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Columbus, OH — As debate season starts to ramp up in the closing weeks and days of the election cycle, Mike DeWine has continued to duck committing to debates across Ohio with Mayor Nan Whaley, even as the Mayor has already publicly agreed and challenged DeWine to a number of debates. DeWine also dodged a debate with his primary opponents earlier this year, signaling that he is scared to defend his record to Ohioans, especially since he’s debated political opponents in the past. It’s ‘DeWine Debate Watch’ Day 18, reminding Ohioans that DeWine won’t even try to make his case to them as he seeks re-election to the highest statewide executive office. 

“Mike DeWine clearly knows his record over the last four years of selling out working families in favor of the wealthy and well-connected is not going to be popular with Ohio voters. If DeWine can’t even muster the political courage to tell Ohioans why they should re-elect him, he doesn’t deserve the job and should be held publicly accountable for his cowardice,” said Ohio Democratic Party spokesperson Matt Keyes. 

Ohioans deserve answers from DeWine on a number of key issues, including his promise to ‘go as far as we can’ to rip away reproductive rights, his broken promise to ‘do something’ to combat gun violence in Ohio, his connections to the largest public corruption scandal in state history and his role in the failed redistricting process that produced GOP-gerrymandered maps and cost Ohioans millions of dollars. 

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Columbus, OH — As debate season starts to ramp up in the closing weeks and days of the election cycle, Mike DeWine has continued to duck committing to debates across Ohio with Mayor Nan Whaley, even as the Mayor has already publicly agreed and challenged DeWine to a number of debates. DeWine also dodged a debate with his primary opponents earlier this year, signaling that he is scared to defend his record to Ohioans, especially since he’s debated political opponents in the past. It’s ‘DeWine Debate Watch’ Day 17, reminding Ohioans that DeWine won’t even try to make his case to them as he seeks re-election to the highest statewide executive office.

“Mike DeWine clearly knows his record over the last four years of selling out working families in favor of the wealthy and well-connected is not going to be popular with Ohio voters. If DeWine can’t even muster the political courage to tell Ohioans why they should re-elect him, he doesn’t deserve the job and should be held publicly accountable for his cowardice,” said Ohio Democratic Party spokesperson Matt Keyes. 

Ohioans deserve answers from DeWine on a number of key issues, including his promise to ‘go as far as we can’ to rip away reproductive rights, his broken promise to ‘do something’ to combat gun violence in Ohio, his connections to the largest public corruption scandal in state history and his role in the failed redistricting process that produced GOP-gerrymandered maps and cost Ohioans millions of dollars. 

Read more from the Dispatch Opinion here and below: 

The Columbus Dispatch: Why isn’t Mike DeWine debating Nan Whaley for governor?
Jill Zimon
September 13, 2022 

• According to a new USA TODAY Network/Suffolk University poll, voters overwhelmingly say the candidates for governor and U.S. Senate should debate. In fact, 84 percent of them say the candidates should debate.
• We agree with the majority of Ohioans, and we remain ready to sit down with both sides of each race and help them respond to the electorate.
• How did these candidates get to the middle of September without sitting down to talk with each other about debates?
• Maybe candidates and campaigns are out of practice and are taking advantage of the break the pandemic gave in-person demands. Nevertheless, this survey shows that the public believes the leaders who want to serve them should get in shape and show up for in-person experiences.
• They often point to joint appearances at editorial interviews where editorial boards have their own agenda as they consider who to endorse. These are worthwhile endeavors, but they’re not televised debates.
• Other critiques say debates don’t offer new information about candidates, are only about entertainment, and don’t change people’s minds.
• Now, eight out of 10 Ohioans have said they too know the reality, separate from the campaigns’ rationales: in Ohio, we expect our gubernatorial and U.S. Senate candidates to debate.
• Incumbent gubernatorial candidate Mike DeWine actually helped set this expectation. He debated all three times when he ran for the U.S. Senate, including when he had a big lead in 1994 over Joel Hyatt, going on to win 53-39%, and in 2000, when he debated Ted Celeste and won 60-36%.
• And with the governor’s office, only once in Ohio’s last 10 gubernatorial races has there not been a general election debate, even when the candidates were not close.
• Those candidates and campaigns didn’t wait for a poll to tell them the right thing to do and the best way for one candidate to show how they contrast with another. They did what candidates do in strong democracies: show up, stand up, and speak out on a debate stage together.
• This tradition may be at risk, but it is more important than ever: With an open senate seat that has drawn international attention because of its role in the balance of power in our nation’s capital, Ohio’s first-ever female nominee for governor, and tens of thousands of new registrants in Ohio, people want to see and hear for themselves.

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Columbus, OH — Today, Ohio Democrats brought their “Not-So-Strong Ohio” tour to Youngstown as they travel across the state to lay out how Mike DeWine’s weakness is taking our state backward. 

For four years, DeWine has been too weak to stand up to extremists in his own party and the special interests fueling his campaign, instead serving as a rubber stamp for policies that hurt working families while failing to provide the leadership Ohioans expect from their governor.  

“On issues ranging from abortion rights to gun violence to redistricting to the largest public corruption scandal in state history, Mike DeWine’s weakness is costing Ohioans big time and taking our state backward,” said Youngstown Mayor Tito Brown.

