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Columbus, OH – In case you missed it, Chair Elizabeth Walters penned an op-ed for Cincinnati.com that details the deep connections between Ohio Republicans and the FirstEnergy Bribery scandal as the federal court trial plays out in Cincinnati. While disgraced former Speaker Larry Householder and former Ohio Republican Party Chair Matt Borges are the ones on trial, several prominent Republicans remain closely connected to the scandal, including those with higher political ambitions in 2024.

“Working Ohioans, who have been fleeced by radical republican politicians for far too long, deserve accountability, and we’re hopeful that the Larry Householders and Matt Borges of the world will be brought to justice soon. But we’re also hopeful that the Republican politicians who have empowered them or who stood complicitly by as they orchestrated illegal schemes will be held accountable, too – especially the ones who will be asking the voters of Ohio for a new job come 2024,” writes Walters. 

Read more of Walters’ op-ed for Cincinnati.com HERE and below: 

• This week, federal trials begin in Cincinnati for the largest corruption scandal in Ohio history. We’re hopeful that the individuals who orchestrated this multi-million bribery scheme will finally be held accountable. 

• We know that top-level GOP politicians and operatives took millions of dollars from dark money groups connected to FirstEnergy and used that money to enrich themselves and fellow public officials. 

• Over the coming days and weeks, we’ll hear about the misdeeds of Larry Householder and Matt Borges. But the scandal reaches much deeper within the Ohio Republican Party, including current elected officials with higher political ambitions. 

• Dave Yost, allegedly the state’s top cop, has yet to take any meaningful action to hold his friends in the Ohio Republican Party accountable for the bribery scandal. Which makes sense when you remember that his campaign manager was Matt Borges, who gave Yost a $10,000 donation after he got his piece of the pie from the dark money scheme. Yost himself said, “It would be foolish for anyone to accept campaign contributions from these defendants,” before he was publicly shamed into giving Borges’ donation to charity. 

• And there’s Matt Dolan, newly-announced candidate for U.S. Senate, who voted for HB 6 and told Cleveland.com in 2020 that he’d vote for it again.

• FirstEnergy’s dark money group gave $85,000 to Matt Dolan’s dark money group, and probably not out of the goodness of their hearts.

• Frank LaRose took more than $25,000 from FirstEnergy in 2018 and FirstEnergy still sits on LaRose’s top 20 list of political donors. As recently as 2021, LaRose was fundraising with the Strategy Group, who produced dark-money funded ads for the HB 6 campaign. 

• And sitting Congressman Mike Carey gave $100,000 to Larry Householder’s dark money group through his employer, Murray Energy. When FirstEnergy executives were texting about the donation, one put it pretty bluntly: “Mike Carey has all the paperwork.”

• Meanwhile, the organization that is charged with electing all of these folks to higher office – the Ohio Republican Party – has taken more than $85,000 from FirstEnergy since 2018 and refuses to give that money back. It would be an interesting question for their new Chairman on what he plans to do with all that cash. 

• Working Ohioans, who have been fleeced by radical republican politicians for far too long, deserve accountability, and we’re hopeful that the Larry Householders and Matt Borges of the world will be brought to justice soon. 

• But we’re also hopeful that the Republican politicians who have empowered them or who stood complicitly by as they orchestrated illegal schemes will be held accountable, too – especially the ones who will be asking the voters of Ohio for a new job come 2024.

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Columbus, OH – Today, Ohio Democratic Party Chair Elizabeth Walters hosted a virtual press conference to detail the deep connections between Ohio Republicans and the FirstEnergy Bribery scandal ahead of Monday’s trial in federal court. While disgraced former Speaker Larry Householder and former Ohio Republican Party Chair Matt Borges are the ones on trial, several prominent Republicans remain closely connected to the scandal. 

“Over the coming days and weeks, we’ll hear about the misdeeds of Larry Householder and Matt Borges. But the scandal reaches much deeper within the Ohio Republican Party, including current elected officials with higher political ambitions,” said Chair Walters. 

For example: 

Dave Yost

• Yost’s Campaign manager was Matt Borges, who Yost once called the ‘wise man of Ohio politics,’ and who is set to go to trial for his role in the scandal.
  • Yost took $10k from Borges before he eventually caved to public pressure to give it back. Yost once said, “It would be foolish for anyone to accept campaign contributions from these defendants.”

