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Before he decided to run for U.S. Senate, Silicon Valley Vance was cashing in with Big Tech. 

Silicon Valley Vance made many of his millions working for a Big Tech billionaire who has donated $13.5 million to a super PAC that is supporting his campaign. According to CNBC, “a great deal of his [Vance’s] income came from ventures linked to Thiel and other tech investors.” His salary from the Thiel-backed Narya Capital was $408,106 and he valued “other” Narya-related income at more than $1.1 million.

Silicon Valley Vance also made over $125,000 with the Rise of the Rest Fund, a venture capital fund backed by AOL founder Steve Case, former Amazon CEO Jeff Bezos, former Hewlett Packard CEO Meg Whitman, the Waltons, and the Kochs. 

Without a shred of self-awareness, Vance tweeted last year, “Establishment Republican apologies for our oligarchy should always come with the following disclaimer: ‘Big Tech pays my salary.’”

To take a trip down memory lane to 2017, Vance said while hobnobbing at The Aspen Institute, “I was at an event not too long ago where I saw Jeff Bezos and I was wearing a shirt that said Cincinnati across my chest because I was hoping to send a subliminal message to Jeff that if he needs a new Amazon headquarters come to southwestern Ohio.”

“Most Ohioans trying to make ends meet don’t have the luxury of doing it like Silicon Valley Vance, who left Ohio behind to make a fortune in Big Tech. Ohioans are much smarter than Silicon Valley Vance—they see through his hypocrisy and know he is a puppet of Big Tech,” said Michael Beyer, a spokesperson for the Ohio Democratic Party.  

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For Immediate Release:
Wednesday, April 27, 2022

Dave Yost Ignores Pleas of Alleged Rape Survivor

Columbus, OH — This week, the Sandusky Register reported on Dave Yost’s refusal to respond to a woman who is trying to get her alleged rapist prosecuted. Yost used the woman’s alleged rapist as a key witness in a case in which Yost accused another woman of lying about being raped. Yost lost that case, and before trial, two other women accused Yost’s key witness of raping them. Yet, Yost has refused to answer questions about when he’ll take any action to investigate the manner and won’t respond to pleas from the alleged victims for legal action against the man who has been accused by multiple women of sexual violence.

From the Register: “Will you utilize the same amount of time and money seeking justice for me as you did my attacker?” she (the alleged victim) asked Yost.

As Yost continues to stonewall justice, his refusal to even respond to the alleged victim shows a unique brand of coldness that reflects how Yost has conducted himself as Ohio’s Attorney General.

Read more on the case from the Sandusky Register here and below:

• Ohio Attorney General Dave Yost won’t say whether he’ll respond to a woman who asked for his help in getting her alleged rapist prosecuted, a man Yost promoted as his chief witness last year in a felony trial of another woman he wrongly alleged lied about being raped.
• Yost has never explained why he sought felony charges against the other woman or how he could have misread that situation so poorly that a judge dismissed the charges after a two-day trial in December. The judge determined the woman never claimed she was raped, only that an unwanted sexual encounter occurred after a drinking party.
• It also was learned prior to the trial that two other women filed complaints against the same man, Yost’s chief witness. In a court motion, assistant attorney general Drew Wood, who works for Yost and was the special prosecutor, filed a motion seeking to bar the other women from testifying.
• In a court filing, Wood wrote that the other women who filed rape complaints might receive justice someday, but it was not clear if the Attorney General’s office would ever pursue it on their behalf.
• Yost has steadfastly refused to answer any questions for months about why he pursued the false rape case before it commenced and since the charges were dismissed. Before trial, he said it would be inappropriate since the case was pending. Since then, however, after the trial finished, he’s offered no response of any kind.
• Advocates contend Yost’s decision to prosecute a woman for making a false report will have a chilling effect on victims of sexual assault, who likely will be even more reluctant to come forward fearing that if a prosecutor doesn’t believe them they could get prosecuted.
• Carol O’Brien, Yost’s chief prosecutor who manages the prosecutions unit at the Ohio Attorney General’s Office, also has ignored concerns about how the false rape case was handled, and about how Yost’s office treats the other women who filed complaints.
• It’s unclear what kind of training Wood, O’Brien and Yost have when it comes to cases involving violence against women.

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For Immediate Release:
Wednesday, April 27, 2022
CONTACT: Cameron Keir, [email protected], 614-506-5413

Jean Schmidt Calls Rape an “Opportunity”

Every Ohio Republican Should Be Forced to Account for Schmidt’s Comments, Asked if They Condemn Them

Columbus, OH — Today, when testifying on Ohio’s version of the trigger ban bill, Republican Jean Schmidt was asked about a lack of an exception for rape in her legislation. Her response: it’s an “opportunity” for the person who was raped. Every single Republican in Ohio should be asked about Schmidt’s comments and whether they agree that rape is an “opportunity.”

“Jean Schmidt’s vile comments today show how far Republicans will go to attack Ohio women in an effort to score political points. Jean Schmidt should apologize to every victim of sexual violence in our state and pull her bill from consideration. And her fellow Republicans – from Mike DeWine on down – who have supported these anti-choice bills should be forced to account for her comments and their ongoing attacks on women,” said Ohio Democratic Party spokesperson Matt Keyes.

See the live coverage below from Ohio Capital Journal’s Susan Tebben:

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Before he ran for office, J.D. Vance said he feels “out of place” in Ohio. 