Key examples of DeWine’s weakness include:

• Abortion Rights – Mike DeWine told an anti-abortion special interest group that he wants ‘to go as far as he can’ to rip away reproductive rights in Ohio. 
• Gun Violence – Despite promising to ‘do something’ to combat gun violence, DeWine caved to the gun lobby and signed gun bills that are opposed by Ohio law enforcement because they make Ohioans less safe. 
• FirstEnergy Bribery Scandal – ‘State Official 1’ has been dodging questions since October about what he knew and when about the largest public corruption scandal in state history, a scandal that continues to cost Ohioans $287,000 every single day. 
• Redistricting – Even as he knew the maps he was passing were likely unconstitutional, DeWine ignored voters, caved to his own party and rubber stamped seven illegal, GOP-gerrymandered maps. 

With this kind of record, it’s no wonder Mike DeWine is scared to debate Nan Whaley. He’s spent his whole time as governor selling out to the wealthy and well-connected and leaving Ohio workers to pay the price. 

“Ohio deserves better. We need a governor who will stand up to the bad guys, not do their bidding. We need Nan Whaley,” Mahoning County Democratic Party Chair Chris Anderson.

Ohio Democrats, like former Dayton Mayor Nan Whaley, are offering a better way forward: moving our state forward by investing in working families and putting kitchen-table, economic issues front and center.

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Columbus, OH — In case you missed it, a poll released from USA TODAY Network Ohio/Suffolk University shows Ohio Supreme Court races are ‘too close to call.’ Justice Jennifer Brunner, Judge Terri Jamison and Judge Marilyn Zayas are all polling within three points of their Republican opponents. Ohio is one of only four states in the country with the opportunity to flip its state Supreme Court, and the only one that could flip from GOP control to Democratic. That’s especially noteworthy with so much on the line for Ohio in the coming months – from abortion rights to redistricting. 

“Ohioans have an opportunity this year to reject the extremism of Republicans on the bench and put the Court back in the hands of justices who believe in the rule of law. For too long, we’ve seen the GOP-led court use the bench to play politics, and it’s time to restore integrity and justice back to the Supreme Court,” said Matt Keyes, spokesperson for the Ohio Democratic Party. 

Read more from the Dispatch HERE and below: 

Columbus Dispatch: Up for grabs: Poll shows close races for 3 Ohio Supreme Court seats
Laura Bischoff 
September 14, 2022 

• All three races for the Ohio Supreme Court are too close to call but about one in six voters has yet to make up their minds, a new USA TODAY Network Ohio/Suffolk University poll shows.
• The survey of likely voters showed Justice Sharon Kennedy, a Republican, at 42.2% and Justice Jennifer Brunner, a Democrat, at 41.8% in the race for chief justice − well within the poll’s margin of error of plus or minus 4.4 percentage points.
• Justices Pat DeWine and Pat Fischer, both Cincinnati Republicans, are facing 1st District Court of Appeals Judge Marilyn Zayas and 10th District Court of Appeals Judge Terri Jamison, respectively. DeWine leads Zayas 43.4% to 41% and Fischer leads Jamison 42.2% to 40.6%, the poll found.
• Brunner, Jamison and Zayas lead among voters who are women, minorities or younger than 35.
• Supreme Court decisions impact how much Ohioans pay in taxes, whether utility companies can add fees to ratepayers’ bills, how insurance and business laws are interpreted, what government records will be available to the public and more. Justices serve six-year terms.
• Ohioans typically pay little attention to state supreme court races and often skip casting votes for judicial candidates. But this year could be different for three reasons:
  • Supreme court candidates will have their party affiliations listed on the ballot for the first time.
  • Current justices made high-profile redistricting decisions on Ohio legislative and congressional districts that likely voters followed.
  • The U.S. Supreme Court overturning Americans’ right to abortion may spike interest in state supreme court races.

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Columbus, OH — Today, Ohio Democrats brought their “Not-So-Strong Ohio” tour to Dayton as they travel across the state to lay out how Mike DeWine’s weakness is taking our state backward. 

For four years, DeWine has been too weak to stand up to extremists in his own party and the special interests fueling his campaign, instead serving as a rubber stamp for policies that hurt working families while failing to provide the leadership Ohioans expect from their governor. 

“On issues ranging from abortion rights to gun violence to redistricting to the largest public corruption scandal in state history, Mike DeWine’s weakness is costing Ohioans big time and taking our state backward,” said Dayton Mayor Jeffrey Mims, Jr.

Key examples of DeWine’s weakness include:

• Abortion Rights – Mike DeWine told an anti-abortion special interest group that he wants ‘to go as far as he can’ to rip away reproductive rights in Ohio. 
• Gun Violence – Despite promising to ‘do something’ to combat gun violence, DeWine caved to the gun lobby and signed gun bills that are opposed by Ohio law enforcement because they make Ohioans less safe. 
• FirstEnergy Bribery Scandal – ‘State Official 1’ has been dodging questions since October about what he knew and when about the largest public corruption scandal in state history, a scandal that continues to cost Ohioans $287,000 every single day. 
• Redistricting – Even as he knew the maps he was passing were likely unconstitutional, DeWine ignored voters, caved to his own party and rubber stamped seven illegal, GOP-gerrymandered maps. 

With this kind of record, it’s no wonder Mike DeWine is scared to debate Nan Whaley. He’s spent his whole time as governor selling out to the wealthy and well-connected and leaving Ohio workers to pay the price. 

“Ohio deserves better. We need a governor who will stand up to the bad guys, not do their bidding. We need Nan Whaley,” said Ohio Auditor candidate Taylor Sappington.

Ohio Democrats, like former Dayton Mayor Nan Whaley, are offering a better way forward: moving our state forward by investing in working families and putting kitchen-table, economic issues front and center. 

“Under Mike DeWine, we’ll have extremists in the legislature running the show, pushing radical agendas that keep businesses away from our state and taking our economy backward,” said Ohio Secretary of State Candidate Chelsea Clark. 

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