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Columbus, OH —  Today, Ohio Democratic Party Chair Elizabeth Walters applauded Attorney General candidate Rep. Jeff Crossman’s pledge to fight for a woman’s right to choose and plan to protect providers and patients.

“While Dave Yost ran as fast he could to implement Ohio’s draconian six-week abortion ban and rip away reproductive rights, Jeff Crossman is prioritizing public safety, personal freedom and a woman’s right to choose. Ohioans have paid the price for Republican rule long enough, as politicians like Yost put their party’s interests above the interests of hardworking Ohioans. Ohio Democrats like Jeff Crossman are offering Ohioans a better way forward because Ohioans deserve better,” said Chair Walters.

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Columbus, OH — Late yesterday, Republican politicians released their latest attack on Ohio women as they introduced legislation that represents a total ban on abortion, likely including IVF. And make no mistake: Mike DeWine will sign this bill into law if he’s reelected in November.

DeWine has promised to “go as far as we can” to restrict abortion rights in Ohio and has already said he will sign the six-week abortion ban into law once it’s passed by the legislature, a bill which includes no exemptions for rape or incest. Republicans are already rolling out the playbook outlined by Rep. Jean Schmidt earlier this month, indicating bans on birth control may be next.   

“Mike DeWine is the most anti-choice governor in the country, and if he’s reelected it’s all but assured he will sign this extreme bill into law. He’s promised to ‘go as far as we can’ to restrict reproductive rights and should he win in November, he’s sure to keep that promise. This bill is a good reminder of what’s at stake this election and just how far Republicans will go to punish women, from ripping away abortion rights to banning IVF and coming for birth control in our state. Nothing is off the table for these radical Republicans,” said Matt Keyes, spokesperson for the Ohio Democratic Party.

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July 11, 2022

Good Monday afternoon, and welcome back to Mike Check, your weekly source of all the infighting, conspiracy spewing and corruption that’s making headlines in and around the Republican governor’s race and Mike DeWine’s statehouse, courtesy of the Ohio Democratic Party.

Here are some stories you may have missed:

A FULL ACCOUNTING: Despite empty claims from the DeWine team about the governor’s commitment to “transparency and accountability,” Mike DeWine still refuses to tell Ohio what he knew and when about the largest public corruption scandal in Ohio’s history. Last week, ODP filed a preliminary injunction in the ongoing lawsuit over DeWine’s unconstitutional refusal to turn over records connected to the FirstEnergy bribery scandal. We’re taking further legal action to make sure key records connected to the scandal are not destroyed by DeWine and Ohioans can get the answers they deserve. Bottom line, Ohio Dems will not stop fighting until Mike DeWine gives a full accounting of what he knew about the largest public corruption scandal in state history and when he knew it.

HUSTED’S BANK HEIST.  After months of asking, Jon Husted finally admitted his highly controversial paid bank board position will add another five figures a year to his six-figure government paycheck. After coughing up the financial details, Husted then tried to claim the bank job was “educational.” It’s only the latest example of DeWine officials looking to line their own pockets while working Ohioans are left behind.

THE BUCK STOPS SOMEWHERE ELSE.  When asked about a 10-year-old forced to cross state lines for an abortion following a rape, DeWine refused to comment on Ohio’s six-week abortion ban and defend his signing an executive order that put that ban into place mere hours after the Supreme Court ruled. A 10-year-old victim could not get critical healthcare physicians advocated for without driving out of state, and all DeWine could do was talk around a law he signed that created the problem in the first place.

Thanks for catching up with us, that’s all the Mike Check we’ve got for this week. Have a great week!

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Columbus, OH – J.D. Vance continues to face backlash for his extreme position and out-of-touch comments cheering on the largest rollback of women’s rights in half a century – including calling rape “inconvenient” and comparing abortion to slavery. Vance has tried to avoid talking about abortion since the ruling – despite praising it as an “amazing victory.”

“J.D. Vance can’t hide from Ohioans that he wants to force survivors of rape and incest to give birth. From now until Election Day, Ohioans will hold Vance accountable for comparing abortion to slavery and telling survivors of sexual assault that the trauma they’ve faced is ‘inconvenient,’” said Michael Beyer, a spokesperson for the Ohio Democratic Party.

Read more below:

Columbus Dispatch: Where do Ohio U.S. Senate candidates J.D. Vance, Tim Ryan stand on abortion rights?
Haley BeMiller
July 11, 2022

• Republican J.D. Vance and Democratic U.S. Rep. Tim Ryan are vying for the seat being vacated by Sen. Rob Portman. The two would bring staunchly different perspectives on abortion to the U.S. Senate if elected: Vance opposes the procedure unless it’s needed to save the pregnant person, while Ryan wants to eliminate the filibuster to codify Roe.
• While Vance supports “life of the mother” exceptions, he does not believe pregnant people should be allowed to have abortions in cases of rape or incest. In a Spectrum News 1 interview last year, Vance said “two wrongs don’t make a right.”
• “It’s not whether a woman should be forced to bring a child to term,” Vance said. “It’s whether a child should be allowed to live even though the circumstances of that child’s birth are somehow inconvenient or a problem to the society.”
• The “Hillbilly Elegy” author and venture capitalist also compared abortion to slavery in an interview with the Catholic Current last year, saying both have a “morally distorting effect” on society. To further his point, he cited a quote from President Abraham Lincoln: “As I would not be a slave, so I would not be a master.”
• “I think about this in the context of abortion, where you have a lot of people who, I really think, they’d begun to see children as inconveniences to be discarded instead of blessings to cherish,” Vance said.
• More recently, Vance told a conservative radio host the Supreme Court ruling is a chance for Republicans to lean into the “pro-life label” and ensure people have financial resources to manage unplanned pregnancies. He echoed that on Fox 8 News in Cleveland, saying lawmakers need to give people more options so they see pregnancy – planned or not – as an “opportunity.”

