Gary Click lashes out after weakest election performance of his Statehouse career

State Rep. Gary Click (R-Vickery) won reelection Tuesday with the weakest performance of his Statehouse career after receiving nearly $93,000 in advertising and printing support from the Ohio House Republican establishment. By Wednesday, he was lashing out at Democrats and the press, declaring an exception to his “usual practice” of being gracious in victory.

Click defeated Democrat Aaron Jones, a Tiffin city councilman, by 23,930 votes to 16,927, according to unofficial returns from the Seneca County and Sandusky County boards of elections. Click received 58.57% to Jones’s 41.43%, an eight-point decline from his 2024 vote share and more than nine points below his 2022 performance.

Campaign-finance records reviewed by TiffinOhio.net show that the Ohio House Republican Organizational Committee, known as OHROC, reported $92,765.80 in in-kind contributions to Click’s campaign in its 2026 pre-general filings. Seven transactions included $91,124.33 in advertising and $1,641.47 in printing. Click’s own pre-general report separately listed more than $18,000 in cash expenditures by his campaign committee.

That substantial financial backing accompanied Click’s weakest general-election result since he first won the House seat in 2020. He received 62.90% that year, 67.80% in 2022 and 66.57% in 2024. His 2026 performance was also the weakest Republican showing in any contested District 88 midterm election since the district began encompassing Seneca and Sandusky counties in 2012. Republican Bill Reineke received 59.01% in 2014 and 65.87% in 2018.

Jones’s 41.43% was the strongest Democratic share in a District 88 midterm during that period. Click also ran behind other Republicans on Tuesday’s ballot. Across the same two counties, state auditor candidate Frank LaRose received 62.27% of the two-party vote, Attorney General Keith Faber received 62.02%, and state treasurer candidate Jay Edwards received 61.44%.

Click lashes out as Jones congratulates him

Following the election, Click used his campaign’s Facebook account to acknowledge that he ordinarily believes winners should be gracious before launching into attacks against his political opponents.

“It has been my custom to be gracious in victory. I think that is normally the right thing to do,” Click wrote.

He singled out Seneca County Democratic Party leader Gina Grandillo and the county’s Democrats, calling their conduct “disgraceful and disgusting.” He also attacked this outlet, TiffinOhio.net, which he described as a “fake news blog.”

On his personal Facebook account, Click separately accused opponents of spreading personal smears and alleged that “dark money from Chicago” had been used against him. His posts provided no documentation identifying the alleged funding or substantiating the accusations.

Jones took a different approach. In his public concession statement Tuesday night, he congratulated Click, thanked campaign volunteers and expressed hope that the incumbent would listen to residents concerned about property taxes, public schools and working families.

A source within the Jones campaign told TiffinOhio.net that Jones personally called Click at approximately 9:30 p.m. Tuesday to congratulate him and concede the race. Click did not answer, and Jones left a voicemail. According to the source, Click had not returned the call as of Wednesday.

Nearly $93,000 in GOP support after a primary scare

The substantial OHROC investment followed a Republican primary in which Click nearly lost his nomination to Eric Watson, a first-time candidate from Tiffin. Watson defeated Click in Seneca County and finished just 600 votes behind him districtwide, receiving 47.72% of the Republican primary vote.

Watson mounted that challenge despite substantially weaker fundraising and a series of extraordinary claims about data centers. In February, The Toledo Blade reported on a recording supplied by Click in which Watson claimed artificial intelligence data centers could harvest people’s conscious and unconscious thoughts, including while they slept.

Click’s campaign had already benefited from OHROC support during the primary. Campaign-finance filings reviewed by TiffinOhio.net showed Click’s committee transferred $45,000 to the Republican caucus organization, which subsequently reported providing $38,611.62 in campaign support. Click reported $69,461.37 in contributions through primary day, nearly four times Watson’s $17,488.05.

The incumbent ultimately survived both elections with the backing of Republican leaders and the party’s campaign apparatus. Jones, who said his campaign was outspent by a wide margin, nevertheless secured the strongest Democratic midterm performance in the district in more than a decade.

Click’s renewed attacks on Seneca County Democrats also followed his own documented false allegations against local political opponents. In August, campaign-finance records disproved his assertion that Jones, Grandillo and Fremont City Councilwoman Angie Ruiz had contributed to Watson’s Republican primary campaign. None had done so. Click deleted the accusation and acknowledged his mistake.

Three months later, Click celebrated his reelection by accusing opponents of dishonesty and alleging political funding from Chicago. His victory posts offered no evidence supporting those accusations, even as his own campaign-finance disclosures documented tens of thousands of dollars in advertising supplied by the Republican establishment.