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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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For Immediate Release:
July 8, 2022

Columbus, OH – A new report from the American Independent exposes J.D. Vance’s longtime support for cuts to Social Security and Medicare. Vance wrote, “The way forward is as obvious as it is politically difficult: streamline the tax code, reform current entitlements and avoid enacting new ones.”

“While Ohio families are getting slammed with higher prices, multimillionaire J.D. Vance wants to make it harder for seniors to make ends meet by cutting Social Security and Medicare. Hardworking Ohioans deserve to know they can retire with dignity, but J.D. Vance only cares about fat handouts for his wealthy friends at the expense of those who can least afford it,” said Michael Beyer, a spokesperson for the Ohio Democratic Party.

American Independent: GOP Ohio Senate nominee J.D. Vance has supported cuts to Social Security and Medicare
Josh Israel
July 7, 2022

• Ohio Republican nominee J.D. Vance is framing himself in his campaign for Senate as an opponent of powerful “elites.”
• Meanwhile, in 2011 the author and venture capitalist embraced a controversial GOP budget proposal that would have slashed entitlement protections for poorer and older Americans, ending both Medicare and Medicaid as we know them while cutting taxes for himself and other wealthy elites.
• In his writings, Vance […] embraced words like “reform” and “trim” in discussing the entitlement programs used by millions.
• In a column published on April 5, 2011, on the FrumForum, a group blog edited by former George W. Bush speechwriter David Frum that described itself as “dedicated to the modernization and renewal of the Republican Party and conservative movement,” Vance, under a previous surname taken from a stepfather, praised a budget proposal about to be released by then-House Budget Committee Republican Chair Paul Ryan.
• Ryan’s proposed budget called for trillions of dollars to be cut from entitlement programs over a decade: repeal of the Affordable Care Act, the program commonly known as Obamacare that provides health insurance coverage for millions of Americans; transformation of Medicaid into a program funded through limited lump-sum grants to states, which would then manage it; and conversion of Medicare into a capped voucher program.
• Robert Greenstein, president of the progressive-leaning nonprofit Center for Budget and Policy Priorities, said at the time that Ryan’s proposal was “a dramatic reverse-Robin-Hood approach that gets the lion’s share of its budget cuts from programs for low-income Americans — the politically and economically weakest group in America and the politically safest group for Ryan to target— even as it bestows extremely large tax cuts on the wealthiest Americans.”
• “The plan contains $1.4 trillion in Medicaid cuts over ten years (which includes repeal of the health reform law’s Medicaid expansion); large cuts in food stamps, low-income housing, Pell Grants, and other programs for people with limited incomes; and repeal of the health reform law’s subsidies to help low- and moderate-income people purchase health insurance,” Greenstein wrote.
• Vance wrote of the proposal, “Early reports suggest that along with serious changes to Social Security and Medicare, the budget will trim nearly $4 trillion from the 10-year budget deficit. I don’t know how the Left will react, but I’m confident that they’ll overreact. And I’m hoping that when the dust settles, we’re having a more intelligent conversation about spending cuts than we’ve had during my lifetime.”
• Vance added, “The way forward is as obvious as it is politically difficult: streamline the tax code, reform current entitlements and avoid enacting new ones.”
• On Sept. 7 of that year, he authored a post endorsing former Utah Gov. Jon Huntsman for the 2012 Republican presidential nomination and explicitly praising him for supporting Ryan’s budget and entitlement cuts.
• “As governor, he enacted free-market health care reforms, balanced the budget, and thus far is the most public advocate of the Ryan plan to reduce long-term entitlement spending,” Vance wrote. He dismissed another Republican candidate, then-Texas Gov. Rick Perry, as “a man with no serious plan to curb entitlement spending.”
• In a May 2022 column published in the Atlantic, Frum noted that in his 2011 collaborations with Vance, Vance “endorsed cuts to the future growth of Medicare and Social Security” and lamented his subsequent evolution to full-throated support for former President Donald Trump.
• A Vance campaign spokesperson did not immediately respond to an inquiry for this story.

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For Immediate Release:
Friday, July 8, 2022

Columbus, OH — In case you missed it, Ohio Democrats expanded a lawsuit against Mike DeWine and his office to strengthen ongoing efforts to gain answers into what DeWine and his cronies knew and when about the largest public corruption scandal in state history. Thursday, Ohio Democratic Party Chairwoman Elizabeth Walters announced a preliminary injunction in the party’s ongoing lawsuit against DeWine to assure key public records are not destroyed and are ultimately shared with Ohio voters.

Since May, none of the records requests filed by ODP have been fulfilled despite empty claims from the DeWine team about the governor’s commitment to “transparency and accountability.” Ohioans should know Democrats will not stop fighting to make sure Ohioans get the answers they deserve.

“Nothing we’re asking for is complicated: emails and texts between Mike DeWine, Jon Husted and their staffs about HB 6, correspondence between the administration and the organizations and individuals connected to the scandal and a full, unredacted calendar from Mike DeWine accounting for how he was spending his taxpayer-funded time. These are questions we started asking in October, answers Ohio voters deserve,” said Chair Walters.