• Yost has not taken meaningful legal action to go after his friends in the Ohio Republican Party.
• Yost received a subpoena to testify in the trial.

Matt Dolan

• Voted for HB 6
  • Said he would vote for it again in 2020 to Cleveland.com 
• FirstEnergy’s dark money group gave $85,000 to Matt Dolan’s dark money group, who then tried to distance himself from the group. 

Frank LaRose

• FirstEnergy donations in 2018: more than $25,000
  • FirstEnergy remains in top 20 of his donors 
• Continues to fundraise with groups like Strategy Group that were instrumental to HB 6

Mike Carey

• Gave $100,000 to Larry Householder’s dark money group through Murray Energy
  • FirstEnergy executives texting about donations from Murray Energy wrote: “Mike Carey has all the paperwork.” 

Ohio Republican Party Donations 

• The Ohio Republican Party has collected $87,500 since beginning of 2018 and refuses to give that money back or donate it to charity. 

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Columbus, OH — Today, Ohio Democratic Party Chair Elizabeth Walters released the following statement in response to Republican Matt Dolan’s announcement that he plans to run for Senate in 2024. 

“Ohio voters have already rejected the Dolan family’s attempt to buy a U.S. Senate seat once, and we’re confident they will again. The contrast couldn’t be clearer: while millionaire Matt Dolan has been a shill for his corporate donors at the statehouse, Sherrod Brown has spent his whole career fighting to put working families first,” said Chair Walters.

Columbus, OH — In case you missed it, Cincinnati.com reported today that Attorney General Dave Yost is double-dipping into taxpayer dollars by retiring to collect a taxpayer-funded pension while also pulling his salary as Ohio Attorney General. It’s just the latest way Dave Yost is betraying working families and putting his own interests over the interests of the Ohioans he was elected to serve. 

“While too many working Ohioans struggle to get by, Dave Yost is using the office of attorney general to pad his own pockets instead of actually doing his job. With Ohio set to be the center of a federal court battle over the largest public corruption scandal in the country soon, we’re still waiting on any meaningful action from Dave Yost or the attorneys who work for him. Ohio taxpayers certainly aren’t getting their money’s worth,” said ODP Chair Elizabeth Walters. 

Read more from Cincinnati.com HERE and below. 

• Ohio Attorney General Dave Yost briefly retired from public service to start drawing a pension, a practice known as double dipping.

• Yost reported a salary of $124,196 in 2021, according to Yost’s financial disclosure statement, which notes no other income.

• Ohio Democratic Party Chair Liz Walters criticized Yost’s move, saying Ohioans are waiting for “meaningful action” from Yost on the state’s largest public corruption scandal.

• Later this month, Ohio House Speaker Larry Householder and former Ohio GOP leader Matt Borges face trial in a pay-to-play case involving a nuclear bailout. Both have pleaded not guilty.

• “While too many working Ohioans struggle to get by, Dave Yost is using the office of attorney general to pad his own pockets instead of actually doing his job,” Walters said.

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Columbus, OH — Today, Ohio Democratic Party (ODP) Chair Elizabeth Walters released the following statement after Mike DeWine signed a dangerous anti-voter bill into law that would take our state backward in the fight for voting rights. The bill punishes working Ohioans by putting up unnecessary barriers to the voting booth and making it harder for working families who rely on absentee or early voting to have their voices heard. 

“Ohio Republicans know that their out-of-touch agenda and anti-worker policies are betraying Ohio voters, and they don’t want to be held accountable. So they’re further rigging the rules in their favor and pushing one of the worst anti-voter bills in the entire country all so that they can keep lining the pockets of their corporate donors and leave working families in Ohio out to dry. Shame on all of them,” said Ohio Democratic Party Chair Elizabeth Walters. 

The bill signed into law would:  

• End Ohioans’ ability to use utility bills, government documents and alternative forms of identification in order to prove their identity and cast their vote; 
• Shorten the window for Ohioans to cast mail-in ballots;
• Allow only one dropbox per county, even after Ohio courts decided that the limitation was unnecessary;
• Eliminate in-person voting on the Monday before Election Day;
• Prohibit most curbside voting;
• Disenfranchise military voters. 

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