Derek Merrin Wins Ohio 9th District GOP Primary Over ICE's Ex-Deputy Director

Former Immigration and Customs Enforcement Deputy Director Madison Sheahan placed third in Ohio's Republican primary for the 9th Congressional District on Tuesday night.

State Rep. Derek Merrin won with 44.1% of the vote, according to Associated Press results. State Rep. Josh Williams came in second with 24.3%, and Sheahan received 20.2%.

Merrin's victory offers Republicans a stronger chance to unseat Rep. Marcy Kaptur, D-Ohio, the longest-serving woman in congressional history. The northwest Ohio district around Toledo ranks high on the National Republican Congressional Committee's target list for the midterms. Kaptur has held the seat since 1983 and won re-election in 2024 by 0.64%, or 2,382 votes, over Merrin. Former President Donald Trump carried the district by seven points that year.

"40-year career politician Marcy Kaptur has failed Ohioans for decades and Northwest Ohioans are ready for change," NRCC spokesman Zach Bannon said Wednesday.

"While Kaptur has pushed a radical far-left agenda of higher taxes, open borders, and sex change surgeries for kids, Derek Merrin is set to flip the seat red in order to deliver commonsense leadership and real results."

Sheahan, 29, resigned as ICE deputy director in January to run. She had worked on Trump's immigration policies and served as an aide to South Dakota Gov. Kristi Noem. In her campaign launch video with Noem, Sheahan wore ICE gear and said, "In less than one year at ICE, I’ve stopped more illegal immigration than Marcy Kaptur has in her 43 years in Washington."

"So when the call came to help President Trump clean up the dangerous immigration mess, as deputy director of ICE, I answered the call."

She also said, "In Washington, hypocrisy, excuses and failure can earn you a lifetime job. But on my family farm, that would have put us out of business."

Local analysts said voters focused more on economic issues like manufacturing jobs and tariffs. Merrin started with better name recognition. Sheahan, from tiny Curtice near Lake Erie, called herself a Trump conservative but had recently returned after time in Louisiana and South Dakota.

Some Republicans saw Sheahan's ICE ties as a risk amid scrutiny of the agency's enforcement, including fatal shootings by officers this year. Democrat operative Aaron Pickrell told The Washington Post, "There hasn’t been an enormous amount of chatter about her. Even within Ohio Republican politics, immigration does not seem like the driving factor."

A GOP operative told the Post that immigration enforcement remains a winning issue for Republicans in the district, state and nationally. "Immigration does fire up the base in districts like that, especially in a low-turnout election when you need low-propensity Trump voters," the operative said. "This issue galvanizes them."