Derek Merrin

This candidate is participating in a 2026 battleground election. Click here to read more about that election.

Derek Merrin (Republican Party) is running for election to the U.S. House to represent Ohio's 9th Congressional District. He is on the ballot in the general election on November 3, 2026. He advanced from the Republican primary on May 5, 2026.

Merrin (Republican Party) was a member of the Ohio House of Representatives, representing District 42. He assumed office on January 1, 2023. He left office on December 31, 2024. Merrin did not run for re-election to Ohio House of Representatives District 42 in 2024.

Biography

Derek Merrin was born in Smithtown, New York. Merrin earned a high school diploma from Monclova Christian Academy in 2005, a B.A. from the University of Toledo in 2008, a master's of public administration from Bowling Green State University in 2009, and a public performance measurement certificate from Rutgers University-Newark. His career experience includes working as a business owner, realtor, and state auditor. Merrin has served as a councilman and mayor of the City of Waterville.^[1]^[2]

2026 battleground election

See also: Ohio's 9th Congressional District election, 2026

Ballotpedia identified the November 3 general election for Ohio's 9th Congressional District as a battleground election. The summary below is from our coverage of this election, found here.

Incumbent Marcy Kaptur (D), Derek Merrin (R), and Kathy McKinstry (Independent) (Write-in) are running in the general election for Ohio's 9th Congressional District on November 3, 2026.

The election is taking place in the context of redistricting that changed the boundaries of the 9th District from those used in 2024. Inside Elections' Nathaniel Rakich said the new district boundaries favored Republicans more than the old boundaries had. Rakich said Kaptur had won the 2022 election by a margin of 13 percentage points while President Donald Trump (R) won the district by a margin of seven percentage points in 2024.^[3]

Kaptur defeated Merrin 48.3%–47.6% under the old district lines in 2024. An analysis by The Downballot of the 2024 presidential election using the 2026 district lines concluded that President Donald Trump (R) received 54.8% of the vote in 2024 in the 2026 version of the 9th District and Kamala Harris (D) received 44.2% of the vote in 2024 in the 2026 version of the 9th District.^[4] As of August 2026, major election forecasters rated the general election Lean Democratic, Toss-up, or Tilt Republican.

Kaptur was elected to the House in 1982. She earlier worked as an urban planner, including at the National Center for Ethnic Affairs and in the Carter administration. Kaptur's campaign website says, "Marcy Kaptur is a fighter for high-wage jobs, growing a workforce to meet the needs of the 21st century, and protecting our region’s most vital natural resource, the Great Lakes. She’s worked with both parties to secure investments in our communities."^[5]

Merrin is a real estate investor. He served in the Ohio House of Representatives from 2016 to 2024 and ran unsuccessfully against Kaptur in 2024. Merrin's campaign website says, "For the last 8 years, I have led the fight for conservative values at the Ohio Statehouse. Now, I'm ready to take the fight to Washington - defending our constitutional rights, demanding fiscal responsibility, and bolstering Northwest Ohio's economy."^[6]

As of June 30, 2026, Kaptur had raised $4.3 million and Merrin had raised $1.5 million.

The outcome of this race will affect the partisan balance of the U.S. House of Representatives in the 120th Congress. All 435 U.S. House districts are up for election.

Currently, Republicans have a 219-214 majority with two vacancies in the U.S. House.^[7]^[8] To read more about the U.S. House elections taking place this year, click here.

Committee assignments

2021-2022

Merrin was assigned to the following committees:

2019-2020

Merrin was assigned to the following committees:

2017 legislative session

At the beginning of the 2017 legislative session, this legislator served on the following committees:

Ohio committee assignments, 2017
• Aging and Long Term Care
• Agriculture and Rural Development
• Federalism and Interstate Relations
• Health
• Ways and Means

Elections

2026

Ohio's 9th Congressional District election, 2026 (May 5 Republican primary)

Ohio's 9th Congressional District election, 2026 (May 5 Democratic primary)

Ohio's 9th Congressional District election, 2026 (May 5 Libertarian primary)

General election

General election for U.S. House Ohio District 9

Incumbent Marcy Kaptur, Derek Merrin, and Kathy McKinstry are running in the general election for U.S. House Ohio District 9 on November 3, 2026.

