1992 marked the first presidential election since the end of the Cold War, and saw incumbent George H.W. Bush running for a second term against Arkansas' youthful governor Bill Clinton (D) and businessman Ross Perot (I). While Bush had been elected in a landslide 4 years prior, a combination of a recession and a broken promise not to raise taxes meant he was in serious trouble going into his re-election bid, especially against the charismatic Clinton and Perot's strong independent run. As the campaign ramped up, Ohio, a bellwether that had voted for every election winner since 1960, emerged once more as a critical battleground. Unlike the fellow bellwether-state of Florida, Ohio maintained their status on election day, with Clinton narrowly winning Ohio's 21 electoral votes as part of his nationwide victory.

Clinton's victory was fueled by his strength in the industrial regions of northeast Ohio, the shore of Lake Erie, urban areas, and Appalachia, while Bush did best in conservative rural and suburban areas in central and western Ohio (including among the Amish population in Holmes County). Perot, meanwhile, got an impressive 21% of the vote and saw support all across the state, doing best in rural areas out west and working class areas in the east*. Ohio, like the rest of the nation, voted to re-elect Clinton (D) in 1996, and maintained their bellwether status until 2020. As of 2025, this is the last time Coshocton County voted for a Democratic presidential candidate and the last time Franklin County voted for a Republican.