YOUNGSTOWN — The Mahoning County Board of Elections certified the election results, which saw historic victories for the Republican Party.

The board added 1,801 provisional and late-arriving absentee ballots to the final count and certified Tuesday.

The county, a Democratic stronghold since the 1936 presidential election, went so red that even U.S. Sen. Sherrod Brown, a Democrat who lost statewide to Republican Bernie Moreno, came up short in Mahoning.

On election night, Moreno was ahead by 234 votes. The final outcome had Moreno win by 220 votes, 54,067 to 53,847. That’s a margin of 0.2 of a percent.

Mahoning County Republican Party Chairman Tom McCabe, who is also elections board director, said Tuesday: “We promised Bernie we’d carry the county for him and we did. We’re very happy with the outcome.”

Moreno said six days before the election: “If I win Mahoning County, the race is over, over. It’s over.”

County Democratic Party Chairman Chris Anderson said Brown’s loss in Mahoning — a county he strongly won in his three previous Senate campaigns — was particularly “painful,” as he’s been such an effective legislator.

Brown lost to “a guy like Bernie who had zero platform except I like (Donald) Trump,” Anderson said.

Republicans won four out of six contested countywide races on the ballot with Sheriff Jerry Greene switching from Democrat to Republican. Of the 11 countywide executive branch positions, Republicans will hold six of them in 2025.

“We’re very happy with the results,” McCabe said. “It’s really historic. We control a majority of countywide seats for the first time in 90 years. We’re elated. We were always confident we’d be able to win these elections. We went out and did it.”

The closest race for a countywide seat was prosecutor with Republican Lynn Maro winning by 0.76 of a percent, 818 votes, over Democrat Gina DeGenova. The final tally was 54,461 for Maro to 53,643 for DeGenova. Maro was ahead by 815 votes before provisionals and late-arriving absentee ballots were counted.

The next closest race was for clerk of courts with Republican Michael P. Ciccone beating Democrat Dan Dascenzo by 1,832 votes, 53,932 to 52,100. The margin of victory was 1.72%.

Dascenzo and DeGenova were appointed by the county Democratic Party to seats vacated by longtime officeholders.

Those two races were closely followed by a commissioner race that saw Republican Geno DiFabio beat incumbent Democrat David Ditzler by 1,998 votes, which is 1.86%. DiFabio, who lost a 2022 commissioner race by 130 votes, got 54,679 to 52,681 for Ditzler.

DiFabio was at the board meeting when he was declared the winner.

“It’s much better than the last time,” he said. “I came so close two years ago. I think I let my supporters down the first time and I wasn’t going to do it again. I worked a little bit harder. I can’t wait to start.”

Anderson said that in a bad year for Democrats nationwide, the party outperformed in Mahoning County compared to the rest of the state.

“We’ll never give up the belief that Mahoning County is worth fighting for,” Anderson said.

He added: “We’re not going to wish ill on anyone. We will continue to do the work we’ve been doing and now do that work in the role of holding (Republican officeholders) accountable to the promises they made because many of them made very hefty promises that aren’t even in the purview of what their jobs are. We will hold them accountable to every campaign promise that they made.”

Trump became the first Republican since Herbert Hoover in 1928 and 1932 to win two consecutive presidential elections in Mahoning County.

Trump captured 61,249 votes to 50,636 for Democrat Kamala Harris. Trump saw his percentage drop by 0.03 of a percent from election night to final certification while Harris’ went up by the same tiny amount.

Trump ended up with 54.09% percent of the vote in the county compared to 44.72% for Harris. The remaining 1.19% of the presidential vote went to other candidates.

The closest levy was the rejection of a 1.5-mill fire and emergency medical services proposal in Craig Beach. It lost 256-252. It was losing by seven votes before provisional and late-arriving absentee ballots were counted. It lost by 0.78 of a percent.

Overall turnout in the county for the election was 70.03%.

McCabe had predicted 72% to 74% turnout before the election.

He said nationwide turnout ended up being a little lower than expected.

Overall, 114,222 of the county’s 163,093 registered voters casted ballots in the election.

Of those who voted, 989 didn’t vote in the presidential election. But more people voted in that race than any other on the ballot.