Ohio's first congressional district is currently occupied by Republican Steve Chabot, who won the seat in 1994.

The district includes portions of relatively liberal urban Cincinnati, as well as large portions of the city's more conservative western suburbs.

Cranley argued that Chabot is too conservative for the district.

"My opponent has a 100 percent approval rating from the NRA, a 100 percent approval rating from the Gun Owners of America and a 100 percent approval rating from the Christian Coalition," Cranley said.

"He simply doesn't represent the district; it has a minority population of over 33 percent, which is the highest of any in the country which is not represented by a Democrat," Cranley added.

Chabot, however, has been able to defend his seat successfully three times, including a win in a very close race against former Cincinnati mayor and current Institute of Politics fellow Roxanne Qualls.

In the last election, Qualls was defeated by a margin of only 9,000 votes, despite spending over $2 million on the race, which was then considered by the Democratic National Committee (DNC) to be one of the top four "target races" in the country.

According to Cranley and others, the DNC thought Qualls was the best shot they had to take the seat.