State Rep. Gary Click survived a bruising Republican primary in Ohio House District 88 on Tuesday by fewer than 600 estimated votes — but lost Seneca County to challenger Eric Watson, holding the seat only on the strength of his home county of Sandusky.

Click, a three-term incumbent from Vickery and ex-pastor who quietly stepped down from his church in 2025, finished with 6,859 votes (52.28%) to Watson’s 6,260 votes (47.72%), according to unofficial returns from the Sandusky and Seneca county boards of elections as of 9:21 p.m. Tuesday. The 599-vote margin out of 13,119 ballots cast left nearly half of the Republicans who voted in the two-county district choosing the challenger over their sitting representative.

The result was one of the narrowest GOP incumbent primary margins in northwest Ohio this cycle, and it landed after months of escalating attacks that pulled Click — once considered a safely conservative incumbent — into a defensive posture against an opponent running to his right.

A district split in two

The headline number masked a sharper geographic split. According to Decision Desk HQ data with more than 95% of the vote reporting, Click carried Sandusky County, where he lives, by 15.4 percentage points. In Seneca County, where Watson lives, Watson won by 8.5 points. Sandusky cast 7,189 votes in the race; Seneca cast 5,930.

Click’s home-county margin alone produced the district-wide victory. Without it, the result inverts.

The split is not a routine home-county effect for an incumbent who has represented both counties since 2021. It is a 14-county-point swing between two adjacent counties that share a state representative. And it lines up with the geography of the campaign — Watson held forums and built his volunteer base in Tiffin and Fostoria, while Click’s institutional support and donor network sat closer to Fremont and Clyde.

A primary that turned personal

The contest grew sharper in its closing weeks. Five days before Election Day, Ohio Gun Owners downgraded Click to an F rating, citing what the organization described as undisclosed campaign contributions from gun-control lobbyists. Watson held the group’s “Aq” rating — its top score for non-incumbent candidates.

The endorsement of Watson by End Abortion Ohio earlier this spring prompted Click to label the group “clowns” on Facebook, a post that drew rebukes from his own supporters in the comment section.

The candidates also clashed in person. At a Sandusky County Republican Women candidate forum in March, Watson drew repeated applause as he pressed Click on guns, digital identification legislation, and data center policy. Click skipped a separate League of Women Voters forum in Tiffin the night before, citing a House session conflict.

A challenger from the right

Watson, a Tiffin small-business owner who founded Watson’s Hat Shop in Cave Creek, Arizona, before returning to Seneca County in 2022, campaigned on opposition to data centers on farmland, an end to property taxes, rejection of digital identification, and what he described as defense of “conservative Christian values.”

Throughout the primary, Watson hammered Click over campaign finance records showing the incumbent raised the bulk of his money from corporate political action committees and donors outside the 88th District. A TiffinOhio.net analysis of Click’s contributions from 2020 through 2025 found that less than 14% of his total campaign funding came from individual donors inside Sandusky and Seneca counties.

Click, who chairs the House Community Revitalization Committee and sponsored House Bill 68 — the “SAFE Act” restricting gender-affirming care for minors and transgender participation in school sports — leaned on his legislative record and ties to House Republican leadership to defend his seat.

Watson concedes — but holds back endorsement

In a written statement issued Tuesday night, Watson conceded the race and confirmed he had called Click to congratulate him, but pointedly declined to offer an endorsement. The statement led with the Seneca County result.

“Tonight, we proved a lot of people wrong,” Watson said in the statement. “Many said this campaign wouldn’t even clear one-third of the vote, but we won Seneca County by a significant margin and built a movement that nobody can ignore. While we came up short tonight, I am incredibly proud of what our team and supporters accomplished in such a short amount of time.”

Watson said he had spoken with Click directly: “Earlier tonight, we called Representative Gary Click to congratulate him on his victory. We had a gracious conversation focused on the people of District 88 and the future of our communities.”

On the question of whether he would back Click in the general election, Watson was unequivocal: “The topic of endorsements will not be discussed at this time.” He closed the statement by signaling future political plans: “This is not the last the people of District 88 have seen of Eric Watson.”

What’s next

Click will advance to the November 3 general election against Democratic nominee Aaron Jones, a Tiffin City Councilman, U.S. Army veteran, and longtime manufacturing supervisor who ran unopposed in the Democratic primary. Jones lives and was elected in Seneca County — the same county Click lost to Watson on Tuesday. Libertarian Ben Machoukas is competing as a write-in candidate.

Tuesday’s results are unofficial pending certification by the Sandusky and Seneca county boards of elections.