		Candidate
		Marcy Kaptur (D)
		Derek Merrin (R)
	Submit photo	Kathy McKinstry (Independent) (Write-in)

	Incumbents are bolded and underlined.
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Withdrawn or disqualified candidates

Matthew Althaus (L)

Democratic primary election

Democratic primary for U.S. House Ohio District 9

Incumbent Marcy Kaptur advanced from the Democratic primary for U.S. House Ohio District 9 on May 5, 2026.

		Candidate	%	Votes
✔		Marcy Kaptur	100.0	45,827

	Incumbents are bolded and underlined. The results have been certified. Source	Total votes: 45,827
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Republican primary election

Republican primary for U.S. House Ohio District 9

Derek Merrin defeated Josh Williams, Madison Sheahan, Alea Nadeem, and Anthony Campbell in the Republican primary for U.S. House Ohio District 9 on May 5, 2026.

	Candidate	%	Votes
✔	Derek Merrin	44.1	25,092
	Josh Williams	25.3	14,419
	Madison Sheahan	20.2	11,501
	Alea Nadeem	5.5	3,109
	Anthony Campbell	4.9	2,800

	There were no incumbents in this race. The results have been certified. Source	Total votes: 56,921
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Withdrawn or disqualified candidates

Wayne Kinsel (R)
Jacob Frost (R)

Libertarian primary election

Libertarian primary for U.S. House Ohio District 9

Matthew Althaus defeated David Gedert in the Libertarian primary for U.S. House Ohio District 9 on May 5, 2026.

	Candidate	%	Votes
✔	Matthew Althaus	59.2	535
	David Gedert	40.8	368

	There were no incumbents in this race. The results have been certified. Source	Total votes: 903
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Polls

See also: Ballotpedia's approach to covering polls

Polls are conducted with a variety of methodologies and have margins of error or credibility intervals.^[9] The Pew Research Center wrote, "A margin of error of plus or minus 3 percentage points at the 95% confidence level means that if we fielded the same survey 100 times, we would expect the result to be within 3 percentage points of the true population value 95 of those times."^[10] For tips on reading polls from FiveThirtyEight, click here. For tips from Pew, click here.

Below we provide results for polls from a wide variety of sources, including media outlets, social media, campaigns, and aggregation websites, when available. We only report polls for which we can find a margin of error or credibility interval. Know of something we're missing? Click here to let us know.

U.S. House Ohio District 9, 2026 polls
Poll	Dates	Kaptur (D)	Merrin (R)	Undecided	Sample size	Margin of error
DCCC Analytics	Sept. 22, 2026–Sept. 23, 2026	48	48	4	481 LV	± 4.5%
Note: LV is likely voters, RV is registered voters, and EV is eligible voters.

Candidate spending

Name	Party	Receipts*	Disbursements**	Cash on hand	Date
Marcy Kaptur	Democratic Party	$5,910,481	$5,661,900	$697,508	As of October 14, 2026
Derek Merrin	Republican Party	$2,083,931	$1,353,755	$806,827	As of September 30, 2026
Matthew Althaus	Libertarian Party	$0	$0	$0	Data not available***
Kathy McKinstry	Independent	$0	$0	$0	As of March 31, 2026
Source: Federal Elections Commission, "Campaign finance data," 2026. This product uses the openFEC API but is not endorsed or certified by the Federal Election Commission (FEC). * According to the FEC, "Receipts are anything of value (money, goods, services or property) received by a political committee." According to the FEC, a disbursement "is a purchase, payment, distribution, loan, advance, deposit or gift of money or anything of value to influence a federal election," plus other kinds of payments not made to influence a federal election. * Candidate either did not report any receipts or disbursements to the FEC, or Ballotpedia did not find an FEC candidate ID.

Satellite spending

Satellite spending describes political spending not controlled by candidates or their campaigns; that is, any political expenditures made by groups or individuals that are not directly affiliated with a candidate. This includes spending by political party committees, super PACs, trade associations, and 501(c)(4) nonprofit groups.^[11]^[12]

The tables below contain data from the Federal Election Commission (FEC). They include totals from monthly, quarterly, and semi-annual reports, as well as 24- and 48-hour reports.

Details about satellite spending of significant amounts and/or reported by media are included below those links. To notify us of additional satellite spending, email us.

The table below summarizes spending by satellite groups in support of or opposition to each candidate in this race. Satellite spending is spending by outside groups, independent of candidates’ campaigns. It does not include spending by the candidates’ own campaigns.

