Ohio House campaigns In 2000, Driehaus ran for the Ohio House of Representatives from the 33rd district, which at the time included
Delhi Township,
Price Hill,
Sayler Park and other parts of western Hamilton County. The incumbent,
Jerome Luebbers, had surrendered his seat due to term limits. In the 2002 redistricting, Driehaus' district became the 31st district and surrendered many Republican constituents. Driehaus has served the 31st Ohio House of Representatives district, which has included
wards 19–22, 25 & 26 of Cincinnati as well as Cheviot, Cleves, North Bend, and Addyston since the 2002 redistricting. This district is fully contained within Ohio's 1st congressional district. It is also (along with districts 32 and 33) part of
Ohio Senate district 9, which encompasses the south central portion of Hamilton County. Driehaus did not have an opponent in any of his Democratic primaries, and he earned at least 57% shares of the vote in each of his general elections for state legislature. He had been elected as the Minority Whip of the Ohio House of Representatives, replacing
Dale Miller for the beginning of the 2005 session, in a November 2004 vote after being reelected to his third term. Driehaus survived his own challenge from Scott Gehring with a 2:1 victory margin in the 2006 election for his state house seat. The district is regarded as a Democratically shifting maturing suburban district that is expected to vote more city-like as it becomes more dense. Ohio's 1st district was very high on the target list for the Democrats in both 2006 and 2008. Seven-term Republican incumbent
Steve Chabot, elected in the Republican wave of 1994, had won the district consistently, but with varying margins. From the time of the first official announcement on May 3, 2007, and first financial filing deadline on July 15, 2007, the race has been closely watched in the national media, and
Time described it as one of the 15 Congressional races to watch in the 2008 election. The DCCC has named the district's race as one of the thirteen that it is supporting in hopes of ousting a Republican incumbent in the
2008 United States House of Representatives elections. During the
2008 financial crisis, especially the
subprime mortgage crisis, one of the issues in the race was the candidates stances on
foreclosures. The race was considered to be close. As of October 14, 2008 (three weeks before election day),
The Rothenberg Political Report considered the race to be a toss-up. A poll by
Survey USA indicated that
African-American turnout would probably determine who won the race. Although a marginally Republican district, 27 percent of the district's voters are African-American — one of the highest percentages for a Republican-held district in the 109th Congress. The district includes nearly all of Cincinnati's African-American voters. In the November 4 election, Driehaus defeated incumbent Chabot with 52 percent of the vote, largely on the strength of a 16,000-vote margin in Hamilton County.
Barack Obama carried the district with 55 percent of the vote.
2010 congressional campaign Driehaus was challenged by Republican nominee and his predecessor, former U.S. Congressman
Steve Chabot, as well as
Libertarian nominee James Berns, and
Green Party nominee Richard Stevenson. As Chabot was ahead in public opinion polls, the DCCC pulled its financial support for TV ads from the Driehaus campaign, indicating to NBC pundit
Chuck Todd that they expected Driehaus to be defeated, which he was, 52% to 45%. Until the inauguration of
Greg Landsman, Driehaus was the last Democrat to have represented Cincinnati in Congress. In October 2012 Driehaus filed a criminal complaint against the
Susan B. Anthony List claiming the organization violated Ohio law against making false statements in a campaign advertisement. He later asked that the complaint be dropped. Driehaus later
sued the List, claiming the group caused his "loss of livelihood" by "defaming" him by saying he supported taxpayer funded abortion due to his vote for the
Affordable Care Act. The case was decided in favor of the Susan B. Anthony List (Defendants) (805 F.Supp.2d 412 (2011)). ==Electoral history==