DAYTON – Richard Cordray has made a critical addition to his campaign for Ohio governor: the ability to deliver an engaging speech.

No, seriously, he has. The Democrat shot out of the gate in his first debate against Mike DeWine on Wednesday night at the University of Dayton, showing the kind of vigor and on-point messaging the public hadn't previously seen in Cordray's nine months on the campaign.

In fact, longtime Ohio political watchers say it's the best they've ever seen Cordray in a debate.

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An engaging Cordray has to concern Republicans with less than seven weeks until Election Day. It's a tight race, anyway, and DeWine isn't a very good public speaker. (There's a reason why the campaign trots out DeWine's polished running mate, Jon Husted, at press conferences a lot, including after the debate.)

If Cordray can build on this performance in the final two debates, he might be able to rally more voters to help the entire Democratic ticket. Maybe.

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Few people seem to be paying attention to the governor's race. It had been a boring battle to replace term-limited John Kasich. But Cordray aggressively attacked DeWine, the Ohio attorney general, on the opioid crisis, Electronic Classroom of Tomorrow scandal, gun control and a handful of other issues.

Frankly, Cordray didn't let up for the nearly hourlong debate. Politics Extra doesn't recall Cordray looking at notes one time, and he confidently criticized DeWine without making anything personal. For his part, DeWine also kept it out of the gutter.

Cordray smiled a few times at DeWine, who was clearly agitated. The veteran politician raised his voice a few times, at one point telling Cordray: "Richard, there's nothing funny about it."

Here's a Best of Cordray from the debate:

• On ECOT: The Republicans "stole $189 million from the taxpayers of this state right under your nose, and you didn't do anything about it. Now you've filed a lawsuit to get the money back. That's not a protect-Ohio-lawsuit. That's an I'm-running-for-governor lawsuit."

• On tackling the opioid crisis: "Asking you to be in charge of this is like asking for navigational advice from the captain of the Titanic." Cordray's line was popular enough that "Titanic" started trending on Twitter in Ohio. Who would've ever thought anything Cordray said would create buzz on social media?

• More on opioids: "Your plan is to hire an opioid czar. News flash! We've had an opioid czar in Ohio the last eight years. His name is Mike DeWine."

Where did Richard the Orator come from? Did he go to speech training? It's something the former Ohio attorney general had been advised to do earlier in his political career. Will Cordray deliver again on Oct. 1 at Marietta College in Southeast Ohio?

It was a year ago this month that Cordray nearly put the audience to sleep during the annual Labor Day picnic at Cincinnati's Coney Island. Politics Extra saw disinterested folks in the sparse crowd carrying on side conversations as the keynote speaker delivered a dry and wonky speech for nearly 15 minutes.

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Cordray had not yet announced his plans to run for governor. But his snoozer of a speech raised concerns inside the Democratic Party about whether Cordray could rally voters to help the Dems take back the governor's seat. Cordray wasn't much better in nearly a half-dozen primary debates.

I grabbed a cup of coffee with Cordray in Downtown soon after the primary. He was engaging and funny, and I remember thinking: Where's this guy when the bright lights come on?

Apparently in Dayton.

Follow Enquirer political columnist Jason Williams on Twitter @jwilliamscincy. Email: jwilliams@enquirer.com