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For Immediate Release:
May 31, 2022

Columbus, OH — Presented without comment.

HuffPost: J.D. Vance On Porn: Ban It To Save Families
Liz Skalka
May 29, 2022

• Going beyond even the GOP’s own platform, Republican Senate candidate J.D. Vance told a Catholic magazine last year that pornography should be banned because it’s stopping Americans from getting married and starting families.
• “I think the combination of porn, abortion have basically created a lonely, isolated generation that isn’t getting married, they’re not having families, and they’re actually not even totally sure how to interact with each other,” Vance said in a newly unearthed interview with Crisis Magazine from August 2021.
• The writer spoke with Vance at a gathering for young conservatives where Vance was a keynote speaker. She wrote that after asking him “his thoughts on porn and birth control and their effects on familial decline, Vance admitted he wants to outright ban pornography.”
• Vance’s campaign didn’t provide a comment about his more recent thoughts on porn, and how they would factor into his priorities as a senator.
• In 2016, the GOP, in its own official platform, declared porn “a public health crisis,” but stopped short of calling for it to be outlawed completely.
• Vance, who wrote in his memoir about witnessing firsthand poverty and addiction and their impact on families in Ohio, has made conserving “traditional families” and ending abortion main planks of his conservative platform.
• In his statement on the Uvalde school shooting, Vance cited the absence of strong family values — and not the lack of gun control — to explain why a gunman would murder 19 children and two teachers.
• “We need to address the culture of fatherlessness and drug addiction in our country, focus on the importance of family so that our next generation is guided and empowered with strong support systems,” Vance said.
• The “Hillbilly Elegy” author’s attitude on porn may be a throwback to the social conservatism that defined the 1970s with President Richard Nixon’s “War on Porn.” Those in favor of restricting access to porn now cite the nation’s declining birth rate, the potential to promote sex trafficking and the “common good.”
• Vance seemed to get at that during the same conservative gathering where Hawley made headlines lamenting the decline of men. Americans are getting married less frequently and having fewer children, he said, “and we know that at least one cause of this is that we have allowed, under the banner of libertarianism, pornography to seep even into our youngest minds through the channels of the internet.”
• “Again, we made a political choice that the freedom to consume pornography was more important than the public goods, like marriage and family and happiness,” he continued. “We can’t ignore the fact that we made that choice and we shouldn’t shy away from the fact that we can make new choices in the future.”

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For Immediate Release:
Tuesday, May 31, 2022

Columbus, OH — It’s now been more than three weeks since Ohio Democrats sued Mike DeWine over his refusal to turn over records connected to the largest public corruption scandal in state history and resubmitted public records requests to get to the bottom of what DeWine knew and when. None of those records requests has been fulfilled despite empty claims from the DeWine team about the governor’s commitment to “transparency and accountability.” 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.

“Ohio Democrats are demanding answers from DeWine on behalf of Ohio voters. Ohioans are being saddled with a $287,000 bill every single day because of the Republican-led scandal, and we can’t even get answers from DeWine about what he knew and when. Enough with the stall tactics, Ohioans deserve answers,” said Ohio Democratic Party spokesperson Matt Keyes.

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. The lack of accountability from DeWine is leading Ohioans in all corners of the state to wonder what he’s hiding and why.

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For Immediate Release:
Friday, May 27, 2022

Columbus, OH — Today, Ohio Democratic Party Chair Elizabeth Walters issued the following statement after Ohio Republicans used a federal court to maintain control of the state legislative redistricting process and push through GOP-gerrymandered statehouse maps that the Ohio Supreme Court twice ruled unconstitutional.

“Republicans in Ohio will stop at nothing to ensure they can choose their own voters rather than the other way around. We’ve seen the consequences of Republican rule for our state: costly corruption, ineptitude and an economy that works only for the wealthy and well-connected. Ohio Republicans don’t want to be held accountable, so they’re rigging the system in their favor instead. Using a federal court to ram through a GOP-gerrymandered map that reads like an Ohio Republican Party wishlist is not what Ohioans were looking for when they called out loudly for redistricting reform.”

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For Immediate Release:
Friday, May 27, 2022

Columbus, OH — Ahead of Memorial Day weekend, Ohio Democratic Party Chair Elizabeth Walters issued the following statement to honor all the Ohioans in uniform who gave their lives for our country.

“This Memorial Day, we pause to remember all the brave Ohioans who made the ultimate sacrifice in service to our country. We honor their memories and hold the loved ones they left behind in our hearts. Ohio Democrats are committed to ensuring the legacies of these servicemembers live on and that the rights, freedoms and democratic values they gave their lives to protect are maintained,” said Chair Walters.

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For Immediate Release:
Friday, May 27, 2022

Columbus, OH — In case you missed it, the Ohio Capital Journal says Mike DeWine has problems with Republican voters after he barely escaped weak primary challengers earlier this month. DeWine barely crossed 48% of support in the May 3 primary, and more Republicans voted against DeWine than for him.

“It’s not a great sign when you’re an incumbent governor and you can’t even get a majority of the vote in your own primary, and it’s likely good news for Democratic nominee Nan Whaley,” writes Ohio Capital Journal’s Marty Schladen.

“It’s clear Mike DeWine is in real trouble come November. Republicans and Democrats both agree: Mike DeWine is the wrong choice for Ohio. We look forward to continuing to show voters that DeWine’s corruption and incompetence has cost them too much and has gone on long enough. It’s time for a new direction under Nan Whaley’s leadership,” said Ohio Democratic Party spokesperson Matt Keyes.

Read more from Ohio Capital Journal on the study here and below:

• A pre-primary poll designed by six political scientists and the actual results of the election seem to show that former President Donald Trump’s endorsement was a decisive factor in the Ohio Republican Primary for U.S. Senate. The analysis also seems to show that GOP Gov. Mike DeWine has some work to do if he wants the full support of his party in the November General Election.
• [Ohio State political science Professor Emeritus Paul] Beck said the point of the exercise wasn’t to predict the outcome of the primary. Rather, he and colleagues Ned Foley, Chris Gelpi, Tom Nelson and Gillian Thompson, also of Ohio State — as well as Charles Stewart III of MIT — had varying research interests they pursued.
• In the GOP primary for Ohio governor, the thermometer readings tell a difficult story for incumbent Gov. Mike DeWine. At 53 degrees, his thermometer rating lagged Trump’s by 22 and was lower than all four front-runners for the Senate seat. And when correlated with Republicans’ feelings for Trump, DeWine did far worse than even Dolan, suggesting that the Republicans who pulled the lever for DeWine were even more opposed to the former president.
• In the end, DeWine won, but with just 48% of the vote, while his two main challengers got a combined 50%.
• It’s not a great sign when you’re an incumbent governor and you can’t even get a majority of the vote in your own primary, and it’s likely good news for Democratic nominee Nan Whaley.

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