Table 1: Summary of satellite spending by candidate
Candidate	Spending For	Spending Against	Total
Derek Merrin	$44,352	$64,500	$108,852
Marcy Kaptur	$3,050	$0	$3,050
Total	$47,402	$64,500	$111,902
Source: Federal Election Commission (FEC). This product uses the openFEC API but is not endorsed or certified by the FEC.

The table below details the total spending by satellite groups and whether it was made in support or opposition of a specific candidate. It breaks down the totals above by organization, with individual rows ordered by amount, largest first.

Table 2: Summary of satellite spending by organization
Organization	Support/Oppose	Candidate	Amount
AMERICAN RESOLVE PAC INC.	Oppose	Derek Merrin	$60,000
HONORING AMERICAN LAW ENFORCEMENT PAC	Support	Derek Merrin	$25,000
LAW ENFORCEMENT FOR A SAFER AMERICA PAC	Support	Derek Merrin	$12,000
CLUB FOR GROWTH PAC	Support	Derek Merrin	$7,352
AMERICANS UNITED FOR VALUES	Oppose	Derek Merrin	$4,500
FIELD TEAM 6, INC.	Support	Marcy Kaptur	$1,811
OHIO CITIZEN ACTION	Support	Marcy Kaptur	$479
GIVEGREEN UNITED ACTION	Support	Marcy Kaptur	$369
INDIGO PAC	Support	Marcy Kaptur	$268
THE PEOPLE UNITED PAC	Support	Marcy Kaptur	$113
SIERRA CLUB INDEPENDENT ACTION	Support	Marcy Kaptur	$10
Overall total			$111,902
Source: Federal Election Commission (FEC). This product uses the openFEC API but is not endorsed or certified by the FEC.

Race ratings

See also: Race rating definitions and methods

Ballotpedia provides race ratings from four outlets: The Cook Political Report, Inside Elections, Sabato's Crystal Ball, and DDHQ/The Hill. Each race rating indicates if one party is perceived to have an advantage in the race and, if so, the degree of advantage:

Safe and Solid ratings indicate that one party has a clear edge and the race is not competitive.
Likely ratings indicate that one party has a clear edge, but an upset is possible.
Lean ratings indicate that one party has a small edge, but the race is competitive.^[13]
Toss-up ratings indicate that neither party has an advantage.

Race ratings are informed by a number of factors, including polling, candidate quality, and election result history in the race's district or state.^[14]^[15]^[16]

Last four weeks

Ballotpedia reviews external race ratings every week throughout the election season and posts weekly updates even if the media outlets have not revised their ratings during that week. The table below shows the most recent four weeks of ratings until the election date, if available.

Race ratings: U.S. House Ohio District 9 election, 2026
Reviewing Body	October 20, 2026	October 13, 2026	October 6, 2026	September 29, 2026
Cook Political Report	Toss-up	Toss-up	Toss-up	Toss-up
Decision Desk	Lean Democratic	Lean Democratic	Lean Democratic	Lean Democratic
Inside Elections	Toss-up	Tilt Republican	Tilt Republican	Tilt Republican
Sabato's Crystal Ball	Toss-up	Toss-up	Toss-up	Toss-up

Change over time

The following table shows each date on which one or more rating outlets changed their rating.

Race rating history: U.S. House Ohio District 9 election, 2026
Date	Cook Political Report	Sabato's Crystal Ball	Inside Elections	Decision Desk
Most recent rating	Toss-up	Toss-up	Toss-up	Lean Democratic
Changes throughout the cycle
October 20, 2026	Toss-up	Toss-up	Toss-up	Lean Democratic
July 21, 2026	Toss-up	Toss-up	Tilt Republican	Lean Democratic
May 12, 2026	Toss-up	Toss-up	Tilt Republican	Pending
January 20, 2026	Toss-up	Lean Republican	Tilt Republican	Pending
November 4, 2025	Lean Republican	Lean Republican	Tilt Republican	Pending
April 15, 2025	Toss-up	Toss-up	Pending	Pending
February 11, 2025	Toss-up	Pending	Pending	Pending

Show 4 more rows

Note: Ballotpedia updates the race ratings weekly. A row is added above when one or more reviewing bodies changed their rating from the week before. The date does not necessarily represent the date the reviewing body changed its rating.

Endorsements

See also: Our approach to covering endorsements

Derek Merrin received the following endorsements and voter guide recommendations. To send us additional endorsements, click here.