Here’s what Ohioans are reading about the new legal action today:

Dayton Daily News: Democrats Make DeWine Keep All HB 6 Info In FirstEnergy Scandal  

Jim Gaines

“Ohio Democrats are seeking to forestall any destruction of Gov. Mike DeWine’s records related to the FirstEnergy bribery scandal, asking for a court injunction against disposing of materials they’ve requested.

“‘These are questions we started asking in October, answers Ohio voters deserve,’ Ohio Democratic Party Chair Elizabeth Walters said Thursday. ‘But Mike DeWine and his lackeys apparently think that they don’t need to do their job or be held accountable – that they’re above the law. We’re here to make sure they know they aren’t.’

“Democrats maintain everything they’ve requested should be made available and is of public interest. They specifically requested all communications between DeWine, Husted, 13 current or former senior staff members and Sam Randazzo, former chair of the Public Utilities Commission of Ohio, regarding FirstEnergy and numerous related organizations.

“On May 5, the Ohio Democratic Party filed a civil suit in Franklin County Court of Common Pleas, seeking an unredacted version of DeWine’s calendar and a detailed, 30-item list of related communications. That drew “nothing but crickets” from the administration, Walters said.

“She accused DeWine of stalling to “run out the clock,” potentially until the legal requirement to preserve those records expires.

“Thus the party filed its latest request, for an injunction to prevent destruction of the information sought.

“Nan Whaley, former Dayton mayor and now Democratic nominee for governor, has assailed DeWine’s connections to the scandal, alleging FirstEnergy spent “millions” to aid his election.”

…

WTVG-TV: Ohio Democrats Seek Records From DeWine Related To HB6 Bribery Scheme 

Josh Croup

“[Democrats] want this judge to force the governor to preserve any and all documents that might be linked to that House Bill 6 scandal. 

“Democrats have already sued to obtain unredacted calendars from the governor, along with other documents they say could connect him to that scandal.” 

…

Since October, Ohio Democrats have been working on getting answers to who knew what and when about the FirstEnergy scandal – which Ohioans continue to pay $287,000 every single day for – but have been stonewalled at every turn by the DeWine administration, leaving public records requests unanswered. The lack of answers from DeWine leads to even more questions about what DeWine is hiding, especially as the scandal inches closer and closer to DeWine and his inner circle.

• Find the preliminary injunction HERE. 
• Find the submitted public records requests HERE.
• Find the records Ohio Democrats have successfully obtained from the DeWine administration HERE. 

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For Immediate Release:
Friday, July 8, 2022

“The independence of the auditor’s office to dig into the numbers is the only way taxpayers and contributors to the pension fund can know they’re not being shafted.”

Columbus, OH — In case you missed it, the Toledo Blade Editorial Board earlier this week called on Auditor Keith Faber to finally do his job and oversee a state investigation of Ohio’s state pension funds, including an investment that’s lost more than $500 million for Ohio teachers and other retirees.

“Ohio law gives the state auditor the power to compel documents and witnesses tied to any public funds…So far, the auditor doesn’t want any part of it,” writes the Toledo Blade Editorial Board.

At a time when far too many teachers in Ohio are working longer, paying more while getting less to make ends meet, the failure to accordingly oversee their investment portfolio in the state’s pension funds is wrong.

Read more from Toledo Blade HERE and below:

• It’s time for an independent examination of the State Teachers Retirement System of Ohio and the state’s other public-employee pension funds.
• The fees and expenses charged by professionals paid by the funds require vetting. That examination must include a determination of the values of investment funds and the direct investments made on behalf of the pension funds.
• Why? The answer is Panda Power. That investment lost $525 million. A big zero remained from the initial investment. The right person to oversee that investigation is the state auditor. The independence of the auditor’s office to dig into the numbers is the only way taxpayers and contributors to the pension fund can know they’re not being shafted.
• For their part, STRS is moving fast to implement the key recommendation in a recent fiduciary audit. The near $100 billion retirement fund is seeking outside professional aid to validate fees, expenses, and profit shares on 430 investment funds and 50 direct investments. That’s a start. More, though, remains to be done.
• Together, the five Ohio pensions have about 20 percent of their $266 billion portfolio in alternative investments where returns on those investments are in the hands of outside fund managers. The pension fund-investment staffs picking the outside funds have a financial interest in the highest possible valuations.
• They receive performance bonuses based on the results. Those bonuses typically outpace their salaries.
• It’s a conflict of interest when consultants paid by the funds provide performance reports on investments. Those reports often paint a rosy picture of the reality. The S&P 500 just turned in the worst first half performance since 1970. With market indexes down nearly 12 percent for the June 30 fiscal year, the value of much less liquid alternative investments are subject to big losses. That’s why it’s essential to get the true value of the investments right.
• Ohio law gives the state auditor the power to compel documents and witnesses tied to any public funds. An outside vendor working with the auditor has more authority to acquire investment data and far more credibility than individuals paid by the funds. So far, the auditor doesn’t want any part of it.
• Ohio law gives the auditor sole authority to set up the “standards, guidelines, and procedures,” used for the financial examination. The expense is paid by the audited agency. STRS is planning to pay for private investment-expense verification. The rest of the pension plans must do the same. The best possible way to oversee those checks is for the auditor to hire and oversee independent vendors to examine the fees and investment returns charged to Ohio’s pension plans.

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