longer than any other statewide executive office, a streak Blackwell is trying to end.
Both candidates were asked the same set of questions about why they want the job and how they would run it, and both emphasized government experience they say demonstrates competence to serve as the state’s fiscal watchdog and to improve efficiency in public offices. For voters, the choice is between a sitting statewide officeholder moving across the Statehouse and a suburban mayor arguing that local and private-sector financial work is the better preparation. Early voting is underway, and the winner will be decided Nov. 3.