CINCINNATI — Alex Triantafilou has been the face of the Hamilton County Republican Party for nearly 15 years, but he just got a big promotion.
The state GOP’s central committee chose Triantiafilou as the Ohio party chairman on Jan. 6, a job that he describes as a “natural progression.”
Triantafilou, a former judge and attorney, had been the county GOP chairman since 2008, where he had the challenge of trying to win races in an urban area that has trended increasingly Democratic in recent years.
"Leading the Hamilton County Republicans is really a defensive action, trying to hold on to the few offices that they held, trying to win a judicial race here and there, but fundamentally being used to being on the short end of every election," said David Niven, University of Cincinnati political science professor. "Now he moves to a statewide situation where Republicans win almost everything. Now he really has the keys to the political kingdom."
Now Triantafilou will face a different set of challenges as he tries to unite Republicans in a state that is overwhelmingly red. Factions of the party have widely different views on topics such as abortion, immigration, gun control and the role of former Pres. Donald Trump.
"It’s one of the laws of politics — there is always an opposition, and normally it’s the other party. But if you get too strong, the opposition is within your own party" Niven said. "This is one of the perils of success. They’ve won so many races and done so well across the state that they actually represent their own worst enemy at this point."
Triantafilou’s two-year term as GOP leader extends through the 2024 election, with Ohio in the spotlight for its important U.S. Senate race. One of his top priorities is winning Democratic Sen. Sherrod Brown’s seat.
He plans to build a better GOP ground game, stress the importance of the early vote to many hesitant Republicans and encourage high voter turnout. But he admits his biggest challenge is party unity.
"His challenge really will be to convince people that there’s something to be gained by working together, there’s something to be gained by getting most of what you want," Niven said. "The enemy of that is people insisting that they get everything that they want, and ultimately holding the party back."
WCPO sat down with Triantafilou to hear about his goals, priorities and challenges. The following are excerpts from that interview. Some answers were shortened for brevity.
Q: What does the trajectory look like here, for Republicans in Hamilton County, for the 2024 election?
A: Look it’s going to continue to be hard … Republican voters frankly are leaving for more Republican communities. Butler, Warren, and Clermont counties have lower property taxes, better schools, safer streets so people tend to be fleeing. We know that trend exists, we have to combat it with a different kind of candidate … Optimistic is a hard word to use here, but I think we can have some reason for optimism if we run the right kind of candidates. But we know it’s a struggle in big cities, not just in Cincinnati, but across the county.
Q: Who are the right kind of Republican candidates in Hamilton County?
A: Candidates with a message that works across the aisle. Things like public safety sell in every community. Things like – the core services that government delivers, whether it’s fixing potholes or trying not to raise your taxes. On these issues, we feel like we have a good base of support among majority of voters. If we stay on those issues and avoid some of the more divisive questions that come up in American politics, I think we can do better.
Judge Megan Shanahan is one of more than a dozen Republican women serving as Hamilton County judges.
Q: You are going to be chairman during a very important cycle in Ohio in the 2024 election.
A: These are the … things I ran on — to really make sure that we keep this state red regardless of who the presidential nominee is. We cannot take for granted the big wins that we saw under Gov. DeWine and President Trump … we can have a better ground game, we can make sure our voters turn out in big numbers. Too often in urban areas, Republicans think their votes don’t count because they know how Democrat their neighborhood is. … We’ve got to do a better job in the early vote … One only needs to look at a state map to see how Democrats win. They win in urban environments. The entire state is red save for a few blue dots here … If we can blunt some of that and we can really make sure that some of our suburban votes come back home and vote for Republicans, we think we can defeat (Democratic Senator) Sherrod Brown.
Q: What are your challenges?
A: Party unity. Both parties struggle with keeping everybody in their own tent. Obviously, we just saw what happened in the speakers race in the U.S. House of Representatives, that very same issue exists in our party in every corner of the country really.
Q: How do you do that? You have a party that is in some ways split between people who like former Pres. Donald Trump and those who don’t like him.