J.D. Vance spent much of his adult life trying to run as far away from Ohio as possible – and made a name for himself as a resident of exclusive coastal enclaves. In a 2016 piece for The Atlantic, where he described Donald Trump as “opioid of the masses,” Vance wrote about his San Francisco lifestyle: 

• “A few Saturdays ago, my wife and I spent the morning volunteering at a community garden in our San Francisco neighborhood. After a few hours of casual labor, we and the other volunteers dispersed to our respective destinations: tasty brunches, day trips to wine country, art-gallery tours. It was a perfectly normal day, by San Francisco standards.”

That may be a normal day for a Silicon Valley millionaire, but it’s practically unrecognizable for hardworking Ohioans struggling to make ends meet. The last time J.D. Vance tried to run for U.S. Senate in 2018, he faced scrutiny for his residency in Washington, D.C. At the time, a GOP consultant opined, “Washington seems to be absolutely his primary residence. I don’t know what address he claims in Ohio, but he’s not living there.” And Vance’s financial disclosure still included that D.C. townhome that landed him in residential hot water in the first place. 

Now Vance is looking for another ticket out of Ohio and back to Washington so he doesn’t have to feel “out of place” here any longer. 

“Silicon Valley Vance feels perfectly comfortable on the coasts with his fellow elites and in his own words, feels ‘out of place’ in Ohio. How can you represent Ohioans when living here makes you uncomfortable?” said Michael Beyer, a spokesperson for the Ohio Democratic Party. 

For Immediate Release:
Tuesday, April 26, 2022
CONTACT: Cameron Keir, [email protected], 614-506-5413

ICYMI: Republicans Have Betrayed Ohioans, Now Ohioans Can Hold Them Accountable

“We were naïve to hope for better, for state leaders committed to fair play in redistricting. Instead, they flipped off voters and disobeyed the law.” 

Columbus, OH — In case you missed it, a new Ohio Capital Journal column outlines how Republicans have betrayed Ohioans time and time again, and now Ohioans have the opportunity to hold them accountable. OCJ’s Marilou Johanek is encouraging all Ohioans not to be dissuaded by the Republican mess created this primary election, and exercise their constitutional right to cast their ballots. The column highlights what we already know: Republicans are using scandal, corruption, and especially the redistricting mess costing you tens of millions of dollars in an effort to suppress the vote, but Ohioans have the opportunity for a better direction by exercising their right to vote.

“We all have skin in this struggle, which is why, despite the muddled Ohio midterm ballot foisted on us by self-serving Republican leaders, Ohio voters must show up in 2022. Too much is riding on this crucial referendum for state and federal leadership to sit it out,” writes Ohio Capital Journal’s Marilou Johanek. 

Read more from the Ohio Capital Journal here and below:

• What a hot mess. Thanks to Ohio Republicans, enjoying a monopoly of power from the last redistricting sham they engineered after the 2010 Census, a critical election has been turned into a crapshoot. 
• Thanks to one party, impervious to the needless chaos it created for voters, poll workers, and election administrators with lopsided district maps shot down by the state supreme court, Ohioans are confused, disgusted and done with the whole sordid affair.
• Two weeks out of the May 3 primary, early voting by mail and in-person was down nearly 30% compared with the same period four years ago. If the Republican goal was to suppress the vote with protracted gamesmanship to turn redistricting reform on its head for partisan advantage — mission accomplished. 
• We all have skin in this struggle, which is why, despite the muddled Ohio midterm ballot foisted on us by self-serving Republican leaders, Ohio voters must show up in 2022. Too much is riding on this crucial referendum for state and federal leadership to sit it out.
• Let anger over the redistricting charade pulled on statewide voters — who twice amended the Ohio Constitution to inject fairness into the drawing of state district boundaries — motivate you to the polls next Tuesday. 
• There’s plenty to be livid about with this unnecessary distraction of undetermined districts — including the hefty bill taxpayers will have to pay for the hot mess that state Republicans alone created.
• The first primary election (yes, we are forced to have two, thanks to Team Gerrymander) will be missing all the state legislative races. That’s because Republican legislative leaders, and enabling statewide Republican officeholders, defied the law on drawing fair district maps for the Ohio Senate and the Ohio House. An exasperated Ohio Supreme Court rejected their unconstitutional handiwork. Four times. Maybe the fifth will be a charm but don’t bet on it. 
• It’s no secret that state Republicans have been orchestrating a con to run out the clock on complying with the constitution. They brazenly acted above the law.
• But Republican foot-dragging on redistricting was a calculated strategy from the beginning. The idea was to slow walk the mapmaking process until it bumped into 2022 election deadlines. 
• Senate President Matt Huffman and House Speaker Bob Cupp, backed by Gov. Mike DeWine, Secretary of State Frank LaRose and State Auditor Keith Faber, stand to get away with district maps that plainly favor one party over another, a gross injustice manifestly prohibited by law.
• We were naïve to hope for better, for state leaders committed to fair play in redistricting. Instead, they flipped off voters and disobeyed the law.
• When the Republican duplicity on redistricting is a fait accompli, as seems likely, the anti-democratic party in Ohio will have succeeded not only in again rigging election outcomes to win by cheating but wasted $25 million or so of our hard-earned tax dollars on an extra election caused by months of one-sided subterfuge.
• There is your motivation to vote in 2022. For accountability. For equal representation in voting. For candidates— gubernatorial, U.S. Senate and U.S. House — who honor the rule of law and put people over politics. Do it.

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