CQPolitics

The Republican-leaning 14th moves eastward along the Lake Erie shoreline from just outside Cleveland to the Pennsylvania border in the state’s northeastern corner. The depressed far northeastern communities remain reliant on the ailing steel, chemical and auto manufacturing industries, but have seen some new life from an influx of former Cleveland residents moving here from the city. Wealthy suburban residents help give the district the state’s highest median income.

The 14th’s portion of Cuyahoga County includes the upscale villages of Bentleyville and Moreland Hills in the east, while Progressive Insurance is based in Mayfield Village. The district’s lakeshore region, which takes in Lake and Ashtabula counties, is home to fruit farms and much of Ohio’s wine grape acreage. South of Lake, the district takes in all of Geauga County — a Republican-leaning, affluent, well-educated area — and northern Portage County. The 14th also includes northern Trumbull County and northeastern Summit County, taking in Stow and Twinsburg.

Despite being Ohio’s smallest county in land area, more than one-third of the district’s residents live in Lake County. Chemical company Lubrizol has headquarters in Wickliffe, which also is a manufacturing site for ABB, a power and automation technologies company. In Geauga County, the KraftMaid Cabinetry corporate headquarters in Middlefield is one of the top employers in the county.

In Lake, Republicans generally perform well in areas south of Mentor, such as Kirtland. Democrats do well in Painesville, where more than half of Lake’s blacks and Hispanics live. Lake narrowly backed George W. Bush in the 2004 presidential election. Ashtabula County, the state’s largest in land area, backed John Kerry in 2004, but overall, Bush carried the district’s vote with 52 percent. Although Cuyahoga County generally favors Democrats, Bentleyville, Chagrin Falls, Gates Mills and Hunting Valley all supported the Republican U.S. Senate nominee in 2006, four of the only five areas in the county to do so.

Major Industry

Manufacturing, health care, chemicals

Cities

Mentor, 50,278; Stow, 32,139; Willoughby, 22,621; Hudson, 22,439

Notable

Twinsburg calls its annual August gathering of twins the world’s largest.