A: First of all, I’ll say that Democrats have a similar split that I think gets less coverage. You have a lot of people who broke with Joe Biden in his own camp … it’s highlighted more on our side. There’s a couple of things that unite us. Defeating Joe Biden unites us. Delivering a Republican U.S. Senate unites us.
Q: How do you tackle controversial subjects (like abortion and gun control) with people in your party who have such different views?
A: It starts with patience. My personal style is to be a little more affable around these questions rather than buy into the angst. You know Paula really at the end of the day we have a good honest debate in the United States and if through that debate comes better policy, that is the way I think it’s supposed to work – and it should work.
U.S. Senator Sherrod Brown, D-Ohio, speaks to reporters about his hopes for the Brent Spence Bridge, Feb. 13, 2017. (Pat LaFleur/WCPO)
Q: Are there certain areas of the state where you will be spending more time?
A: Yes. Northwest Ohio is an area that’s very Republican-rich and an area that has really come over to the Republican Party in the last 10 years. I really want to make sure that we’re continuing to turn out our voters there. And then the Northeastern part of the state right along the Pennsylvania border, the Youngstown area … that’s another area that’s fairly Republican-rich so we’re already – two days into the job — we’re already planning lots of travel in those areas to connect with the county chairs, connect with our local officials there, and to turn out the maximum number of votes in those places.
Q: Those are former union areas, traditionally blue-collar Democratic voters.
A: That’s right. This is a message that I don’t think has properly been told … Paula, I grew up in a union household. My father was a 46-year member of the United Auto Workers Union. I know what union families deal with and the Democratic Party has abandoned working families a long time ago with higher taxes and walking away from issues like public safety and forcing all kinds of social change on us. So as Republicans, we have won that vote and we need to hold it regardless of who the presidential nominee is. Donald Trump, in his own way, despite some of the other noise around him and some of his campaigns and his candidacy, did an excellent job of talking to working people … there are messages there we can build on and work to really make sure we keep those people in the Republican camp.
Q: What do you think of the media, do you think we’re “fake news?”
A: I don’t. I’ve worked constructively with the media. But Paula I do have concerns about the media, and I’ve been public about it. I think there needs to be a redoubling of the media’s efforts to be fair and unbiased … I think it’s happened frankly in my lifetime, that I’ve seen people’s trust in the press deteriorate and I think that there is room to fix it in the mainstream press so people in my camp feel like they get a more fair shake.
Q: What are your predictions for 2024?
A: Nah, I don’t do that.
Q: Okay what are your hopes for 2024?
A: My hopes obviously are for Republican victories in those two key areas — the presidential race, that we keep this state nice and red. The deeper red, the more it helps our down-ticket races as well. And beating Senator Brown with a good-quality Republican candidate is at the top of the list.
I want to do other things as state chairman. I don’t want lonely victories at the top, I want people to win all the way down the ticket. I think we have the ability frankly to defeat somebody like (newly elected Congressman) Greg Landsman. And that will be one of our focuses because we’ve got a couple of seats that I think we could have won this cycle, that we can win in the future.
Q: What is your advice for having a civil political conversation with somebody of the opposing party?
A: It starts with mutual respect. Respect that the other person is not the extremist that they’ve been characterized to be by a lot of the talking heads. It begins with the idea that a healthy debate between the parties should lead us to a better place and hone your message even better.
One of the reasons I got along well with (former Hamilton County Democratic Party) Chairman (Tim) Burke was I had to be on my A game with him. He was a very intelligent, accomplished local attorney. We were both lawyers so maybe that helped some. We knew how to have the fight and then chat afterward. It starts with mutual respect and the idea that we all love the country, we just want to advance it in a different way … and I think it helps to have a healthy sense of humor.
WCPO Digitial Political Reporters Paula Christian (left) and Amanda Seitz (right) speak with Hamilton County Republican Party's Chairman Alex Triantaflilou and Tim Burke, Chairman of the Hamilton County Democratic Party talk about the parties and their candidates at the Parkside Cafe on Oct. 11, 2016. Phil Didion | WCPO Contributor
Note: The Hamilton County Republican Party is expected to vote on Triantafilou’s successor sometime next month.