Vice: JD Vance Compared Abortion to Slavery
Cameron Joseph
July 7, 2022

• JD Vance compared abortion to slavery in an interview last fall, drawing a controversial parallel between America’s original sin and a procedure that until recently was a constitutional right.
• “There’s something comparable between abortion and slavery, and that while the people who obviously suffer the most are those subjected to it, I think it has this morally distorting effect on the entire society,” Vance, the GOP nominee for an open Ohio Senate seat, said in an interview with the Catholic Current last October.
• Vance then referenced Abraham Lincoln’s quote “I would not be a slave, so I would not be a master,” before arguing that because of abortion, many Americans have “begun to see children as inconveniences to be discarded, instead of blessings to cherish.”
• “I really think abortion has really done something very socially destructive to us as people in how we see the most vulnerable and the most dependent among us,” Vance continued. “I think that’s one of the under-appreciated facts about abortion. It’s really distorted our entire society.”

19th News: GOP Senate candidates don’t really want to talk about abortion
Amanda Becker
July 7, 2022

• In Ohio, J.D. Vance, the Republican nominee for an open Senate seat, said the country is entering a “new phase of the pro-life movement,” quoted from the Christian Bible, and decried the world view that it is “bad for women to become mothers but liberating for them to work 90 hours a week in a cubicle.” He then turned back to rising fuel costs.
• After the Supreme Court’s June 24 decision in Dobbs v. Jackson Women’s Health Organization, Laxalt, Johnson and Vance all praised the ruling ending nearly 50 years of federal abortion rights. Then, they pivoted back to talking about other issues, like fuel prices or immigration, and did not focus on the role they could play in further restricting abortion rights.
• “In the aftermath of the Dobbs decision, it’s pretty clear the Democrats are the ones who want to be talking about abortion, and the Republicans don’t,” said Kyle Kondik with Sabato’s Crystal Ball, a publication that provides nonpartisan political analysis based at the University of Virginia Center for Politics.
• The campaigns for Laxalt and Johnson did not respond to a request for comment on Dobbs’ potential impact. Vance’s campaign could not be reached. The National Republican Senatorial Committee (NRSC) likewise did not respond to a request for comment.

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Columbus, OH — In case you missed it, Anna Staver from the Columbus Dispatch reported on the latest fallout from Mike DeWine and his fellow Republicans’ continued failures to follow the law and pass fair maps: no set state school board districts just weeks away from the filing deadline. Republican law-breaking has already resulted in two primaries costing Ohioans tens of millions of dollars, and now schools, parents, students and candidates are all in limbo waiting for DeWine to do his job and draw the required legal, state school board districts.

“Elected members come from districts drawn using three contiguous state Senate districts, according to Ohio law. But the boundaries mapped in January no longer do that. DeWine created the maps using the first set of state House and Senate maps…The Ohio Supreme Court rejected five sets of state House and Senate maps as unconstitutional,” writes Staver.

Instead of putting teachers, parents and school children first when drawing the map, he put politics above anything else by drawing board of education districts that are no longer in accordance with Ohio law. Now DeWine has created even more chaos and confusion as he fails to draw state school board maps that reflect the current state legislative maps.

Read more from the Columbus Dispatch here and below:

• State board of education members adopt model curricula, review and revoke educator licensees, set standards for teacher education and develop long-term goals for Ohio’s 1.7 million public school children.
• Voters get to choose 11 of the board’s 19 members. The governor appoints the rest. Elected members come from districts drawn using three contiguous state Senate districts, according to Ohio law. But the boundaries mapped in January no longer do that.
• DeWine created the maps using the first set of state House and Senate maps. He had to. Ohio Revised Code says board of education districts must be established by Jan. 31. And if the General Assembly doesn’t create them, the governor has to do it.
• The Ohio Supreme Court rejected five sets of state House and Senate maps as unconstitutional. And Republicans on the redistricting commission have essentially given up on drawing another before the November election. A federal court ordered the third versions be used for 2022 only. Those maps will be used in Aug. 2 primary election for House and Senate races.
• “Gov. DeWine has an obligation to apportion new State Board of Education districts that reflect the third set of legislative district maps,” OEA President Scott DiMauro said in a statement.
• New maps “will be far from perfect,” he added. But the ones drawn in January “suppress the voices of urban and suburban families and significantly reduce opportunities for underserved communities to elect education leaders who represent their needs and concerns.”
• As for what happens next, that decision rests on DeWine’s shoulders.

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